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5/19 |
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MAY.
19. That's the date that has been set for Mark Keel to
appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Keel is Gov.
Mark Sanford's nominee to take over the embattled Department
of Public Safety, whose troopers have been caught in a video-fueled
abuse scandal. Should be a doozy.
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Breaking the bank
Fight
over third rainy-day fund entrenched, philosophical
By
BILL DAVIS,
editor
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Davis
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MAY
9, 2008 -- With the final weeks of the legislative session ticking
down and time-consuming bills like raising the cigarette tax and
reforming illegal immigration laws having gone to conference committees,
it's now time for the General Assembly to tackle creating a third
rainy-day fund.
Or
not.
When
the Senate finally voted this week to increase the state's per-pack
cigarette tax to 50 cents, Sen. Larry Martin (R-Pickens) pushed
to the top of the Senate agenda a bill that would force the state
to base its yearly spending increases on a 10-year average, or just
over 4 percent this year.
In
flush years, the excess money would go into a rolling stabilization
fund that could only be spent in down years to offset shortfalls,
retire state debt or provide one-time funding for capital projects.
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"This
is basically the same bill we've been sending them year after
year."
--
Rep. Annette Young (R-Summerville)
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The
bill had been lurking in the Senate for several weeks after it passed
out of the Finance Committee where staffers had been trying to solve
the riddle of how a bill that tucks away money for a rainy day could
survive a legislative requirement that all sales tax funding education
would go for education.
Senate
insiders said the bill should sail quickly into the House where,
it seems, the bill will first face bitterness.
"What
the Senate should do is deal with either one of the two similar
bills we've sent them the last two years," said Greg Foster,
director of communications for House Speaker Bobby Harrell.
"This
is basically the same bill we've been sending them year after year,"
said Rep. Annette Young (R-Summerville), a ranking member on the
House Ways and Means Committee.
House
Ways and Means Chair Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont, said the bill wasn't
a priority for him.
"I
mean, we already have a constitutional requirement to pass a balanced
budget," he said.
Cooper
warned that if the Republican-dominated legislature reserved too
much money, services could lapse, people could turn on his colleagues
and vote to elect a Democratic slate, which is what happened in
Arizona and Colorado.
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Currently,
there are two reserve funds, similar in form. The first is the Capital
Reserve Fund, which only allows state budgets to be funded at 98
percent of projected revenues. Funds are held in reserve so any
unforeseen late-season downturn in tax revenues won't have legislators
and agencies scrambling to cover current-year shortfalls.
The
second is the General Reserve Fund, a cash-on-hand fund that stashes
3 percent of the state's total budget for any given year. Monies
in this fund are carried over to the next year budget if there is
no need to tap into it.
A
longtime Statehouse observer whose career is trained on the budgeting
process said the differences between the House and Senate were both
bitter and philosophical.
The
observer noted that each of the existing rainy day funds -- which
hold back a total of roughly $350 million a year, are more of a
spending cap -- enabled state government to make it through a single
fiscal year.
The
proposed cap, he said, is different and powerful because it would
allow the legislature to make it from year to year, while avoiding
the rollercoaster effect the state has experienced the last two
years.
In
2007, a billion more dollars rolled into state coffers than initially
was forecasted. In 2008, purse strings tightened -- despite the
total state budget hovering around $7 billion -- thanks to flattening
tax revenues and normal annual increases in costs.
Crystal
ball: Murky. It is an election year, when talk of frugality
is always the rage. Whether the state really need another rainy
day fund doesn't seem to be the question any more. The question
now is will the House stand strong by its "restrictive"
stance, which dovetails with Gov. Mark Sanford's position, or will
the Senate's "budgeting" approach win out?
Bill Davis can be reached at: billdavis@statehousereport.com.
Not yet done
With
a handful of weeks to go in this year's legislative session, or
even less if the General Assembly exits early to save money, committee
meetings are decreasing as the focus tightens to a few key bills
and issues.
- Next
week in the House, there are three scheduled meetings, the highlight
being a Tuesday May 13 meeting Education Oversight Committee meeting
that will discuss doing away with the current form of the state's
PACT test More.
That meeting will take place at 10 a.m. in 215 Blatt.
