COZY SPOT: Light shines through Spanish moss above this hammock in the Lowcountry. We hear it’s pretty comfortable — except when the wind doesn’t blow away the mosquitoes. Photo by Andy Brack.
IN THIS ISSUENEWS: New program seeks to help seniors and their pets
BRIEF: Charleston native confirmed to lead federal agency
COMMENTARY: State’s tax structure needs work, not praise
SPOTLIGHT: S.C. Hospital Association
MY TURN, Catherine Fleming Bruce: On pope’s visit and S.C.
FEEDBACK: Haley on way to backache with so much posturing
SCORECARD: Everybody behaving? No thumbs downs
QUOTE: Pursuing excellence
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: Loggerhead turtle
NEWS
New program seeks to help seniors and their pets
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher
SEPT. 25, 2015 | Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster wants Boots on the ground.
Boots, in case you don’t recall, is McMaster’s 5-year-old bulldog, not a slang for sending more soldiers in the Middle East.
Boots, who appeared in some of McMaster’s 2014 campaign commercials, now is being used as the icon for a new collaborative effort by the state Office on Aging. The new program, which debuts formally Oct. 1 at Lexington event, seeks to link voluntary donations of pet food with low-income seniors who get home-delivered meals and who have pets. The program also will accept donations to go into a kitty, errrr fund, to help pay for vet visits and pet medications for pet-owning seniors who need a little extra help.
McMaster, who oversees the Office on Aging, said he learned this year after taking office that seniors had several special needs that were not being met, especially folks who received meals daily through programs like Meals on Wheels.
“What we found out was that these elderly people were feeding their pets — they were giving the food that we were bring them and giving it to their pets instead of eating themselves,” the lieutenant governor said.
It appeared to happen enough across the state that something needed to be done, McMaster said, so seniors and their companion pets would get the nutrition they needed.
“They were depriving themselves in order to take care of their pets,” he said.
McMaster said he believed the situation could be addressed quickly through a collaborative, volunteer effort coordinated by the Office on Aging.
“There will never be — no matter how many grants we get or what is in the budget — there is never going to be enough [government] money,” he said.
Then came the idea of the Senior Pets Program.
“This is one area that doesn’t cost any money,” he said. “Collaboration is the key in this whole arena.”
The mission of the new program is to provide low- or no-cost pet care to qualifying individuals receiving services through the Office on Aging. “Through the program, seniors will be able to live at home and have meaningful relationships with their pets,” according to the office’s website.
Goals include offering nutritious meals through partner agencies to seniors and their pets, education of seniors on how to take care of pets, allowing seniors to live in their own homes with pets and establishing a statewide network of partners to provide pet supplies and services to seniors receiving other aging services.
Linda Naert, a program developer at the Trident Area Agency on Aging in North Charleston, said her organization has been part of a summer pilot program that added pet food and treats to deliveries of meals to homebound seniors with pets.
“These individuals are very low-income and we were realizing that with their low income, they didn’t have money to purchase food for their pets,” she said.
Naert told of one homebound Lowcountry senior whose dog is “her source of joy and life,” but who had to cut out treats because she didn’t have enough money.
“Now she won’t have to do without,” Naert said. “She was ecstatic.”
Jennifer J. Van Cleave, a program coordinator with the Office on Aging, said some food delivery programs were already including pet food as part of their packages, but the office continues to survey seniors to determine needs.
“As a result, in many areas we have discovered that the primary need is not food, but veterinarian care so the pets can receive yearly vaccines, be spayed or neutered, or receive simple services such as nail trims or ear cleanings,” she said.
Van Cleave added that the Office on Aging has partnered with several groups around the state, including The Good Bowl, a Columbia nonprofit that coordinates pet food donations.
“Through this nonprofit that was established in 2011, we have received 28 pallets of dog food and pet treats that we have been able to distribute to our seniors in the Central Midlands and Trident regions of the state,” she said. “The Good Bowl receives donated food from Natural Balance Pet Foods that in return is given to animal shelters and rescues across the state.”
The Office on Aging’s Senior Pets Program will formally kick off 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, at Buddy’s Hot Dogs in Lexington. One percent of sales will be donated to the program. More information.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
NEWS BRIEFCharleston native confirmed to head federal agency
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday night confirmed President Obama’s nomination of Charleston native Kathryn K. Matthew to be director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent federal agency that is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums.
“I am honored to have been nominated by President Barack Obama and to have received the confidence from the Senate through their confirmation process. I look forward to being appointed to serve as the fifth Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services,” said Matthew, still a Charleston resident. She is married to George Stevens, past head of the Coastal Community Foundation.
