Stay ConnectedBeyond Policy is a podcast presented by the Palmetto Promise Institute. Your host is Dr. Oran Smith, Senior Fellow of the Palmetto Promise Institute.
Policy talk can often be cold, dead, and boring. On this podcast, we’ve banned boring. Our object on this podcast is to look Beyond Policy. We look beyond statehouse rumors and backroom politics to real communities and people in South Carolina. We explore how actions at the South Carolina Statehouse impact people in South Carolina like you.
Copyright: © Beyond Policy
Before the 2026 legislative session begins, Dr. Oran Smith presents a deep-dive tax policy briefing examining how South Carolina raises revenue—where we stand among our neighbors, and where reform opportunities exist.
This briefing explains how federal conformity affects our tax code, how income tax rates influence our state’s competitiveness, and what policymakers should consider regarding sales, property, manufacturing, and business license taxes.
For the full video webinar including Dr. Smith’s slides, watch this briefing on Youtube: https://youtu.be/8cXJJ_C8xYA?si=lTrx0cfAde0avo8x
Before the 2026 legislative session starts, Dr. Oran Smith presents a deep dive into one of South Carolina’s most pressing challenges: access to affordable, high-quality healthcare—especially in rural communities.
Using national comparisons, workforce statistics, and regulatory insights, his briefing walks listeners through the current scope-of-practice debate surrounding advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) and physician assistants (PAs), the reforms being considered, and what other states are doing differently.
Other topics include transparency in medical billing, portable benefits, physician non-compete agreements, and more. This is a can’t-miss episode for lawmakers and citizens alike who care about the healthcare debates our state is facing.
For the full video webinar including Dr. Smith’s slides, you can watch this briefing on Youtube: https://youtu.be/eI4iCBFDXi4?si=F3SKN_ozXL3V3pgn
Before the 2026 legislative session kicks off, our team has prepared a series of policy briefings on some of the most important issues the South Carolina General Assembly will face in 2026. Palmetto Promise’s Director of Education Policy Ryan Dellinger takes the outlines trends lawmakers should watch, opportunities for reform, and the policy choices that could better serve students and families in 2026 and beyond.
This briefing explains where SC stands today on student-based funding and weighted pupil categories, transparency in school spending, ESA scholarship implementation and expansion, charter school facility and bonding challenges, and the state’s draft public school choice guidelines.
For the full video webinar including Ryan’s slides, watch this briefing on Youtube: https://youtu.be/Wxqu_--EPxU?si=0WSqjaqfPoGEyyiB
In this episode of Beyond Policy, Victoria Avramovic, Executive Director of the North Carolina Innovation Council, discusses the dynamic landscape of innovation in North Carolina, particularly in the fintech sector and with the state’s new regulatory sandbox program.
She highlights the importance of collaboration between public and private sectors, the role of regulatory flexibility in fostering innovation, and the establishment of a sandbox environment for testing new technologies while ensuring consumer protection.
The conversation delves into the establishment of the North Carolina Innovation Council, focusing on its legislative support, the role of regulatory sandboxes in fostering innovation, and the importance of understanding blockchain and digital currency. Avramovic discusses the collaborative efforts to ensure consumer protection while promoting economic growth through technology, and she emphasizes the need for continuous learning and adaptation in regulatory practices to keep pace with innovation.
South Carolina has much to learn from North Carolina’s approach to innovation, and Palmetto Promise hopes that the Palmetto State will join the Tarheels in establishing a reciprocal regulatory sandbox, designed to improve the economy and embrace regulatory freedom in both states. To learn more about regulatory sandboxes, visit https://palmettopromise.org/economy25/embrace-fintech-innovation/
This very special episode of Beyond Policy features a roundtable discussion focused on the energy landscape in South Carolina, highlighting the state's growth, the challenges faced by the nuclear energy sector, and the importance of energy in both economic development and national defense.
We were pleased to be joined by a very distinguished panel: Congresswoman Sheri Biggs (SC-03), Dr. Jody Lipford (professor at Francis Marion University), Michael Mule (partner with SURGE Public Affairs), Susie Shannon (President & CEO of SC Competes), Brigadier General Robin Stilwell (Adjutant General of South Carolina), and Rick Todd (President & CEO of the SC Trucking Association).
We discuss the lessons learned from the VC Summer nuclear project, the future of nuclear energy, the role of artificial intelligence in energy solutions, and the significance of energy security for military operations.
The enlightening conversation emphasizes the need for competitive energy pricing and workforce development to attract industries and support economic growth.
We are joined this week on Beyond Policy by a very special guest, Palmetto Promise alum Lawson Mansell. He is a health policy analyst with the Niskanen Center in Washington DC, where he specializes in supply-side health care solutions. Dr. Smith and Mansell discuss opportunities for healthcare freedom and deregulation in South Carolina, especially surrounding transparency in healthcare billing and giving patients the right to shop for their healthcare.
They discuss recent Executive orders from President Trump to promote price transparency and the impacts of the federal No Surprises Act, as well as steps of South Carolina can take to promote transparent billing.