- In
the Senate, the full Medical Affairs Committee will meet Wednesday
at 9 a.m. in 308 Gressette to discuss a host of bills that would
further define certifications for various medical professions,
as well as a bill that would increase the scope of investigations
into polluted brownfields.
Closing time ahead
In
the coming week, look for discussion to heat up over a small number
of crime-related bills still lingering on the legislative agendas,
such as custodial DNA searches and the like.
With
calls for an early release, it should be a light next few weeks
once the cigarette tax is handled, and is expected to be done quietly.
Sources say the cigarette tax increase will likely emerge from conference
with a 50-cent per pack tax increase and the majority of the money
going to expand state healthcare. It will soon be followed by a
gubernatorial veto and a subsequent override vote in the House and
Senate.
Also
on the Radar Screen:
The
budget debate will be quick.
With
as little discretionary income as a family of four, the House
fought and spit and chewed out a $7 billion response to the Senate
version sent over last week. Big issues included whether to pony
up for new school buses (no), how much to cut from the endowed
chairs program ($10 million vs. $20 million) and how much to restore
to tourism marketing (some). With both the House and the Senate
officially rejecting the others, a quickee conference committee
will be held and the budget will likely be ratified by the end
of next week.
One observer snarked that because this is such a relatively tight
budget year, House and Senate brass are fighting over "amounts
of money we would have sneezed out last year. They're shadowboxing."
2008's Most Valuable
Legislator (MVL)
When
basketball star Kobe Bryant this week was named most valuable player
of the NBA after what arguably was not his best season, we started
thinking about which state lawmaker had the best legislative session.
So we went around the Statehouse and asked a few legislators who
they thought was the MVL, or Most Valuable Lawmaker for 2008.
Surprisingly,
none of those interviewed voted for themselves, despite it being
an election year. Though, some, like House Education Committee chairman
Rep. Bob Walker (R-Landrum), showed home pride, casting their votes
for issues dear to their hearts, like Walker did when he nominated
"education."
What
follows are the highlights of those interviewed.
- Sen.
Phil Leventis (D-Sumter) cast his MVL vote for Sen. Clementa
Pinckney (D-Ridgeland): "When we look back 50 years from
now, it's not going to matter whether we voted for a 50-cent or
a 60-cent cigarette tax increase. What's going to the big news
from this session was that 2008 was the year we got our act together
and got the port in Jasper County," Leventis said, referring
to the port facility the state will co-own with Georgia. "By
getting this done, Clementa was able to win on the local and the
state level."
- Rep.
Garry Smith (R-Simpsonville) voted for Rep. James Harrison
(R-Columbia), "for getting restructuring through the
House."
- Sen.
Greg Ryberg (R-Aiken) split his vote between Sens. Shane Massey
(R-Edgefield) and Michael Fair (R-Greenville). "Massey
because in only his second month up here provided key and courageous
support of toughening DUI laws," said Ryberg. "And Mike
because he was able to make sure some sort of the ultrasound bill
passed."
- Senate
Democratic Caucus political director Phil Bailey kept his vote
close to home, too, by picking Sen. Vincent Sheheen (D-Kershaw),
who finally put the right linguistic spin on the ball in the argument
to create a Department of Administration and get the legislature
more fully into the agency oversight business.
- Some
groused quietly that Sen. Hugh Leatherman (R-Spartanburg)
should get it for holding to his "no new programs" pledge
this year, and for cutting sacred cows like Spoleto and Special
Olympics from the budget.
- Others
said Sen. Glenn McConnell (R-Charleston) should be Least
Valuable Legislator due to his combative dealings with the House
as president pro tempore of the Senate.
And
Statehouse Report's pick for Most Valuable Legislator for 2008 is
(insert drumroll):
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Drummond
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Sen.
John Drummond (D-Greenwood)! With 43 years in the Statehouse,
this WWII hero has seen more important legislative action than
anyone else remotely in the running, including the creation of
a modern state economy to guiding South Carolina out of the Jim
Crow-era. Retiring at the end of this session, Drummond, 88, is
still twice the legislator anyone in the Statehouse will likely
ever become. John Drummond, the Kobe Bryant of the Statehouse?
Maybe not, but both belong in their respective hall of fames.