“I am eager to begin my work at IMLS to help to sustain strong libraries and museums that convene our communities around heritage and culture, advance critical thinking skills, and connect families, researchers, students, and job seekers to information.”
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley commended Matthew on her confirmation.
“Dr. Kathryn ‘Kit’ Matthew will be an extraordinary resource as IMLS director,” he said. “She is an extraordinarily accomplished person with great skills and understanding of communities and cities. We commend her as she embarks on this great task.”
Matthew will serve a four-year term as the director of the Institute. Trained as a scientist, Matthew has had a 30-year museum career and worked in the private sector. She received a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College, master’s in business administration from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. More.
COMMENTARYState’s tax structure needs work, not praise
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher
SEPT. 25, 2015 | The sad thing about a new study of state tax systems is that people are going to believe it when, in fact, it is pretty misleading and relatively pointless.
WalletHub, a website that offers consumer information and tools geared toward personal finance, frequently runs rating studies on everything from credit card debt to financial literacy for states. But some of their work gets a little squishy with studies like on best- and worst-run cities, school systems and active lifestyle communities or reports on happy states and the most and least energy-efficient states.
Now in focus is the new offering that highlights the most and least fair state tax systems. According to WalletHub, South Carolina has the third fairest tax system in the country behind Montana and Oregon. But dig into the study’s methodology and you realize quickly that it relies on what people think a fair tax system should be, not whether it is empirically fair according to economic principles. To make these opinions look more scientific, WalletHub’s exercise in confusion then compares people’s thoughts about what they should pay in taxes to actual tax burden data.
The gaping hole in this logic is as big as the Grand Canyon: Who really believes they should pay more taxes than less? As the late U.S. Sen. Russell Long of Louisiana once noted, “Don’t tax you. Don’t tax me. Tax that fellow behind the tree.”
Simply put, the flawed WalletHub study doesn’t rely on basic economic tax fairness principles like equity (ability of people to pay), adequacy (whether the system raises enough money for people’s needs), neutrality, transparency and simplicity. In fact, noted Clemson economist Holley Ulbrich poked lots of holes in this publicity stunt in just a few minutes.
“It’s pretty simplistic,” she said, noting that opinions on fairness have a high degree of subjectivity. “It doesn’t consider the distribution of the tax burden in other ways, most notably between renters and homeowners since Act 388” which swapped property tax revenue for more regressive sales tax revenue.
Ulbrich listed four indicators of unfairness in South Carolina’s current tax system, which generates $7 billion a year in general fund revenues. (The state also pulls in another $8 billion in federal funds plus $9.3 billion in “other funds,” such as college tuition, health reimbursements, sales taxes for education, lottery proceeds, car license fees and cigarette taxes.)
- Adequacy: “It doesn’t provide enough revenue to adequately fund education (K-12 and secondary), roads, prisons and DSS, all of which matter to all our citizens.”
- Equity: “It puts too much of the burden on commercial and rental property and favors homeowners.”
- Balance: “It relies too heavily on the sales tax, which is more of a burden on the poor, made worse by our very limited taxation of services, which would make it less regressive.”
- Preference: “It especially favors retirees over working people with generous income tax exemptions for pensions and Social Security.” For example, South Carolina exempts $56,000 from all income from tax for everyone. Seniors, however, can get up to $63,000 more in income tax breaks.
Despite continuing inequities identified in a much-ignored 2010 report by a blue-ribbon state panel of tax experts, South Carolina has a relatively competitive income tax, according to figures gleaned from the S.C. General Assembly. Since 2006, the General Assembly takes credit for reducing income taxes for individuals and small businesses by $1.6 billion. And the state’s income tax is generally much lower than in neighboring Georgia and North Carolina thanks to substantially lower effective (or real-world) tax rates. Overall, South Carolina has one of the lowest tax burdens — amount of taxes people actually pay — in the nation, according to reputable organizations like the Tax Foundation.
Bottom line: Politicians are likely to showcase WalletHub study to highlight how they don’t need to do anything (sound familiar?) to fix the state’s tax structure.
Hooey. Don’t be fooled. Rather than having the “third fairest” tax structure, South Carolina’s system is riddled with billions of dollars of sales tax exemptions and an income tax structure that can use some more work from the bottom up, not top down.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Send feedback to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
IN THE SPOTLIGHTS.C. Hospital Association
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. This week’s spotlighted underwriter is the South Carolina Hospital Association, the Palmetto State’s foremost advocate on healthcare issues affecting South Carolinians. The mission of SCHA is to support its members in addressing the healthcare needs of South Carolina through advocacy, education, networking and regulatory assistance.
