HICKS COLUMN: Assembly priorities puzzling

Good thing the General Assembly is back in session — we’ve got a lot of problems in South Carolina.

So of course when the Legislature convened on Tuesday, lawmakers jumped on unemployment and education. Right?

Uh, no.

Gov. Nikki Haley and state lawmakers held a press conference to announce their fight to save the new voter I.D. law, which the Obama administration nixed in December. Haley suggested Washington is at war with South Carolina (wouldn’t be the first time) and that this “is a very important and pressing issue.”

Well, maybe it would be if they could produce one — just one — confirmed case of voter fraud in South Carolina since the 1970s. Seems convenient they “may” have found 900 “potential” cases just this week.

After wasting last year on partisan terrorism, Columbia pols are making it clear they have learned nothing from their mistakes. They will continue to push baloney mandated by the national Republican Party and avoid tough decisions.

Today’s forecast: heavy pandering, with strong gusts of hot air.

Real people?

After laying waste to state agencies for the past few years, the state now has a $913 million surplus.

Instead of using that money to replace axed teachers or save the Department of Natural Resources, politicians now want to focus on “tax breaks.”

That would be fine if they were giving the money back to citizens, 10 percent of whom are out of work. But they are again talking about cutting the corporate income tax. Which isn’t a tax on income, but profits. And it’s already one of the lowest rates in the nation, not to mention the state’s third-largest source of revenue. But hey, corporations are people, too — “people” who donate a lot to campaigns.

The prudent fiscal thing to do would be to repay that $1 billion the state got from the feds to pay unemployment claims. Which the state needed because of deep cuts in unemployment tax rates to help job creators who don’t create jobs.

Turns out corporations are not only people, they are more important people than actual people.

Back to work?

It’s probably a good thing the state went through a few years of hard times — it forced the state to trim what had become considerable fat in the gubmint.

But the Legislature cut a lot of meat, too, and has no appetite to restore that. As a result, our waterways will remain unsafe, our restaurants under-inspected, our children in over-crowded classrooms (one way money actually does improve education). And, as usual, our environment will continue to suffer, not only because of cuts to the Department of Health and Environmental Control but because Haley’s new board apparently hates the color green.

Those are real problems, and there are plenty of others. But the General Assembly is worried about further corporate tax breaks and a voter identification problem that doesn’t actually exist.

Yep, good thing the Legislature is back at work.

Follow Brian Hicks on Twitter at @BriHicks_PandC.