A trio of major economic development bills will take center stage when the General Assembly reconvenes next week.

The Venture Capital Investment Act, Life Sciences Act and Research University Bond Act were caught in a filibuster when the session ended in June. Business leaders consider the bills key to helping reshape South Carolina’s economy.

The measures were combined under the Life Sciences Act late in the session to hurry passage. That bill remains atop the Senate calendar, making it among the first lawmakers will take up starting Tuesday.

State Sen. Hugh Leatherman, a sponsor of the Life Sciences Act, assured business leaders at the annual Business Summit in November the bill will pass early in the session. The venture capital and life sciences bills have received broad support.

The Life Sciences Act provides significant economic incentives to attract pharmaceutical and medical industry jobs to South Carolina that pay well above the state’s annual per capita income.

The Venture Capital Investment Act would use tax credits to entice banks and insurance companies to put money into an investment pool. The money would be distributed to venture capital firms that back young companies with high-growth potential.

The University Bond Act contains two components. One would ease barriers to partnerships between universities and businesses. Another would increase the state’s debt limit from 5.5 percent to 6 percent of the state’s general revenues and allow universities and colleges to use the extra bond money for specific projects, largely related to economic development.

Ike McLeese, Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce president, said the state’s three research universities — Clemson, USC and MUSC — should be freed from excessive oversight so they can move quickly to establish public-private partnerships that benefit South Carolina’s economy.

The Columbia chamber and the S.C. Chamber of Commerce also support passage of the venture capital and life sciences acts on the 2004 Business Agenda.

EngenuitySC, formerly the Columbia Regional Technology Council, last week urged passage of the omnibus life sciences measure. The group asked senators to make early passage of the bill a priority.

Columbia Mayor Bob Coble, who chairs EngenuitySC, said the measure will yield significant benefits for the long-term economic development of the Columbia region.

Sen. Jim Ritchie, R.-Spartanburg, the venture capital bill’s primary sponsor, said he is confident the measures will pass, separately if not as one.

“My hope is that all three will ride together to demonstrate there is a strong move in South Carolina for economic development,” Ritchie said, “as a signal to the market that we are ready to move forward.”

The measures were combined last year for expediency as the end of the session approached and lawmakers wrangled over the state budget.

The Research University Bond Act could be the sticking point to the umbrella approach.

“I think there is some conversations among the members and the universities about some revisions to the deregulation portion of the bill for higher education,” Ritchie said. “Whether that will be handled on the floor or be set aside for a few days while we resolve it, I don’t know.”

A vote on the omnibus bill last year was blocked by Sen. John Kuhn’s filibuster. Kuhn, R-Charleston, objected to the funding formula in the bond portion of the bill and to increasing the state’s debt in tough economic times.

If the amendment containing the bond bill is pulled off the table, Kuhn said he has no objection to the remaining portions of the omnibus bill. He supports both the original life sciences bill and the venture capital bill.

But if the bond amendment is not removed or considerably revamped, Kuhn said he will stand his ground and continue to block the bill.

Kuhn said he expects the Senate leadership to pull the amendment back.

That would leave the venture capital and life science portions of the bill.

Venture Capital

The venture capital portion of the bill would allow creation of a $50 million pool of investment capital. The original bill called for a $100 million pool. Ritchie said an amendment might be offered to restore that amount.

A lack of venture capital, money used to finance promising but risky start-up companies, is seen as one of South Carolina’s problems in developing young companies with high-growth potential.

Through the first three quarters of 2003, S.C. had attracted $39 million in all stages of venture capital, according to the industry’s MoneyTree survey. North Carolina attracted $260 million and Georgia $220 million.

Ritchie says he continues to talk with a lot of people who are looking for venture capital to finance their companies.

Tom Persons, executive director of the S.C. Technology Alliance, said seven venture capital companies are ready to come to South Carolina once the bill passes.

The Venture Capital Act passed the S.C. House last year 100 votes to none.

Life Sciences

The Life Sciences Act originally was crafted, in part, to provide incentives to satisfy a major pharmaceutical company that the Department of Commerce was said to be courting.

While that deal may be gone, the bill continues to be an effort to attract pharmaceutical and medical industry jobs to South Carolina.

The incentives are aimed at drug makers, medical and laboratory equipment makers and companies doing research and development.

Key to the incentives are provisions that require companies to pay wages of at least 150 percent of the state’s annual per capita income. With South Carolina’s per capita income at $25,400, those jobs would have to pay more than $38,000 per year to meet the criteria.