By RICK BRUNDRETT
Every 10 years, S.C. lawmakers re-exert their authority to draw legislative and congressional district lines based on updated population counts a typically convoluted process aimed at protecting incumbents.
While the 2020 U.S. Census is underway, state lawmakers quietly are planning to initially spend as much as $2 million on the reapportionment process, or the redrawing of district lines.
How those lines are drawn largely controlled by legislative leaders can greatly affect who wins elections, which areas are best represented, and what legislation gets approved.
The 2010 U.S. Census showed that South Carolinas total population grew by more than 15% over the previous decade, resulting in the creation of a seventh U.S. House seat and realignment of legislative districts.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld partisan gerrymandering, allowing the political party that controls a state legislature to draw voting maps to help its candidates win elections.
In its recently passed, $32.3 billion state budget version for fiscal year 2020-21, the S.C. House appropriated $1 million for its 124-member chamber for reapportionment expenses, and approved an additional $1 million for unspecified operating expenses for the 46-member Senate.
Back in November, neither the House nor Senate would reveal to The Nerve any upcoming spending plans for their respective chambers after missing a legal deadline to file their proposed chamber budgets for fiscal 2021, which starts July 1.
State agencies are required by law to submit their proposed budgets to the governor by Nov. 1. But as The Nerve previously has reported, the Legislature in recent years often has ignored the law when it comes to their own chamber spending plans.
Gov. Henry McMaster in his proposed fiscal 2021 state budget version, which was released in January, recommended appropriating a total of $22.9 million and $15.4 million for the House and Senate chambers, respectively.
The House later proposed adding $1 million each to the House and Senate chamber budgets, though the House version didnt provide specifics on funding for redrawing legislative and congressional district lines. The Legislature approved similar funding for redistricting costs when the last U.S. Census was done, as The Nerve reported then.
The House and Senate, for example, collectively spent thousands of dollars on outside attorneys to defend the chambers in a federal lawsuit alleging racial gerrymandering in the 2011 redistricting plans, state comptroller general records show.
The Nerve recently asked House clerk Charles Reid and Senate clerk Jeff Gossett under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act for documents showing how exactly the proposed additional $1 million for each chamber would be spent.
A House attorney provided only general budget records showing the total requested amount for reapportionment expenses. Gossett didnt provide any records, saying only in a written response: The Senate has no documents specifically regarding the appropriation beyond what is in the (state budget) bill. However, the primary intention of this is to fund reapportionment and other expenses.
House records show that Rep. Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, proposed the additional $1 million for the House for one time expenses incurred due to reapportionment.
The Nerve last week asked Bannister for records related to his budget request, though no documents were provided by publication of this story. Bannisters proposal was designated in House records as a budget earmark, which typically is a funding request for a program or project that didnt originate with the state agency that would receive the public dollars.
The Nerve earlier this month revealed more than $51 million in earmarks in the Houses state budget version, including, for example, $19 million for a proposed downtown Greenville convention center and $7.5 million to renovate the Sumter Opera House.
Funding for those projects, as well as the proposed $1 million House chamber earmark, would come out of $945.5 million in actual and estimated nonrecurring state revenues, under the Houses state budget version. Whether the overall projected $1.8 billion-plus surplus for next fiscal year will materialize, however, is uncertain because of the states continuing coronavirus response.
Still, the House and Senate chambers have plenty of their own reserves to cover redistricting costs in fiscal 2021. Records show that at the start of this fiscal year, the Senate had $5.2 million in general fund reserves, while the House had a surplus of $23.3 million $666,401 more than its current total chamber budget.
Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve (www.thenerve.org). Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@thenerve.org. Follow him on Twitter @RickBrundrett. Follow The Nerve on Facebook and Twitter @thenervesc.
Nervestories are free to reprint and repost with permission by and credit to The Nerve.
