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Date Published: March 15, 2004
Sanford weighs USC decision
Deadline for veto approaches
By BRADEN BUNCH
Item Staff Writer
bradenb@theitem.com
The weekend has come and gone without a decision from Gov. Mark Sanford on the bill that would expand USC Sumter to a four-year campus.
Sanford has until midnight Tuesday to make a decision on whether to sign or veto the proposed South Carolina Life Sciences Act, which includes USC Sumter.
The state Senate passed the proposal by a 35-5 margin Tuesday, five days after the state House of Representatives approved the bill by a 96-15 vote.
Typically the governor has five days, not including Sundays, to veto legislation, but since the state House did not actually ratify the bill until Wednesday, the governor, has through Tuesday to weigh his options.
While members of the Sumter County Legislative Delegation have said they believe Sanford must either sign or veto the entire bill, there has been some talk that the governor is considering a possible line item veto.
The state constitution allows the governor to use a line item veto only on appropriation bills.
Sanford has said in the past he would veto the bill specifically because of the inclusion of the USC Sumter proposal, and has said that he supports many aspects of the proposal, including the life sciences and venture capital portions of the bill.
The governor has also said he would be willing to discuss the merits of USC Sumter expansion by itself.
Will Folks, spokesman for the governor, said Sunday he did not want to say whether the governor was considering a line item veto.
“There are a number of questions about the bill,” he said, “and the governor’s office is in the process in getting answers to those questions.”
Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, said the governor’s office has been forthcoming with its plans in the past. He said Sunday he had not heard any talk from the governor’s office about the possibility of a line item veto.
“I guess we’ll know something Tuesday,” Smith said.
Also, if the governor does not sign or veto the bill by the end of Tuesday, the bill becomes law.
Smith said legislators tried to remove any language from the bill that would make it appear to be an appropriations bill, and therefore eligible for a line item veto.
The proposed Life Sciences Act package the governor has before him is actually two pieces of legislation.
The first bill which includes the USC Sumter proposal does not allocate any funding, but does, Smith said, say how to spend the money allocated by the second bill.
Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, said there had been talk in the past of a possible line item, but that he thought the Statehouse was past that.
“It’s a notion that has been bandied around, but I think we were careful to avoid that,” said Leventis, a member of the conference committee that constructed the final version of the proposal.
If the governor decides to use a line item veto, Leventis said he expects it would be overturned on principle and the Legislature might be forced to sue the governor.
“We’d probably go to court on the issue because the precedent would be very, very bad,” Leventis said. The senator also said he believes the governor will not undertake a line item veto because it would create a “tremendous shift of power.”
Leventis also said he and Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, have discussed the possibility and came to the same conclusion.
Sen. John Land, D-Manning, said he believes the bill is not susceptible to a line item veto.
Contact Staff Writer Braden Bunch at bradenb@theitem.com or 803-774-1222.
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April 12, 2004
