The Opinion Blog

Let the Surfside Pups Play

Thursday’s first editorial was previewed here yesterday:

It was sorely tempting to label efforts to curb barking at the dog park in Surfside Beach ridiculous grumpiness and be done with it.

End barking at the dog park? Might as well try to end playing at the playground.

Nullify the Nullification Talk

Sunday’s editorial takes on the tried and true topic of nullification. Remember that from your high school history textbooks?

South Carolina has a proud tradition of obstinacy. In the federal family, we’re the child who automatically responds to every suggestion with an emphatic “nuh-uh” or “make me.” Ingrained over centuries, stubborn refusal has become our gut feeling, our knee-jerk reaction. The federal government says po-tay-to and we say po-tah-to. Of course, if the feds at any point changed course and started saying po-tah-to, we’d immediately insist that real Americans say po-tay-to.

This disdain for and distrust of authority has led us into confrontations of all sizes, from bloody wars to congressmen who publicly call the president a liar during a State of the Union address. The recent calls by state legislators for reviving nullification only adds to this long tradition of digging in our heels.

Give Judges Control of Docket

Should S.C. prosecutors be the ones in charge of deciding not only which criminal cases to take to trial but also have complete control over when to schedule them? Sunday’s editorial doesn’t think so:

Teenager Bilal Harris was arrested in April 2006, accused of murder in the beating death of a homeless man in Myrtle Beach. Denied bond, he spent more than the next three years in jail as his case slowly made its way to trial. Eventually, in July 2009, he was acquitted for lack of evidence and subsequently released.

Harris (who has since gotten into more legal trouble and been convicted of drug charges) lost three years of his life while waiting for a trial that ultimately determined he wasn’t culpable for the crime he was accused of. The effect of that long time behind bars during his formative years can’t be measured, but it cannot be ignored or written off. Contacted this week to talk about court scheduling issues such as this, former S.C. Appeals Court Judge Ralph King Anderson called such long delays “totally unacceptable.”

Rules, Schmules; The State Laws We Just Ignore

If it’s a state law, does that mean we follow it? Most of the time, as Tuesday’s editorial explains:

If the S.C. legislature passes a law, it’s signed by the governor, and it becomes part of our state code, it means that the law must be followed. After all, if people could just ignore the ones they don’t like, we’d have anarchy, society would break down and all manner of chaos would ensue. Right?

Well, perhaps not.

Half a Law, 10 Times the Cost

Sunday’s editorial describes how a state law that only got half finished is costing local governments hundreds of thousands of dollars and could lead to an unnecessary tax increase in Horry County:

How does Horry County’s bill for disposing of old TVs and computers unexpectedly spike from $30,000 a year to around $300,000 a year, raising with it the possibility of a tax increase for county residents? It wasn’t a giant increase in TV purchases. No, blame a hurry-up-and-stop legislative process.

Without Great Choice for President, It's Obama

Sunday’s editorial offers the editorial board’s thoughts on the presidential election:

Few things about this presidential election have lent themselves to unambiguous, clear decisions, despite what the campaigns and their diehard supporters might like us to believe. Neither of the major candidates is a miraculous savior or unmitigated fiend. Both stand before U.S. voters with significant high and low points, and nobody has managed to leap to the fore as the obviously better choice.

For proof, you need look no further than the latest polling data. We give our fellow Americans credit for being fairly smart and invested in the future of this nation, and as such, if the decision on picking our next leader were an easy one, we wouldn’t be coming down to the wire with two candidates that are still neck and neck.

Good Start to School Funding Conversation

Sunday’s editorial attempts to make a start at wading into the school funding reform debate. I’m sure there will be more to come in this vein as the effort goes on:

“Regardless of the deference typically accorded to the General Assembly, and regardless of good intentions shown over the years, there is no way one can look at the present system and conclude that a rational actor could have thought the whole thing up as a rational, comprehensive system.”

– amicus brief filed in August by the S.C. Association of School Administrators and S.C. School Boards Association in the long-running Abbeville County School District school funding lawsuit

It’s hard to find anybody in South Carolina who fully understands how our public schools are funded. And among those that have put in the time to unravel a hodgepodge of laws and decades of changes, it’s hard to find anybody who thinks that it’s working as it should. A coalition of education proponents and organizations is hoping to change that, with a simplified, equitable reform plan, but they have a tough task ahead of them. It’s not clear that they’ll get the support needed to pass it, or even that it’s the best plan for our state. Nevertheless, it is clear that something needs to be done, and if nothing else, the effort will certainly help prompt the conversation that we should be having.

Victory at the Hotel Pools

Tuesday’s editorial:

News last week that Congress had finally acted to scrap the absurd regulation barring temporary pool enclosures in floodplains was an all too rare example of common sense at last winning out over one-size-fits-all federal regulations. And while the change comes only after some local hotels forked out tens of thousands of dollars to comply with the rules, the belated fix is welcome nonetheless.

Gov. Haley Trims the Fat



Today, we finish up our two-part editorial series on Gov. Haley’s budget vetoes by listing some with which we agree and that we hope our legislators will uphold:

Yesterday, we wrote about some of the recent budget vetoes by Gov. Nikki Haley that are reckless, rash and go too far in her crusade to shrink state government – specifically, her unilateral dissolutions of the S.C. Arts Commission and the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium. Today, we write about a few of the governor’s vetoes that hit the mark, or at least get a bit closer, including one that directly affects the Grand Strand.

Overrule the Vetoes; Restore the Agencies



Thursday’s first editorial is the first of a two-parter addressing the governor’s recent budget vetoes. First up, the ones we don’t agree with:

Before we delve into the appropriateness of Gov. Nikki Haley’s recent budget vetoes, let’s get one thing straight off the bat. None of them will put money back in your pocket.

Despite the populist rhetoric she employed in her cancellation of the S.C. Arts Commission’s budget – “we would be better off returning these funds to the public, to let them decide for themselves what artistic endeavors to support” – don’t expect a check in the mail anytime soon.