Our weekly Top Five feature offers big stories or views from the past week with policy and legislative implications.
- America’s middle class is shrinking, Pew Research Center, May 11, 2016
In almost nine out of 10 of America’s metropolitan areas, America’s middle class is shrinking, according to this startling new report by the Pew Research Center. The story is much the same for South Carolina metros. And it has major implications, particularly for tax policy: With a smaller middle class, there tends to be less capacity to generate tax revenue, which could impact government revenues.
- Senate to hold summer hearing on expanding gun background checks, Greenville News, May 13, 2016
State Sen. Larry Martin on Thursday said a hearing on a bill that would strengthen S.C. background checks for gun buyers would be held over the summer. The news came during a rally was happening at the Statehouse to “close the Charleston loophole” on gun background checks with a longer waiting period for people to buy guns.
- Enrollment in state-funded preschools inches up, Associated Press, May 12, 2016
The number of 3- and 4-year-olds in state funded classrooms rose slightly nationwide, but disparity in per-pupil spending is wide.
- Humanists make case at federal court of appeals, Greenville News, May 11, 2016
A humanist group argued before the federal Court of Appeals in Richmond on Tuesday that a Greenville elementary school’s use of public prayer and choosing to hold a graduation ceremony at North Greenville University violated the First Amendment.
- Site lists S.C. as among worst state to be an entrepreneur, The Alternative Daily, May 11, 2016
The ranking is critical of the state for being “difficult for new business owners.” While some costs are lower, it says there’s slow business growth, a low number of existing small businesses, only 15 percent of the population in small business and a low GDP per capita.
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