By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | A look back at Statehouse Report’s news coverage in 2016 gives a pretty good primer of challenges that lawmakers will continue to face in 2017:
- How to cover revenue shortfalls as infrastructure, pension and education needs rise;
- How to deal with the state’s economic future, including tax reform and other alternatives;
- How lawmakers can simply get along better and move forward at the Statehouse.
Of course, traditional media covered a lot of easy horserace and personal stories, such as Gov. Nikki Haley being picked as the nation’s next ambassador to the United Nations and the political impact of her earlier departure. But Statehouse Report tends to focus its news coverage on policies, their impact and how state government is working or not working. Below, you’ll find a summary of major Statehouse news for the year, as well as links to the original stories. If you’re looking for a good way to prepare for 2017, read these stories to learn what’s impacting state lawmakers and agencies.
State’s budgeting practices continue to get scrutiny
The one thing that lawmakers must do every year is to craft and pass a state budget, which now is approaching $8 billion in state-backed tax dollars out of a total of $26 billion that includes additional federal monies, fees and other revenues.
As one might expect, the whole budget process is confusing, time-consuming and detailed, which some wags suggest may be intentional to ensure that pesky reporters and citizens have a tough time in figuring out what’s really going on. But as Statehouse Report has done throughout its 15 years of covering the General Assembly, many news stories focus on intricacies of the budget to help people better understand what’s happening with tax dollars. It’s often not “sexy” reporting work, but it provides much-needed insights on the system of state governance. Top stories from the past year include:
- State looking at massive shortage of revenues. Senior editor Bill Davis outlines how the state’s annual unfunded needs — $2.2 billion plus “a whole lot more” – over the next several years likely will impact the state’s taxation structure and programs, such as K-12 education, roads and more.
- Do executive budgets matter? In January, a story focused on South Carolina’s practice of governors unveiling executive budgets to highlight priorities – and whether such efforts really mattered in a legislatively-controlled state. It’s a good story to read to better understand the budgeting process.
- House grapples to reshape state’s tax pie. Earlier this month, the publication offered a look at how House members are struggling to reshape the state’s tax structure in light of additional new needs and neglected infrastructure needs over two decades.
- State spending more on prisons, less on colleges. In a February story, Davis wrote about how the state’s spending on prisons went up nearly 40 percent by $145 million in a decade – even as the prison population dropped 10 percent. Spending on higher education in a similar time frame dropped $321 million.
- House, Senate find a lot of budgetary common ground (May 2016).
- Slim pickings for pork, roads, colleges (March 2016).
Economy remains in spotlight
Statehouse Report also focuses on news stories that explain and highlight what’s happening with the state’s economy. Contributing correspondent Lindsey Street in August offered a detailed look at how there’s a disconnect between the kind of jobs that the state says it needs and what it is training students to be. Skill sets, she wrote, often don’t match workforce requirements. Other stories:
- Low jobless rate offers incomplete economic outlook. Linked to the story on skill sets is a December explanation of how the state’s low unemployment rate isn’t a great measure of the state’s economic outlook. Street wrote that while the rate is low, the state still has a shortage of skilled workers.
- Report outlines three paths to economic security. Another barometer of the state’s economy was in a March story that suggested state policymakers looked at poverty in a too-restrictive manner. Families, the report by the United Way Association of South Carolina said, really need more money to make ends meet.
- Economy chugs along (December 2016).
Report provided insights on inner workings of Statehouse
While the 2016 election caused a multitude of political ramifications for South Carolina, the biggest impact on the Statehouse as an institution might be the election of four women to the state Senate, up from two. (Remember, it wasn’t too ago when there were no women in the 46-member upper chamber.) As outlined in this analysis, there will be eight new senators in total – what former Sen. John Land of Manning in July called the “biggest turnover in leadership than I can ever recall.” Read more. Other key stories:
- New faces, but a lot may be the same. Just after the election, Statehouse Report offered a look at the 26 new members of the two chambers.
- Haley’s Pyrrhic senatorial victory. After the June primaries, we offered a story on how Gov. Nikki Haley’s support of some GOP challengers to the old guard might help her in the short run, but hurt long term. Some of this story is moot with the governor headed to New York as part of Trump’s team, but it may help people understand the current legislative environment.
- Black Caucus agenda being built on history. Senior editor Bill Davis offered this in-depth look in July to what black lawmakers say may be their most important legislative agenda in history.
- Do term limits work? (November 2016).
- Restructuring hiccups vexing state government (February 2016).
Infrastructure needs are crushing the state
It’s no secret at the Statehouse that infrastructure needs for state highways, bridges and dams are a crushing economic problem as the state has underfunded highway infrastructure for more than two decades. On reason: The state’s artificially-low gas tax wasn’t indexed to inflation. These two stories give perspectives on why improving transportation infrastructure is critical:
- When the tree meets the road: Lessons learned from past storms help prepare the state (June 2016)
- ·ore can be done to make roads safer, officials say (May 2016).
- Transportation reform may be in trouble (February 2016).
Other challenges mount at Statehouse
Throughout 2016, Statehouse Report also offered news updates and analysis on other major challenges to the state, including state employees’ imploding pension fund – something in our news coverage for years. Take a look at this and other important stories over the last year:
- Concerns over state retirement system cause gray hairs, more (July 2016)
- Mending fences and fixing the state’s pension fund (August 2016)
- Poverty down, incomes up, but why and what’s next? (September 2016)
- Lawmakers say there’s still work at DSS (July 2016)
- More of the same on abortion politics (May 2016)
- Shorter session may imperil second-tier issues (December 2016)
- Have a comment? Send it to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!