Swimming in sewage?
Environmental hyperbole highlights problem of
information accessibility
By
ANDY BRACK, publisher
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Brack
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MAY
9 , 2008 -- Environmentalists
describe the recreational condition of many state waters as being
akin to "swimming in sewage."
That
may be a little over the top, but it does highlight a persistent
problem in streams and rivers across the state and country - how
pollution from roads, fields and other "non-point" sources
make some places unsafe to swim.
But
a perception problem that's as big is most people don't realize:
About half of the state's streams don't meet clean water standards.
Ann
Timberlake, executive director of the Conservation Voters of South
Carolina, said in a statement that South Carolinians' long tradition
of recreation in state rivers and lakes was being "threatened
by high levels of fecal coli-form and other pollutants that are
hazardous to human health. Sadly, these pollutants are the greatest
threat to vulnerable populations like children, pregnant women and
those with weak immune systems."
Earlier
this year, the CVSC published a briefing
book that included a section entitled, "Swimming in Sewage."
It included a host of facts, such as how all of the state's major
24 rivers in 2006 were on the state Department of Health and Environmental
Control's list of impaired waters. That year, almost half of the
state's 1,972 monitoring sites didn't meet clean water standards,
a figure highlighted just this week on a back page of DHEC's
new annual report.
More
up-to-date figures for 2008 provided this month by DHEC showed 711
sites out of 2,423 monitored by the agency were considered unsafe
for swimming due to higher-than-minimum-standard levels of fecal
coli-form, a bacterium that serves as an indicator of the presence
of human or animal waste. Of that number, some 366 sites have long-term
clean-up plans in place.
But
does that mean people are swimming in sewage?
"Unfortunately,
it is not hyperbole or exaggeration to say that the public has been
swimming in sewage and we believe the public has a right to this
information," Timberlake said.
DHEC
officials said just because bacteria levels were high, that didn't
mean there was raw sewage from wastewater treatment plants in rivers
and streams. Most bacterial contamination was due, they said, to
stormwater runoff, agricultural practices, animal waste (such as
cows cooling off in streams), leaking septic tanks and some sewer
system overflows from backups.
While
environmental lawyer Bob Guild, chair of the state chapter of the
Sierra Club, admitted the characterization "swimming in sewage"
might be a bit harsh, he said the phrasing did provide a good picture
that rivers and streams weren't as clean as people assumed.
"The
quality of the water is a mystery to the people who subsist on it,"
he noted.
When
asked if he would swim in an area identified as being impaired for
fecal coli-form, Guild immediately answered he wouldn't.
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MORE
INFO
To learn
more about safe swimming and health impacts of swimming in
impaired waters, go online to:
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Heather
Preston, DHEC's director of water quality in its Bureau of Water,
said she would.
"I
wouldn't recommend drinking the water [from an impaired source]
if I were swimming in it, but I still would go swimming in it."
One
thing many might agree on is the need for better information provided
by DHEC to citizens about the quality of recreational waters.
Earlier
this year, DHEC took a good first step by posting about 20 signs
in places with high bacterial contamination in which people routinely
swam. Not only could DHEC post more signs, but it could promote
healthy swimming better through:
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FEEDBACK
POLICY
We encourage
your feedback. If you'd like to respond to something in SC
Statehouse Report, please send us an e-mail. We reserve
the right to edit for length and clarity. One submission allowed
per month. Submission of a comment grants permission to us
to reprint. Please keep your comment to 250 words or less:
feedback@statehousereport.com
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More
online information. It could build an online database with existing
state computer power and link it to Google Maps to show people the
location of impaired swimming and fishing spots. One mapping expert
said such a relational database would cost $25,000, at most.
More
print information. Just as DHEC prints 60,000 guides about consuming
fish in waters tainted with mercury, the agency could make water
quality information available in county pools, recreational leagues
and sports shops.
More
analysis. The agency could conduct long-term, multi-variant
analysis and share it to outline whether water was getting cleaner
in areas with continuing problems.
DHEC
has an amazing amount of data on the quality of state waters. While
it needs to continue monitoring, it also needs to release more of
it in ways that people can easily understand.
Andy Brack, publisher of Statehouse Report,
can be reached at: brack@statehousereport.com.
