Thumbs up
Unemployment rate. It’s good news that the state’s unemployment rate remained at 5.5 percent — although most anyone with a brain would like it to drop even more. Some 10,000 more workers were added to state payrolls in December.
Go get ‘em. Hats off to Gov. Nikki Haley for pursuing federal officials with a $1-million-per-day fine for failure to adhere to a timeline at the mixed-oxide nuclear fuel plant at Savannah River Site. More.
The Citadel. Thanks for doing the right thing by punishing 14 cadets for their involvement with photos showing seven of them dressed in hoods resembling those work by KKK members. More. And thanks for new diversity efforts.
Carolina Panthers. Now, go win the Super Bowl.
In the middle
McMaster. We’re not especially pleased that Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster’s endorsement of Donald Trump for president as we see Trump as mostly a reality TV blowhard more interested in his cult of personality than good governance. But McMaster, an establishment politician if there every were one, is a survivor. Maybe he’s smelling something in the wind that puts Trump on top of the Republican pack for 2016.
Road deal. We like hearing that the state Senate is leaning toward boosting our terribly low gas taxes by 12 cents a gallon to potentially raise $665 million more a year for much needed road repairs. But as outlined in today’s My Turn by Holley Ulbrich, cutting state income taxes just to have a cut might not be the best idea for the taxing system. More.
Thumbs down
Senate General Committee. Thumbs down to approving a bill that requires state police to track refugees coming to the state and to hold their sponsors for any terrorism damages. It’s nothing but xenophobia and indicative of the rise of the police state. More.
Senators. Let’s stop dilly-dallying on ethics reform. People don’t want you stymied over disclosure issues. Get ‘er done. More.
Number: 45th
South Carolina ranks 45th in financial security among the other states and the District of Columbia according to a new Assets & Opportunityi Scorecard by the Corporation for Enterprise Development. According to this story, “The report finds that 47 percent of South Carolina households live in liquid asset poverty, which means they don’t have three months of savings set aside to cover basic expenses and stay above the poverty level.”
Quote: A step forward, or a step back?
“If you let in the wrong Irishman, the downside is really not that serious. You let in the wrong Syrian refugee — one — and people could die,” Mulvaney said.
— U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-Indian Land, on a state proposal to track refugees. More.
“They were told the same thing — ‘We don’t want you in our state. We don’t want your in our neighborhood. We don’t want you in our schools. All you want to do is kill, rape, steal, whatever.’”
— State Sen. Kevin Johnson, D-Clarendon, who is black, recalling what his grandparents and great-grandparents heard in the segregated South.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!