Sanford’s address gets OK by County officials

Tony Baughman

Thursday, January 19, 2006

By TONY BAUGHMAN Staff writer

Members of Aiken County’s legislative delegation gave Gov. Mark Sanford generally high marks on Wednesday night’s State of the State address.

“The governor, as he has from day one, laid out a clear vision for moving South Carolina forward,” said state Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken. “He has talked about restructuring government to both reduce the cost of government and make it more effective for the taxpayers. He has talked about opening up the education of our children to options that their parents may choose from. He has spoken of reducing taxes and reducing spending to make South Carolina more competitive with our neighboring states. He talked about the same things tonight, and I support him on these initiatives.”

Among the key issues Sanford discussed included the possibility of replacing property taxes with an additional sales tax – a topic that resonated with Ryberg.

“I support property tax reform in two contexts,” he said. “First, as the governor noted, any effort to swap one tax for another must be revenue neutral at least and it must not shift the burden from one class of property to another, such as from residential to business. Second, I support the reassessment of property only at the point of sale.”

Other local lawmakers were less convinced.

“I don’t know what to make of his property tax reform,” said state Rep. Robert “Skipper” Perry, R-Aiken. “I think he needs to rethink that a little bit because what that does is shift the burden from people who can pay to those who can’t pay. There’s a lot of work to be done on that, so I can’t blame him for suggesting it. He threw some ideas on the table.”

Perry gave Sanford kudos on asking the legislature to adopt his plan to repay $173 million in state debts and money borrowed from State trust funds during the recent economic downturn.

“I’m in total agreement with that fact that we pay back the money we owe,” Perry said. “We’re on the road to doing that now, and it’s great that he emphasized that. I’m also glad he emphasized that we don’t start a whole bunch of new stuff just because we’ve got a little money in the bank. He recognized that we’re back, we’re on solid financial ground, and we should stay that way.”

On the other hand, Democratic state Rep. Bill Clyburn said the governor didn’t invest enough specifics on health care or education.

“On the Medicaid waiver issue, he didn’t say enough for me. We have a lot of people who are devastated, and I thought more needed to be said on that,” he said. “The reason I don’t think he said enough about education is because we’re emphasizing that right now in the House, and we were looking for some guidance on improving education so that we don’t have to worry about where our kids are transferred.”

However, Clyburn praised Sanford for advocating increasing the number of African-American judges in the state.

“I have to agree that we need more diversity in the judicial system,” Clyburn said. “We do need more black judges. I thought that was correct, and I thought it was across party lines, and I thought he was right when he said that we need to ‘walk humbly’ with our fellow men to serve South Carolina.”

The governor’s emphasis on education and economic development struck a chord with state Rep. Roland Smith, R-Warrenville.

“Education and economic development go hand-in-hand. Our young people need to be trained and prepared for the new jobs we’re bringing into the state,” Smith said. “We have to look at the cost of education. We definitely need to look at the 4-year-old kindergarten and find a way to educate all the children in South Carolina. I also have been a strong supporter of economic development over the years. It’s vitally important that we continue to provide the tool that Commerce and county governments need to go out and recruit business.””

But, while Sanford pushed for charter school legislation, Smith said that such new ideas cannot be chased at the expense of “traditional education.”

“Charter schools have a niche in our society, but we can’t forget public education,” he said. “Most of us received our education through the public education system, and it still has a job in our society. It meets the need.”

The speech, Smith and others said, offered a road map for the work ahead that lies for the General Assembly.

“I think it was mainly an overview of his expectations and what his view of South Carolina is,” Smith said. “He painted a good vision for South Carolina, and it’s up to the legislature to go in now and work together to try to work on issues like property tax relief.”