From salaries to office space, South Carolina's taxpayers are partially subsidizing the political operations of the General Assembly's political caucuses.

No precise records on the cost of the caucuses are kept, but the salaries of two Senate researchers, office space and utilities would run into six figures.

The House Democratic and Republican groups and the Legislative Black Caucus receive free use of space in the Blatt House Office Building, and the Senate caucuses each have a state-paid researcher working under the Office of Research, the House and Senate clerks said.

But House Clerk Charles Reid said, "I don't think it's a (taxpayer) subsidy, no," because the majority and minority suites used by caucus staffs double as the offices assigned to each party's top caucus leaders.

Advertisement

House Republicans, with a 70-54 edge over Democrats, have four staff members operating from two offices and the Democrats have one aide, caucus spokesmen said. The all-Democratic Legislative Black Caucus has two employees, Reid said.

On the Senate side, each caucus has one staff member. Both use rented private sector offices outside the Capitol Complex, said Clerk Jeffrey Gossett.

Those working directly for their respective caucuses are paid with political donations, not tax money, Reid and others said.

Jason Zacher, communications director for the House GOP caucus, said, "Technically, we do not have an office."

He said the staff uses space in the majority suite assigned to Majority Leader Jim Merrill of Daniel Island, Assistant Majority Leader Adam Taylor of Laurens and Secretary-Treasurer Alan Clemmons of Myrtle Beach.

Zacher said his office is in his Spartanburg home, but when in Columbia, he has a "temporary office in a House storage room with old desks and broken furniture."

Similarly, Kelly Adams, the House Democratic Caucus staffer, uses space in the suite assigned to Minority Leader Harry Ott of St. Matthews and other Democratic floor leaders, Reid said.

The caucuses aren't exactly strapped for money.

Between them, the Senate Democratic and Republican caucuses and the House Republican Caucus raised more than $1.16 million for their operating and campaign accounts in 2005, according to reports filed with the state Ethics Commission. Reports from the House Democratic and Black caucuses weren't readily available.

The available figures were:

Democratic Senate Caucus, $286,823;

Republican Senate Caucus, $429,565;

Republican House Caucus, $448,670.

Reid said none of the House caucuses pay rent or a share of utilities, but the Republican Caucus and Legislative Black Caucus have five and three additional phone lines, respectively, and pay those bills each month.

The Democrats don't pay anything for their five extra lines, he said.

"It's always been done that way," Reid said. The GOP began paying after having the extra lines installed to supplement the three already in place for use by the three leadership members who use the suite, he said.

Gossett, the Senate clerk, said both Republican and Democratic caucuses rent private offices outside the Capital Complex.

"We don't have the space, and I don't know that they've ever asked," Gossett said.

A formal Republican caucus is relatively new, less than 10 years old, its development coming with the GOP's rapid emergence as the Senate's majority party in 2001, he said.

The two researchers are state employees and work for the Senate Office of Research, Gossett said. Their duties don't entail campaigns or political work, he said.

Their respective caucus leaders hired them, Gossett said.

"Certainly," their work product is available for senators' use in campaigns, said Phil Bailey, director of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Susan DeWitt, the Democratic minority aide, was a career Senate employee until taking the researcher's position when they were created. Her salary is $72,500, Gossett said.

The majority researcher, Mark Harmon, is paid $56,000. Both receive the standard insurance, vacation and retirement benefits of state employees, Gossett said.

Gossett said the posts were authorized after the Republican takeover and reorganization of the Senate.

When the new majority ended the use of seniority to determine committee chairmanships, all 15 shifted to the GOP, and some Democrats expressed concern they wouldn't receive adequate help from committee staff, and the positions were created to allay those concerns, he said.