Recent
Brack commentary
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here.
Payday lending
changes must be passed this year
By
SEN. JOEL LOURIE and REP. CHRIS HART
Special to SC Statehouse Report
MAY
9, 2008 -- As
South Carolina lawmakers, we deal with many issues that affect the
quality of life and prosperity of our citizens. We see the need
for major change, if not the banning of payday loans, as one of
the most important issues to come before us this year.
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Lourie
Hart
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According
to information provided by the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice
Center, payday lenders made over 4.3 million loans in our state
in 2006. These loans, secured by a future paycheck, are limited
to $300 and cost the borrower $15 per hundred dollars loaned, and
typically last two weeks. That's an annual percentage rate of 391
percent. These interest charges totaled $155,834,568 in 2006 and
most surely were higher in 2007.
Although
most South Carolinians find these interest rates shocking and predatory,
the real problem for consumers is not the price but the trap of
debt. A consumer, unable to pay off the loan, goes to another payday
lender and borrows funds in order to pay off the first. If you don't
have $300 to meet this week's crisis, why are you likely to have
$345 in two weeks? The cycle continues and escalates. We know of
many South Carolinians juggling multiple payday loans-often six
or eight outstanding at a time.
Payday
loan offices are often found near military facilities or economically
depressed areas. If you want to see a payday lender, go to the entrances
of Fort Jackson in Columbia. A cluster of payday lenders in Aiken
County services our soldiers at Fort Gordon in Augusta-where these
lenders are outlawed. The Department of Defense, concerned that
the entrapment of payday lending undermines our military readiness
successfully convinced Congress to limit the interest rate for military
borrowers to 36 percent APR.
South
Carolina's current laws have permitted this industry to flourish
in this state. While the intention of the law passed in 1999 was
to limit a borrower to one $300 loan at a time, the industry has
found loopholes to allow lenders to take advantage of unsophisticated
borrowers. The bottom line, a person borrowing $600 could end up
paying $2340 in interest over a twelve month period. We find this
practice appalling and screaming for legislative intervention.
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"Our
neighbors in Georgia and North Carolina ban payday lending.
Quite honestly, we think a ban is appropriate for our state
as well. However, short of such action, we think the bill
passed two months ago by the South Carolina State Senate significantly
improves and reforms the way payday lenders do business in
South Carolina."
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What
are the solutions? Our neighbors in Georgia and North Carolina ban
payday lending. Quite honestly, we think a ban is appropriate for
our state as well. However, short of such action, we think the bill
passed two months ago by the South Carolina State Senate significantly
improves and reforms the way payday lenders do business in South
Carolina.
The
legislation sets up a state-run database to monitor loans and limits
the number of outstanding payday loans, permitting only one loan
at a time. Borrowers are limited to the amount they can borrow based
upon their income and must wait seven days once a loan is paid off
before taking out a new one. And lenders will no longer be allowed
to electronically debit one's account for payment
If
payday lenders mean what they are telling the public in their multi-million
dollar advertising campaign; that payday loans should only be used
for limited, emergency consumer needs, then the Senate bill holds
them accountable for this purpose.
Time
is getting short to pass reform. The bill needs to get to the floor
of the House of Representatives for a vote and differences between
the House and Senate versions need to be worked out. And then, the
legislation must go to the governor, hopefully for his approval.
All of this must happen by the first week of June. The people of
South Carolina deserve action on this critical issue and they deserve
it now.
Joel Lourie
represents Richland and Kershaw Counties in the South Carolina Senate.
Chris Hart represents Richland County in the South Carolina House
of Representatives. If
you'd like to submit a commentary of up to 600 words on a state
policy or political issue, please send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Recent
My Turn commentary
- 5/2:
Tax
reform should do no harm, by Doug Echols and Wayne Wingate
- 4/18:
Education,
research are how to compete globally, by former Queensland
Premier Peter Beattie
- 4/11:
Investing
time can help children grow, reduce problems, by Ginny
Deerin
- 4/4:
Four-point
plan to boost SCDOT transparency, by John M. Hartz
- 3/28:
Give
natural resources a real seat at the table, by Ben Gregg
- 3/21:
Public
education needs to address new challenges, by Sheila C.