Founded in 1921, the South Carolina Hospital Association is the leadership organization and principal advocate for the state’s hospitals and health care systems. Based in Columbia, SCHA works with its members to improve access, quality and cost-effectiveness of health care for all South Carolinians. The state’s hospitals and health care systems employ more than 70,000 persons statewide. SCHA’s credo: We are stronger together than apart.
- To learn more about SCHA and its mission, go to: http://www.scha.org.
On Pope Francis’ visit and change for South Carolina
By Catherine Fleming Bruce
SEPT. 25, 2015 | Pope Francis’ first visit to the United States today includes a presentation of his message to heads of state at the United Nations building in New York City.
Yesterday morning, he was the first pontiff ever invited to speak to a joint session of Congress. His address was not only heard by our South Carolina congressional delegation, but by South Carolinians here at home, who tuned in via public television or radio, by internet streaming, local or cable stations, or by using smartphones. Though our state is not a majority Catholic one, the issues and questions that the pope raised to our politicians resounded.
South Carolina will elect new local government public servants in November of this year, with a special election taking place in October to fill the vacant Senate seat formerly held by the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the church leader and reformer gunned down in June in the basement of the church he led, barely two months after he championed gun reform in the wake of the Walter Scott killing.
In 2016, the nation will choose a new president, and South Carolina will have a first-in-the-South role in choosing the final contenders.
Finally, a new legislative session will begin in January. South Carolina’s House and Senate members, whose most recent times together were spent saying farewell to Senator Pinckney, debating the removal of the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds, witnessing the signing of that bill into law, and witnessing its implementation — all under the watchful eye of the country, will meet and wrangle once more.
All of this flowed through my mind as I listened to Pope Francis address Congress. Like him, I express my hope to my leaders. I hope that my South Carolina political leaders — local, state and national — will forget neither their decades-old history in this state nor their recent experiences in the fires of June and July, the horror and the victory, in the glare of the national and global media. I hope that each will look in the mirror and confront the enemy of hope and healing, of peace and justice that is within.
I hope they will honor Abraham Lincoln on the 150th anniversary of his assassination by maintaining the same cooperation that held for the removal of the Confederate flag legislation, by summoning the courage to form, support and pass policy that will bring hope, peace, justice and healing to our environment.
I hope they will recognize the sacrifices of those who died during the Selma-to-Montgomery march, led 50 years ago by Dr. Martin Luther King, Amelia Boynton-Robinson and others, by dismantling unjust structures and policies that have a disproportionate impact on black and brown communities in education, jobs, immigration and economic opportunity.
I hope they will hold high the social justice work of Dorothy Day by supporting and passing legislation that will help women by meeting their need for equal pay, by addressing the domestic violence and murder that makes South Carolina number one in the country, and protecting health care and reproductive rights.
I hope they will remember the contemplative power of Thomas Merton, by seeing the faces and listening to the stories of the marginalized, the poor, the refugee and the outsider.
I believe that the people of this state are ready to rise to the challenge of fundamental change in public policy. The eyes of the nation will continue to rest on South Carolina, as PBS, The New Yorker and others continue to explore our direction. Conferences and gatherings continue to bring activists together to stoke the fires of change.
Pope Francis’ words can merge with those efforts for some, and blaze a new trail for others. The challenge rests in the people of South Carolina and their leaders, and they must not fail.
Catherine Fleming Bruce of Columbia is the author of the forthcoming book: “The Sustainers: Being, Building and Doing Good Through Activism in the Sacred Spaces of Civil Rights, Human Rights and Social Movements,” due this fall. She serves as secretary and vice chair, Sixth Congressional District, of the South Carolina Democratic Party’s Labor/Progressive Caucus.
FEEDBACKHaley on way to backache with so much posturing
To the editor:
I found your article [Brack, Haley’s ambition puts DHEC between rock, hard place] to be amazingly accurate and a reflection of my own thoughts about our governor.
The only issue you didn’t mention was how she will end up with a backache after all that political posturing. I find it incredible that our Republican legislators can think (or just say) that by cutting funds for our contraceptive services they will reduce the number of abortions. How is that rational? I would love for there to be no need for our abortion services, but that is unrealistic. I would love for our law makers to do something so that we will no longer be number one in men killing women, but that is what our legislators are doing when they try to deny safe, legal medical procedures for the women of our state.
I came to South Carolina when abortion was legal but generally unavailable. One of the first patients I encountered in our small community hospital was a 25-year-old black woman who presented with severe abdominal pain and a high fever. After evaluation, I ended up doing exploratory abdominal surgery and found that her three-and-one-half month pregnant uterus had been perforated by a rubber tube that had been inserted by a back alley abortionist. She (I still remember her name) ended up with a complete hysterectomy and, after a month in the hospital, a complete recovery from the almost fatal infection.
