Here’s our new Top Five feature — five big stories and reports from the past week with state policy and legislative implications.
Report says way states create jobs may be off base, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, Feb. 3, 2016
In this new report, the Center suggests that landing a big whale of an industry might not be the best sustainable strategy for growing jobs. Instead, data indicate “the vast majority of jobs are created by businesses that start up or are already present in a state — not by the relocation or branching into a state by out-of-state firms.” The report also shows start-up companies and young, fast-growing companies are responsible for most new jobs. Read the report.
Ten percent of South Carolina properties are “seriously underwater,” Charleston Regional Business Journal, Feb. 4, 2016
At the end of 2015, 10 percent of properties with a mortgage in South Carolina were considered seriously underwater.
House backs plan for gubernatorial candidates to pick running mates, Associated Press, Feb. 3, 2016
The South Carolina House passed a bill that would have candidates for governor pick their running mates after they are nominated by their party. Approval of this measure, possible only because voters last year passed a constitutional referendum to allow the top two offices to be voted on as one ticket, will significantly change the way elections are run in the state. More.
Lawmakers have dozens of bills about guns to fill the “Charleston Loophole,” The Post and Courier, Jan. 31, 2016.
Legislators have more than 50 bills to consider in a fight over whether to do anything legislatively to respond to the murder of nine people in June at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Many Democrats want stronger gun control measures, while others want to protect gun rights. A related story highlights the 10 key people in the growing debate over guns.
Earned Income Tax Credit can help rural families, op-ed by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Jan. 29, 2016
“When people use the credit, we know it makes a difference. The EITC, along with the Child Tax Credit, greatly improves opportunities for working families. These working-family tax credits lifted 9.4 million people out of poverty in 2013, including 5 million children, and made 22 million other people under the poverty line better off. The EITC can be particularly important in some rural areas, where incomes tend to be lower than urban areas and poverty rates can be higher.”
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!