With a GOP sweep of the 2014 elections, the toppling of a sitting House speaker and the implosion of the state agency dedicated to keeping children safe, the year in news has been filled with twists and turns. Throughout the ride, Statehouse Report has been a vital source to provide insightful analysis and exclusive reports to keep readers in-the-know about state policies and politics.
First to tell you about
Readers learned first about major stories throughout the year. At the top of our list are these:
- House change. In September, Statehouse Report broke the news story that a bipartisan group of House members would seek major rules changes to reshape how members wield power. The biggest change, following the public corruption scandal of ex-House Speaker Bobby Harrell: Less power for a speaker. Since this story, House members changed rules in an organizational session to limit terms of speakers and committee chairs.
- Food stamp proposal targets poor. Statehouse Report contributing writer Corey Hutchins in May outlined how a controversial proposal to require food stamp applicants to search for jobs was to be piloted in three rural counties. Critics blasted the plan as ludicrous because they said there weren’t enough jobs in the areas to do searches for 30 hours a week. Since our story, there’s been little talk about the proposal, which seemed doomed not to get a federal waiver.
- Tax credit may get hearing. In August, the publication was the first to outline how a long-proven federal strategy that has helped the nation’s working poor, the earned income tax credit, may get serious consideration for the first time in the 2015 session thanks to the willingness of a key Republican House member to take a look at it.
- New film. Statehouse Report first introduced readers to a new film promoting early reading in the state. The exclusive story highlighted “When the Bough Breaks” by Bud Ferillo, the same filmmaker who changed South Carolina’s debate about poor counties with his 2005 “Corridor of Shame” documentary.
- Heat waves to be longer. Editor and publisher Andy Brack was the first in the state to highlight a new study of heat and its impact over time that suggests there will be longer and more intense heat waves in the future.
Education policies examined
Statehouse Report also dedicated a lot of news space to stories about education policy. In addition to coverage about the race for state superintendent of education, senior editor Bill Davis offered a February story that decrypted Gov. Nikki Haley’s plan to improve education. By April, Davis explained how the House and Senate were competing with figuring out how to expand early childhood education through different initiatives.
By the end of the year, Davis outlined how a move to change education standards was stalling, while Brack highlighted how a landmark school funding case in the courts for more than 20 years will be something that lawmakers likely will have to grapple with for several years, which will have big budget implications for the state.
Follow the money
Throughout the year, Statehouse Report reported on ways that the state manages and spends tax dollars. In February, Davis highlighted how higher education and local government likely would be on the short end of the budget stick, which came to pass by June. In March, his reporting detailed how the House of Representatives has been underfunding higher education for years.
By May, an infusion of $86 million in new revenues helped to soften the impact to education, Davis reported. Later in the year, Davis examined how the state was continuing to struggle with how it taxes people as it has ignored a report by the 2010 Taxation Realignment Commission to broaden the tax base to counterbalance how it has been shrinking. Two weeks later, he continued the news analysis by highlighting how tax structure issues are getting so cracked that the 2015 legislation may be a real opportunity for significant tax reform.
News analysis provides context
A key function that Statehouse Report does best is to provide discerning context and news analysis of major events and policies impacting South Carolinians. Readers often tell us how they better understand major issues after they read explanations about how government is working – or not working — in South Carolina. Among some 2014 highlights:
Medicaid. In April, Statehouse Report offered a detailed account of how the state’s rejection of billions of Medicaid expansion dollars will hurt 200,000 of its neediest residents and rural hospitals. State officials, however, counterclaimed that rural hospitals would benefit.- DSS. The ongoing sad saga of dysfunction and children’s deaths continued in 2014 as scandal persisted at the state Department of Social Services. In May, we broke news that the state would get another black eye nationally thanks to an expected ABC News report on the deaths of children in DSS custody. Then in October, another shoe dropped with a damning 98-page report by the state Legislative Audit Council on how the agency has conducted its business over the last few years. The report, which included 44 substantive recommendations, is expected to be a driver for real change at the agency in 2015. State lawmakers already have pre-filed bills to break up the agency or rework what it does.
Throughout the year, Statehouse Report also offered stories that outlined how:
- The legislature was struggling with billions of road and bridge infrastructure needs;
- Primary voting data offered inconclusive but suggestive data about a new law requiring voter ID at the polls;
- The state Department of Health and Environmental Control, an agency riddled with complaints from critics, hasn’t experienced an expected bloodletting over the last two years and is, actually, smaller and more streamlined.
To take a look at all of our 2014 stories, click here to see our month-by-month news archive.
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