Go here to read the rest:
How S.C. lawmakers increase their odds of staying in power - The Nerve
- Patriots For Economic Freedom - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Fiscal Freedom and Financial Literacy Campaign :: City of ... - December 30th, 2016 [December 30th, 2016]
- To see how a bill becomes law, follow the money - News Sentinel - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Economy to grow more than 7 per cent next fiscal: Shaktikanta Das - The Indian Express - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Making the case for an RBI rate cut - Livemint - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Cotton Calls for a $26B Uptick in Planned Defense Supplemental - USNI News - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Making A FOIA Request Is About To Get Tougher At FBI - Daily Caller - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Guest Article: Capitulation before the First Shots Are Fired - Somewhat Reasonable - Heartland Institute (blog) - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- U.S. Air Force extended some 800 million yen in funds to 128 ... - The Mainichi - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Greece and the Folly of Trying to Solve an Overspending Problem with Tax Increases - People's Pundit Daily - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Hill Republicans quake at Trump's budget-busting wish list - Politico - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Key conservative open to insurer payments during ObamaCare transition - The Hill - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Historic audit of illegitimate debts - Inquirer.net - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Fiscal Freedom: How Tax Burden Affects Economic Freedom - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Police Criticized as Violence Continues in Brazil's City of Vitria - The Rio Times - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Business divided on Malloy budget - CT Post - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- The United Kingdom and the Benefits of Spending Restraint - Cato Institute (blog) - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Trump Threatens to Cut Off Government Funds to Universities, and Why Not? - PanAm Post - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- For Philly Cops Already Awash in Overtime Pay, Another Boost -- Thanks to Trump - NBC 10 Philadelphia - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Fiscal Freedom | Prometheism.net - Part 2 - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Personal finance lessons from the Budget - Hindu Business Line - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- The United Kingdom and the Benefits of Spending Restraint - People's Pundit Daily - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- MEL STA. MARIA | The 1987 Freedom Constitution should not be changed - InterAksyon - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Venezuela now leads US asylum requests as crisis deepens - Philly.com - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Promoting fiscal discipline - Daily Excelsior - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- The GOP's Big Tax Dilemma: Repealing Obamacare Taxes - The Fiscal Times - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Why Liberty Advocates Should Focus on Spending Restraint over Tax Hikes - PanAm Post - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- What the papers say: Britain's soaring EU budget bill shows Brexit can't happen soon enough - Spectator.co.uk (blog) - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- Meet The Venezuelan-Born Mom Who Ran For State Senate To Stop Socialism - The Federalist - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- GOP defense hawks barely squawked on Mulvaney nomination - Washington Examiner - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- Floyd Bledsoe urges Kansas to compensate the wrongfully convicted: 'I lost my freedom' - The Garden City Telegram - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Are Republicans Losing Momentum on Obamacare Repeal? - The Fiscal Times - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Study: US falls to 17th place in 2017 global economic freedom index - Economic Collapse News - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Mason Fiscal give WVFD go-ahead - Ledger Independent - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Officials Continue to Dodge Attempts to Disclose Use of Stingrays - Reason (blog) - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- 10 Things to Know About Stephen Feinberg, Trump's Potential Intelligence Czar - The Fiscal Times - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Mason Fiscal gives WVFD go-ahead - Ledger Independent - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Senate Confirms Fiscal Hawk Mick Mulvaney As Trump's Budget Director - New York Magazine - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Thank You, Obama: US Steadily Lost Ground On Economic Freedom Over Past 8 Years - Investor's Business Daily - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- Scott Pruitt: 5 Fast Facts You need to Know - Heavy.com - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- Liberia Ahead Of Ukraine In Index of Economic Freedom 2017 - Global News Network - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- EDITORIAL: The United States continues to drop on the Heritage Foundation's index of economic freedom - Las Vegas Review-Journal - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- US Economic Freedom Hits Historic Low - theTrumpet.com - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Sounds of freedom rattling to far reaches of area - Jacksonville Daily News - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- State lawmakers looking at forced treatment as option to combat opioid crises - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Sri Lanka's govt. integrity, economic freedom deteriorate - Daily Mirror - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Budget 2017: Why taxes will increase - DA - Politicsweb - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- PH up by 12 notches in Economic Freedom Index 2017 ranking | SunStar - Sun.Star - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- County Commission Backs Medical Marijuana, Opposes School Vouchers - Memphis Daily News - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Kellogg column: Our culture must shift from dependent to interdependent - Glenwood Springs Post Independent - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- India's economic freedom plunge | Business Standard News - Business Standard - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Ohanaeze president worried about maltreatment of pro-Biafran members worries - Guardian - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Why is a freedom enshrined in the UN declaration of human rights ... - Stabroek News - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Gambia: Gambian Man Living In The United States; Former Jammeh Aide Sanna Jarju Named In A Multi million dollars ... - Freedom Newspaper - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Gauging the Trump Effect on Congress and the DOJ - Freedom Leaf (press release) (blog) - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- PH leaps in economic freedom; 'yes' to calls for lasting peace - Manila Bulletin - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Ohanaeze Ndigbo decries violence against MASSOB, IPOB - Vanguard - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- PH leaps 12 places in 2017 Economic Freedom Index - Filipino Reporter - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Read Scott Walker's Advice on How Republicans Should Handle Protests - TIME - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- JCPenney to close 13 to 14 percent of stores - Rome Sentinel - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Dj vu all over again - The Capitol Fax Blog (blog) - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Solution created for county builders - Morehead News - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Economic Freedom Up Again, But Not in the US - Investor's Business Daily - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Expect the unexpected with upcoming budget, appropriations cycle, experts say - FederalNewsRadio.com - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- Pleading poverty, demanding new taxes - Washington Times - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- Newspaper lobby seeks Albany allies in fight for sunlight over state finances - Lockport Union-Sun & Journal - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- Philippines Improves in Economic Freedom ranking | CFO innovation - CFO innovation ASIA - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- California lawmakers press ICE for information about raids - The Mercury News - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- ExclusiveRep. Meadows: We Won't Fix Healthcare By Replacing Obamacare with Another Bad Plan - Breitbart News - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Economic Freedom - HATICE KARAHAN - Yeni afak - Yeni afak English - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- California 'Trust Women' License Plates to Help Pay for Reproductive Care in Trump Era - Rewire - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Reader Viewpoint: Recognizing our imperfections, tribulations allows us to be wise - The Herald Bulletin - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- The Staggering Costs of Operating Air Force One - The Fiscal Times - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- How a Tenet of GOP Orthodoxy Slipped Away - Roll Call - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Who is the enemy? - Emporia Gazette - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Wake Up, Republicans: This Could Be the Democrats' Tea Party - POLITICO Magazine - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Pakistan ranked ahead India in Economic Freedom Index report ... - ARY NEWS - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Excess rules stifle freedom - The Robesonian - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Law & (Executive) Order - Patriot Post - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- A Closer Look at Trump's 10% Defense Spending Increase - Morningstar.com - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]