South Carolina Session Adjournment The South Carolina General Assembly has adjourned Sine Die.  The Budget Conference Committee will return to Columbia to meet next week to iron out the last few remaining issues.  The General Assembly will return on May 23 to address vetoes and outlying conference committee reports. The BIG news from this session is South…

ABA Fly-In – At the beginning of last week, we joined other State Association Officials and representatives from Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Cheerwine and other major beverage companies in Washington D.C. for the American Beverage Association’s annual Fly-In — nearly 200 individuals participated.  We visited all members’ offices of the South Carolina delegation.  We expressed the…

Gas Tax/Roads Bill The House has passed an increase in the state’s gas tax, similar to the bill they passed last year. The House’s version increases the gas tax by two cents each year over the next five years.  Each penny on gasoline and diesel fuel brings in $35 million annually.  The bill also adds…

State of Haley Governor Nikki Haley delivered her final State of the State address last week in the chamber of the House of Representatives.  Her address was shorter, more reflective and more positive than in the past few years.  She is due to leave the Governor’s Mansion to become the Ambassador to the United Nations,…

Roads Last year several southeastern states passed legislation raising their gas taxes to maintain and improve their states’ roads.  South Carolina, meanwhile, did nothing and has not increased its gas tax in thirty years.  At a hearing a few weeks ago, highway experts testified that we are just a few years away from parts of…

​2016 at a Glance Legislators returned to Columbia last week to resume the 121st session in South Carolina.  The three major issues this year are going to be infrastructure, education and ethics.  The roads issue cannot be avoided any longer.  The damage from the flood event last year made the crumbling roads exponentially worse.  The…

To the Editor: Re “What a Big Tax on Soft Drinks Can Do” (editorial, Oct. 19): Discriminatory taxes on beverages do not improve public health, and they divert us from meaningful solutions to complex health challenges. In the few places where they have been tried, excise taxes that single out beverages have been shown to…

Dale Ash, Cindy Colville and Hooper Matthews III are used to ups and downs in their family business – Pepsi Bottling Company of Atmore. Every small business experiences good and not-so-good times due to business cycles, the economy, etc. But when the product you sell – in this case beverages – is singled out by…

By MARY MacVEAN Los Angeles Times Published: May 3, 2015 6:00AM LOS ANGELES (TNS) — People taking part in a weight-loss program did better over 12 weeks if they drank diet soda than if they drank only water, researchers reported recently. Among the 303 dieters, the people who drank only water lost 8.4 pounds; those…

From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: See story here The secret to longevity, you might be surprised to learn, has nothing to do with exercise, great medical care or drinking lots of water. At least if you ask one centenarian. A Texas woman celebrating her 104th birthday said she’s outsmarted Father Time and Mother Nature by imbibing…