Rick Todd – How South Carolina’s Unfair Tort Laws Hurt All Industries, Not Just Bars
In this episode of the Beyond Policy podcast, Rick Todd of the South Carolina Trucking Association discusses the complexities of the trucking industry in South Carolina, including its evolution, the life of truck drivers, and the impact South Carolina’s unfair civil liability laws have on the industry. Trucking companies are too often “cash cow” defendants in aggressive personal injury lawsuits, and companies end up paying far more in damages than their driver was liable. Rick and Dr. Oran Smith dig into the history and context of the current tort reform debate and walk through the content of the South Carolina Justice Act (S.244) passed by the SC Senate. Rick explains why tort reform cannot just be limited to the hospitality industry and needs to include changes for all industries, including trucking. South Carolina’s civil liability system should be fair and balanced, ensuring accountability without punishing innocent parties. And right now, the system is far from just.
To learn more about the need for lawsuit reform in South Carolina, visit https://palmettopromise.org/legal25/repeal-the-lawsuit-tax/.
On this second episode of Season 2 of Beyond Policy, Palmetto Promise Institute’s Dr. Oran Smith interviews economist Zachary Cady of The Buckeye Institute. Palmetto Promise and Buckeye recently released an economic impact analysis of the 2025 personal income tax reform bill proposed by Republican leaders in South Carolina, which would move the state’s highest-in-the-region personal income tax rate to a flat tax of 3.99%, on the way down to 2.49%. In this conversation, Dr. Smith and Cady unpack the results of this study, diving into the dynamic economic scoring model that Buckeye’s Economic Research Center utilizes in their research.
Will South Carolina join other states across the nation in what Cady calls “the flat tax revolution”? What trade-offs are involved in the legislative process when it comes to tax reform? How do we know how tax code changes will affect the broader economy? All these and questions and more are discussed on this episode of Beyond Policy.
To read the Buckeye and Palmetto Promise study on the economic impact a 3.99% flat tax would have in South Carolina, click here: https://palmettopromise.org/new-economic-analysis-finds-tax-cut-plan-juices-sc-economy/
Welcome to a new season and another episode of the Beyond Policy podcast with your host, Dr. Oran Smith of Palmetto Promise Institute. In this episode, Oran is joined by Pete Sepp, President of the National Taxpayers Union and the NTU Foundation, to discuss two pressing issues in South Carolina: energy freedom and tax reform.
Sepp emphasizes the critical role of energy in the Palmetto State economy, the challenges posed by the coming eight-fold increase in electricity demand here, and the need for a balanced and comprehensive approach to energy sourcing. Too often, “utilities are building stuff and making their ratepayers pay for it."
The conversation then shifts to tax reform, where Smith and Sepp explore the new proposal by the Republican leadership of the South Carolina General Assembly (2025) to lower individual income tax rates and transition to a simpler, more common method of calculating income for South Carolina tax purposes (federal Adjusted Gross Income or “AGI”). The discussion centers on the fact that a broader tax base will engage more citizens in the tax system, and lower rates will fuel economic growth.
Tune in to this thought-provoking episode of the Beyond Policy podcast as we go beyond policy and explore innovative solutions to improve the lives of South Carolina citizens.
Welcome to another episode of The Beyond Policy Podcast with your host, Oran Smith. In this episode, we are joined by a special guest, Josh Archambault, as we dive deep into the topic of healthcare reform and explore solutions beyond policy.
During the episode, we discuss various aspects of the broken healthcare system, acknowledging that Medicaid is just one piece of the puzzle. We question whether healthcare systems are losing money due to inefficiency or ineffective care delivery. Drawing comparisons to other industries, we explore the need for a rethinking of delivery methods to address these inefficiencies.
Josh Archambault shares his insights on the growing interest in direct primary care. We delve into the benefits of direct primary care, where physicians sell memberships to their practice, providing unlimited access to care for a flat monthly rate. We also explore Christian healthcare sharing, which is not insurance but a practice where people with the same faith and beliefs share their healthcare bills with one another.
In our conversation with Josh Archambault, we delve into the importance of transparency in healthcare costs and the Patient's Right to Save initiative. We discuss the potential benefits of incentivizing patients to choose cash rate providers over insurance, leading to cost savings. We envision the use of a third-party app to help patients find and book appointments, transforming healthcare into a marketplace that benefits patients.
Along the way, we explore case studies and examples to illustrate the growing cost of hospital services and the impact of government involvement. We examine the effects of Medicaid expansion under Obamacare and the need for prioritizing access to healthcare over mere insurance coverage. We discuss alternative avenues to provide access to care, such as federally qualified health centers and supplemental payments.
Finally, we highlight the healthcare reforms implemented in Tennessee, Maine, and Arizona, allowing patients to shop for healthcare options and receive deductible credits. We emphasize the importance of the patient's right to save, which aligns incentives and supports motivated patients and independent providers offering cost-effective services with good outcomes.
Tune in to this thought-provoking episode of The Beyond Policy Podcast as we go beyond policy and explore innovative solutions for a better healthcare system.
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