The bill, crafted by Sen. Luke Rankin, a Horry County Democrat, would require the Moncks Corner company to keep the money rather than send it to Columbia. He called the one-time kickback an "indirect tax increase on the customers of Santee Cooper."

The board of the state-owned utility, which gave its initial OK on the land sales late last year, endorsed the plan a final time at a March 21 meeting.

In all, Santee Cooper plans to sell 33 plots of vacant land valued at an estimated $13 million.

Rankin's bill, co-sponsored by Charleston Republican Sen. John Kuhn and Orangeburg Democrat Sen. C. Bradley Hutto, was approved by committee March 17 and will be debated on the full House floor pending a third and final review in the Senate. Tuesday, the Senate was locked in a filibuster on unrelated matters, but Rankin's bill could get on the schedule any day.

The land sale idea was hatched by the Santee Cooper board after a mid-summer budget hearing in which Gov. Mark Sanford strongly urged it to do more to shore up state finances.

Sanford has said Rankin's bill is in "direct contravention" of a state law that mandates that all Santee Cooper earnings not necessary for the "operation of business" or to pay off debt should "be used to reduce the tax burdens on the people of this state."

While not one of the co-sponsors of the bill, Sen. William Mescher, a Pinopolis Republican and former president and CEO of Santee Cooper, has been one of the loudest critics of the land sale. Mescher believes that the contribution would violate Santee Cooper's charter and that Sanford strong-armed the 11 board members into approving the plan. Nine of the directors were appointed by Sanford.

Santee Cooper directors and executives have said that selling the land and boosting state coffers won't affect the authority's rates or fiscal health as viewed by Wall Street bond analysts. As long as the real estate sales aren't made at the expense of investors and customers, Santee Cooper's leaders believe the payment is legal under the state laws that govern the utility's operation.

At their March 21 meeting, the directors endorsed having the land surveyed, appraised and sold in a three-step plan to be completed by September 2006. Meanwhile, Santee Cooper will issue short-term debt to fund two $6.5 million payments to the state on July 15 of this year and Jan. 15, 2005.

The first phase of the plan involves six parcels ranging in size from 0.14 acres to 31 acres to be put up for bid and closed on by year-end. The second round would involve 18 parcels to be transferred by September 2005. The final transactions, which includes a 324-acre plot in White Oak, would be completed by September 2006.

Since the late 1980s, Santee Cooper has annually given 1 percent of its gross operating revenues to the state, a payment that amounted to about $10.4 million in 2002.

The 2004-05 budget passed by the House last month includes the $13 million from Santee Cooper.

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