Our weekly Top Five feature offers big stories or views from the past week with policy and legislative implications.
- State budgets have cloudy forecast; S.C. cited as example, Governing, August 2016
“In an era of tight budgets and slow revenue growth, there’s pressure on legislators to be open and honest about what states can and can’t afford…All of this seems to be coming to a head in South Carolina.
“After adjusting for inflation and population growth, the state is spending about $300 less per resident than it was prior to the recession. That has led to complaints from progressives that the state is underfunding agencies, creating job vacancies and making it hard for much of the government to function. For instance, the state ranks near the bottom in terms of funding for dam inspections. Last year 31 dams failed due to historic flooding. ‘The Grand Old Party has been running a hard campaign against government for 30-plus years now,’ says Brett Bursey, director of the SC Progressive Network. ‘Well, they won.’”
- If there were no gerrymandered districts, The Washington Post, January 2016
We recently came across this January piece that shows what the country’s political districts would look like if there were no gerrymandering, a subject we wrote about in this commentary. You might find the maps here to be interesting — particularly those for North Carolina.
- Mentally ill have long waits for treatment, PBS Newshour, Aug. 2, 2016
South Carolina is mentioned in this national story:
“South Carolina, which has 493 state hospital beds, 67 more than in 2010, has increased mental health spending under Republican Gov. Nikki Haley. Most of the new money has gone toward crisis intervention and services to stabilize patients during an emergency, said Tracy LaPointe, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina Department of Mental Health. LaPointe said the psychiatric boarding continues because there aren’t enough beds.”
- Critics see efforts to purge minority voters from rolls, The New York Times, July 31, 2016
South Carolina isn’t specifically mentioned in this story, but neighboring states of Georgia and North Carolina are:
“But since the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 ruling in the voting-rights case, Shelby County v. Holder, critics argue, the blatant efforts to keep minorities from voting have been supplanted by a blizzard of more subtle changes. Most conspicuous have been state efforts like voter ID laws or cutbacks in early voting periods, which critics say disproportionately affect minorities and the poor. Less apparent, but often just as contentious, have been numerous voting changes enacted in counties and towns across the South and elsewhere around the country.
“They appear as Republican legislatures and election officials in the South and elsewhere have imposed statewide restrictions on voting that could depress turnout by minorities and other Democrat-leaning groups in a crucial presidential election year. Georgia and North Carolina, two states whose campaigns against so-called voter fraud have been cast by critics as aimed at black voters, could both be contested states in autumn’s presidential election.”
- Two-thirds of young blacks, 4 in 10 Hispanics have experience police harassment, The Washington Post, Aug. 4, 2016
A survey of adults ages 18 to 30 at the University of Chicago reveals that two-thirds of young people who are African-American and 40 percent of Hispanic young adults have experienced either harassment or violence at the hands of police.
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!