Welcome to the inaugural publication of The S.C. General Assembly: Best & Worst of 2009. Our aim here is to highlight the best and worst ideas of the 2009 session. In doing so, we capture the broad policy trends of the year, rather than just providing a legislative recap. In many ways, what follows is also a roadmap to the 2010 session because many of these ideas – more bad than good – will be revived. Thus we have identified several bills likely to pass in the near future. In short, this is not a list of legislative minutiae, but a user-friendly guide to what lawmakers are actually thinking and what direction they want to take our state in. To view the complete report, click here. The individual chapters can be found below.

I. Restructuring

II. Spending & Taxes

a. Targeted Tax Breaks

III. Economic Development

IV. Education

V. Health Care

VI. Property Rights

VII. Environment

VIII. Common Sense/Personal Liberty

IX. Transparency

X. Small Business

XI. Elections