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Date Published: October 25, 2004
Senate race heats up
Minibottles, USC Sumter issues in campaigns
By LESLIE CANTU
Item Staff Writer
lesliec@theitem.com
Undecided voters pondering the Senate District 35 race
might feel that standing beneath a screaming F-16 coming in for a
landing at Shaw Air Force Base would be more peaceful than wading
through the campaign rhetoric.
The state Republican Party is
strongly backing challenger Dickie Jones, who is sounding an encore
of past election themes: that state Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, is
ineffective and has failed to bring home the bacon for Sumter and
Lee counties.
Jones has accused Leventis of spending "what
little political capital" he has filibustering appointments and a
bill to put the question of minibottles before the voters. Leventis
has zero rapport with his fellow senators, Jones said, so Sumter and
Lee are losing out.
Yet in the 2000 election, Jim Gunn, a
vice chairman in the South Carolina Bush campaign and a campaign
worker for Leventis' then-opponent, Blane Lawson, said Leventis was
so powerful he forced the Republican secretary of state and
then-U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham to back away from supporting
Lawson.
Leventis
defended his filibusters, saying he opposed appointing Harry Gregory
Jr. to the Worker's Compensation Commission because of ethical
questions. And Leventis has come out swinging in response to Jones'
accusations of self-interest over letting voters decide whether
minibottles should be mandated by the state Constitution.
"It
is rank self-interest for a man who runs a beer distributorship to
be filibustering to preserve the minibottle," Jones said. "He
filibustered that and held up the business of South Carolina on an
issue that is low priority for Sumter."
Leventis countered
that his company, Dixie Beverage Co., does not sell liquor and never
has. It sells beer, wine and soft drinks, he said.
His
opposition to eliminating minibottles, he said, has to do with state
revenues. The state stands to lose $5 million in taxes if it
eliminates minibottles, Leventis said, money that could be used to
pay for highway troopers or training for EMS workers or
firefighters.
"It's blind faith to say to go away from
minibottles, we'll have less accidents," Leventis said. "We were
told if we had a seat belt law we would have a reduction in deaths.
That never materialized."
More highway troopers are the key
to fewer traffic deaths, Leventis said, not changing the bottle that
holds the liquor.
Sometimes the legislation that you stop is
more important than the legislation you get through, Leventis said.
But Jones questions what legislation Leventis has gotten
through, saying that Leventis is blaming his poor performance on the
current Republican administration when he has been in office for 24
years, through both Democratic and Republican administrations. Other
Democratic state senators, Jones said, have managed to produce on
behalf of their districts despite being in the minority
party.
A key issue for Sumterites interested in raising the
educational bar in Sumter is the status of the University of South
Carolina Sumter.
"USC Sumter is one of the most glaring
examples of being ineffective," Jones said. "He's interested in it
now, in 2002 after he lost the lieutenant governor job."
If
he were representing Sumter, Jones said, he would meet with
administrators at USC Sumter to find out why President Andrew
Sorensen opposed four-year status for the college and help to put
the school on the right track to four-year status.
"If USC
Sumter justifies its existence — and I think it can — there's no
fight to it," Jones said.
Leventis said he and many local
leaders, in government and the private sector, have fought for
four-year status.
"Getting it through the legislature was a
big step, and a very difficult step because the administration
opposed us, threatened to sue," Leventis said. In reply to
criticisms regarding how long it's taken to get this issue before
the legislature, Leventis said, "It's incredibly negative and
reflects on the people who say it, because those people weren't
there to help us in 1991. Even as late as this spring my opponent
didn't go to the governor's office and say, 'Please don't veto USC
Sumter.'"
Sumter's status is also being jealously watched by
some of the other comprehensive universities. A March newsletter
from the Office of Academic Affairs at Lander University said:
"What you may not have read in the newspapers is that
the bill authorizes the two-year USC-Sumter campus to move to
four-year comprehensive university status. This will negatively
impact Lander University ... the lottery funds set aside by the
General Assembly to support the use of technology in teaching next
year will be reduced because the amount set aside will be divided by
ELEVEN instead of TEN. Second, there will be a further duplication
of academic programs."
Leventis said the fix for that is to
increase the funds available to universities.
"If it's just
a piece of the pie they're worried about, they need to prevail upon
the governor for a bigger pie," Leventis said.
Sumter's job
market has resembled a shrinking pie in the last few years, as
several manufacturers have announced they're closing shop. Jobs are
a big concern in Sumter, and Jones said Leventis has one of the
worst voting records for supporting business.
"You need to
support your local businesses, the ones that are already here,"
Jones said. "I'd make sure the business climate was friendly for
those that were already here. ... If we want better education in
Sumter then we need to provide more income, more money."
If
he were state senator, Jones said, he would be an ambassador for
Sumter by visiting Upstate businesses and encouraging prospecting
both within the state and outside South Carolina's borders for new
business.
Jones blasted Leventis for not hearing out
Goldkist's desire for right-to-work legislation.
"He did not
even give them the time of day," Jones said. "It wasn't enough that
he wouldn't support them — he wouldn't even talk to them about it.
... If he doesn't know how important (right to work legislation) is,
then we don't need that person in office because he doesn't
understand the needs of people in Sumter and Lee
County."
Leventis said he could not recall whether Goldkist
had approached him about the right-to-work legislation, but he did
remember the bill.
"That right-to-work legislation was almost
a guarantee to bring unions into South Carolina. It was the worst
piece of legislation I've ever seen," Leventis said. The original
legislation would have meant the "only salvation" for individuals
would be to join a group.
"It was all worked out in the end,"
Leventis said. "They (the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce) sing
the praises of what we finally came up with."
The two also
differ on the question of taxation. Jones would like to reduce the
tax burden because taxes take a part of an individual's freedom. The
state spends 136 percent of the national average, Jones said, and he
supports Gov. Mark Sanford's attempts to examine the spending of
each department to determine what is really necessary.
"That
approach is sound, whether you're talking about economics in your
house, economics in your business, economics in your church. You
can't have it all," Jones said.
Jones said South Carolina
ranks 43rd in income among the states but 20th in taxes.
"We
need to make sure we consider who we have here when we talk about
taxes," Jones said.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau,
South Carolina ranks 36th in the three-year average of median
household income but falls to 42nd in per capita income, according
to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
According to the Tax
Foundation, South Carolina's state and local tax burden ranks 43rd
nationally. When federal taxes are added in, according to the
organization, the state ranks 47th.
Leventis would like to
cap property tax relief, which he said has escalated from $290
million a year to $400 million a year. He thinks South Carolina
should back away from mirroring the federal tax code for estate
taxes, which he said cost the state $13 million last year. Last
year, 300 people benefited from the exemption, Leventis said,
receiving an average of $43,000.
The estate tax only kicks in
on estates worth more than $2 million, Leventis said, adding, "Is
that the profile of the average person in Sumter and Lee
counties?"
Leventis is also proud of the $3 tax on nursing
home beds. Because of that tax, he said, nursing homes get $12 back
in Medicaid funds. If South Carolina hadn't put in place a program
to capture those Medicaid funds, the federal government would have
spent the money in another state, he said.
"It was an effort
to get funding just like we've done with hospitals for years,"
Leventis said.
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October 25, 2004 
