Legislators need more issues training

MARCH 5, 2010 – The opposite of a leader is a lemming, a political metaphor for a follower who will do just about anything, including blindly jumping off a cliff, to back a leader.

South Carolina’s General Assembly is full of lemmings – so much so that one top lawmaker privately confided this week that some legislators wouldn’t know where babies came from if they had not been personally involved.

Balanced budgeting approach can help legislators

FEB. 19, 2010 – Raising taxes in a down economy sounds counterintuitive, but it is a viable strategy that may be better than simply cutting spending, according to a new report on budget strategies. Merely cutting spending as a budget solution can be harmful, writes Iris Lav of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities [...]

Book’s warning signs may apply to SC

JAN. 22, 2010 – Business guru Jim Collins, the bestselling writer who picks apart successful companies for signs of strength, concludes that all businesses are vulnerable to downfalls, no matter how great they’ve been in the past. …

SC needs to wake up to fiscal realities

JAN. 15, 2010 — Wake up, South Carolina! If we don’t start investing in our state, we might as well submit to being serfs to the Chinese.

Simply put, we need to tax ourselves more. We need to use the money to revitalize education, our business environment and the parts of state government that attract jobs.

Ozmint needs to take medicine or hit the road

As head of the state Department of Corrections, Jon Ozmint’s job is to take prisoners. But that comes in sharp contrast to his arrogant, take-no-prisoners style in dealing with legislators, auditors and, well, it seems just about anybody. Ozmint, you see, can’t take criticism, constructive or otherwise. Anytime anyone tries to say anything about how [...]