Date Published: December 17, 2006   

Legislators face full plates during 2007 session

When the state General Assembly opens its 2007 session on Jan. 9, legislators will have plenty on their plates.

That was evident from last Wednesday’s Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce Red Carpet Breakfast during which the local legislative delegation discussed a host of pressing issues dominated by two: money and education.

Also on the table will be other issues currently in the news, such as Gov. Mark Sanford’s proposed tax hike on cigarettes with the revenue generated, some $107 million, that he would like used to pay for tax cuts in business and personal income taxes, and a growing movement to change the way the state’s constitutional officers are chosen to serve. The latter has been triggered by recent allegations that the state Department of Transportation has cooked the books in its handling of the public’s money and has become unaccountable in the manner in which it operates.

Just this week House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, prefiled legislation that would allow the governor to appoint seven of the nine constitutional officers, with the exception of the attorney general, and allows the governor and lieutenant governor to run on the same ticket. At present all the constitutional officers are elected. If the change is approved, voters would have to make the decision in a referendum to change the state constitution giving the governor appointment powers.

Local legislative delegation members expressed concern about the funding of schools through the newly-passed statewide sales tax that replaces school property taxes in 2007. If the economy slows, as noted by Rep. Joe Neal, D-Hopkins, whose district includes a western portion of Sumter County, it could have a negative impact on the funding of schools. That’s a good point. Sales tax revenues are heavily dependent on a healthy economy; if it erodes, so do the tax proceeds as consumers cut back on their spending.

The cigarette tax will attract plenty of attention from legislators. South Carolina currently has the lowest cigarette tax in the nation at only 7 cents a pack. Sanford wants to raise it to 30 cents, but instead of earmarking its additional revenue for the state’s sorely-strapped Medicaid fund and a state Children’s Health Insurance Program as used by neighboring Georgia and North Carolina, he wants to use it to cut business and personal income taxes. That idea didn’t receive much, if any, support from local legislators at the Red Carpet Breakfast. We should expect a continuation of the four-year tug-of-war between the governor and the Legislature in 2007 over this and other issues.

Also looming before resident legislators is the matter of future elections. After this year’s general election debacle of long lines, malfunctioning and inadequate numbers of voting machines, and poorly trained poll workers in some precincts, as reported at Thursday’s Sumter County Election Commission meeting, serious improvements must be put in place before the 2008 general and presidential elections. If the League of Women Voters of Sumter County is on target with its No. 1 suggestion for improvements -- purchasing an additional 100 voting machines, and we believe its recommendation has merit, there’s a $300,000 due bill for the machines that must be addressed. Either the county must come up with the money or another funding source must be found, such as the Legislature, which has been notoriously parsimonious in sending state money to Sumter County.

However, with Neal being appointed to the powerful Ways and Means Committee, perhaps he, with the assistance of local legislators, can explore the possibility of extracting some funding from the state. If not, the county, meaning the taxpayers, will have to bite the bullet and do what it takes to ensure a trouble-free election in 2008 so that potential voters won’t be discouraged from exercising their constitutional right to cast a ballot.

Those who are in a position to reassure these voters should heed the ominous warning from League of Women Voters President Chuck Gibbs at Thursday’s Election Commission meeting: “There’s no way, in my opinion, they (the commission) can get by with trying to run an election two years from now with the same number of machines.”

The clock is ticking.