Gallagher
- 3/14:
Now
is time to address SC's highway funding crisis, by Otis
Rawl
- 3/7:
S.
1105 will massacre home rule, by Tim Winslow
5/3: Parents need to be more responsible for education
To
Statehouse Report:
Your
article is a feeley good article. I worked for Richland One
for many years. I saw them build all the new schools and I see them
spending a third more per student than Lexington One. This proves
that more money and new schools get more students compleating [sic]
high school. You have gangs that beat up students that [sic]
do good. If you go to other countries their schools are not as nice
as ours,but the graduation rate is running about 100 pecent. The
only thing that will work is holding the parents responsable [sic].
[From
your story]: "Crystal ball: 'The idea that one effort or solving
one problem will improve our state's schools shows that people aren't
asking the right, or enough, questions,'said one longtime educator
and administrator, ... 'and increases in parental involvement.'
"
This
is the correct problem. I know that this administrator will be fired
if he is in Richland One. They always fire the ones that try to
hold the parents responsable. Until they make this change nothing
will work. If it has not worked in 50 years, why do you think it
will work now?
--
David Whetsell, Lexington, SC
Recent
feedback
- 4/24:
Andre
the Giant (promoter), Name withheld upon request
- 4/20:
Dodging
school funding, James Hall, Marion County, SC
- 4/15:
Get
rid of minimum wage laws, Jahn Hultgren, Florence, S,C.
- 4/17:
Tax
burden here doesn't make a good deal, Name
withheld upon request, Sumter, SC
- 3/26:
Lottery
may be cause of sluggish revenues,
Paul Beaty, Sumter, SC
- 3/26:
Raising
cigarette tax won't impact kids' smoking, Cindy
Girone, Pelzer, SC
- 3/19:
State
needs to be serious about domestic violence, Suzanne Couch,
Murrells Inlet, SC
More
FEEDBACK | Feedback policy
Only four filed
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BILL
INDEX
You can
use this box for a quick link to bills in various subject
areas:
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Only
four bills -- none of them major -- were filed this week as lawmakers
now are less than a month away from adjournment.
To
view the tally sheet (we've moved the full listing to the right
column), click here.
Here's
a "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" related to various political news
items from the past week:
Cigarette
tax. The
Senate has finally passed a 50-cent tax increase on packs of cigarettes,
which could end up raising nearly $160 million for state healthcare
and pricing thousands of kids out of the market; of course, Sanford
is going to veto it.
Budget. The House's redone budget plan supports public education
while cutting new school buses while restoring some tourism dollars.
Mixed bag.
Sanford. Veto a cigarette tax increase because of no offsetting
tax cut? Governor, we know you don't like government to intervene
in private life, but people have to be alive to have any privacy.
Riley. What in the world was Charleston Mayor Joe Riley thinking
when he considered delaying the release of a draft of a federal
report of a fatal fire at sofa store in Charleston? More: Post
and Courier.
Brinksmanship. The House Commerce Committee won't tackle the
payday lending legislation until the week after next. Tick tick
tick … boom?
Lost
"The
only thing destroyed is my wardrobe, which I'm most proud of."
--
Sen. Robert Ford (D-Charleston) on the day a fire tore through
his Charleston-area home. More: The
Post and Courier. In a story the following day, Ford also
commiserated about the loss of valuable photos collected of civil
rights struggles.
Recent
past issues are online:
If you want an earlier issue, contact us at info@statehousereport.com
South Carolina Statehouse Report
Publisher: Andy Brack
Editor: Bill Davis
Staff cartoonist: Steve Stegelin
Research assistant: Ariel Pitman
Phone: 843.670.3996
© 2002-2008, Statehouse
Report LLC. South
Carolina Statehouse Report is published every Friday
by Statehouse Report LLC, P.O. Box 22261, Charleston, SC 29413.
Excerpts from The
South Carolina Encyclopedia are published with permission
and copyrighted 2006 by the Humanities Council SC. Excerpts were
edited by Walter Edgar and published by the University
of South Carolina Press. SC
Statehouse Report
has partnered with USC Press to provide readers with this interesting
weekly historical excerpt about the state. Republication is not
allowed.
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