Do we really want to go back there? I, for one, don’t. Thanks again for adding a small voice of reason in the face of the crazies. (I didn’t say that.)
— Name withheld upon request
Send us a letter. We love hearing from our readers and encourage you to share your opinions. Letters to the editor are published weekly. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. We generally publish all comments about South Carolina politics or policy issues, unless they are libelous or unnecessarily inflammatory. One submission is allowed per month. Submission of a comment grants permission to us to reprint. Comments are limited to 250 words or less. Please include your name and contact information.
- Send your letters to: feedback@statehousereport.com
What? No thumbs down? Everybody must be behaving
Thumbs up
Emanuel 9: Hats off to all of the folks who worked out what appears to be an equitable way to distribute $2.5 million in donations for the families and survivors of the Emanuel AME Church tragedy.
Fry. Congratulations to Surfside Beach’s Russell Fry, the newest member of the S.C. House. More.
In the middle
About time. The state Supreme Court, which has been involved for years with a school equity funding case that’s now 21 years old, this week set a Feb. 1 deadline for legislators to come up with a plan to fix the state’s education funding system. Then the districts that sued to get action will have until March 1 to respond before justices reviewed the effort. More.
Presidential candidates. If you want to get your picture snapped with a presidential candidate, now is the season with Trump, Kasich, Paul, Huckabee, Sanders, Graham, Bush, Fiorina and others in the state this week or next. If you don’t want to hear from any presidential candidates, there’s some bad news — it’s really hard now to get away from them.
QUOTEPursue excellence
“Our ticket to greater success and achievement is making sure that everything we do is in pursuit of the goal of excellence. … Whatever it is.”
— Charleston Mayor Joe Riley reflecting on his 40 years as mayor. Voters will pick from six candidates in November to determine the city’s next mayor. More.
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIALoggerhead turtle
S.C. Encyclopedia | The loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), a threatened species, was named the state reptile in an act signed by Governor Carroll Campbell on June 1, 1988. Recognizing the loggerhead as “an important part of the marine ecosystem” and that South Carolina’s coastline provides “some of the most pristine nesting areas” for the turtle on the East Coast, the General Assembly declared that the state’s responsibility is “to preserve and protect our wildlife and natural resources.”
The loggerhead is one of the world’s eight living species of sea turtles and evolved some sixty-five million to seventy million years ago. At birth, hatchlings are about two inches long. Adults can weigh from 200 to 350 pounds, and their carapace, or upper shell, measures from thirty-three to forty inches in length. The animal is yellow and reddish brown and has a distinctive large head—the source of its name—with powerful jaws enabling it to crush clams, crustaceans, and other food. Its great size and hard shell protect the adult turtle from most predators.
Adult loggerheads in the western Atlantic range from Newfoundland to Argentina, but they nest in the temperate zones. Breeding occurs in the ocean, and females lay their eggs between May and September. South Carolina beaches are favorite nesting grounds. The female comes ashore at night, lays from eighty to two hundred eggs in her nest, then returns to sea. Eggs and hatchlings are prey to many predators, from ants and crabs to dogs, raccoons, birds, and fish in the sea. Hatchlings must head directly to the ocean, and it is estimated that only one in ten thousand loggerhead eggs makes it to maturity. Dangers to the baby turtles include artificial lights on land, for they may head toward those, instead of seaward, and fall victim to predators. It is believed that it requires twelve to thirty years for loggerheads to reach maturity.
Adult loggerheads are imperiled by collisions with boats and, especially, by being trapped in commercial fishing and shrimping trawl nets, in which they drown if they cannot escape. South Carolinians have been active in working to protect nests and hatchlings, and communities have enacted restrictions on coastal lighting during nesting season. State legislation requires turtle excluder devices (TEDs) on trawl nets in order to protect the species.
– Excerpted from the entry by David C.R. Heisser. To read more about this or 2,000 other entries about South Carolina, check out The South Carolina Encyclopedia by USC Press. (Information used by permission.)
CREDITSEditor and Publisher: Andy Brack
Senior Editor: Bill Davis
Contributing Photographers: Michael Kaynard, Linda W. Brown
Phone: 843.670.3996
© 2002 – 2015, Statehouse Report LLC. Statehouse Report is published every Friday by Statehouse Report LLC, PO Box 22261, Charleston, SC 29413 | Unsubscribe.
Excerpts from The South Carolina Encyclopedia are published with permission and copyrighted 2006 by the Humanities Council SC. Excerpts were edited by Walter Edgar and published by the University of South Carolina Press. Statehouse Report has partnered with USC Press to provide readers with this interesting weekly historical excerpt about the state. Republication is not allowed. For additional information about Statehouse Report, including information on underwriting, go to https://www.statehousereport.com/.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!