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TUESDAY'S EDITORIAL

Sanford not likely to get veto support

THE ISSUE: Gov. Mark Sanford's budget vetoes

OUR OPINION: Lawmakers likely to override governor on most vetoes

Gov. Mark Sanford and the Legislature were not on the best of terms a year ago this time when the House swiftly overrode 105 of 106 gubernatorial vetoes. It's not likely to be a lot better this week when the House considers 149 vetoes worth about $70 million. With nearly every lawmaker's constituency feeling some impact from the cuts — 40 percent of the cuts are in spending on public colleges — there's every likelihood the House will override the governor.

That will mean again that a legislative body controlled by the governor's party chooses to buck the chief executive.

They GOP lawmakers will be joined by House Democrats even as the state Democratic Party makes hay with Sanford's vetoes.

Minority leader Rep. Harry Ott of Calhoun County said the action has "things in here in turmoil," and he told The Associated Press he's tempted to vote to sustain the governor just so the state will get a taste of what Sanford is proposing. "There would be mass cuts in higher education (and) technical education."

Ott said Sanford's vetoes would raise tuition and "reduce the ability of our children and citizens to attend technical education schools, which is totally inconsistent with what the governor says he's for."

"He says he wants to raise per-capita income," Ott said. "How do you raise your per-capita income? You get a better education so you can get a better job."

The state Democratic Party has taken the issue further, sending to the state's media daily press releases about what the cuts will mean. They've gone for the emotional.

For example, there is the Palmetto Poison Center at the University of South Carolina, which serves the entire state with a toll-free phone service that took 37,000 calls in 2004 and is staffed by pharmacists and nurses who are specifically trained in poison information.

The center assisted hundreds of residents in Graniteville after the recent chlorine spill. Studies have shown for every dollar spent on the Poison Center, $7 is saved in unnecessary health costs such as emergency room and doctor visits. This year 79 percent of poison exposure calls handled by the center were able to be treated with minor first aid at home, work or school.

Sanford vetoed $200,000 in funds for the Palmetto Poison Center. The center will lose a $250,000 match in federal grant money if the veto is not overridden.

The Democrats contend the loss of nearly a half million dollars will result in closure or decreased hours for the center.

Then there is Clemson University, which stands to lose nearly $10 million — taking more than $2 million from the university's engineering and agriculture research centers alone. The vetoes could cause Clemson to lose federal and private matches for the engineering program.

There also would be losses such as the $1 million for "Call Me Mister" program, which recruits, trains, certifies and secures employment for hundreds of African-American males as elementary teachers in South Carolina's public schools. The program is run in conjunction with Claflin University.

This is not say that cuts cannot be made in the budgets for higher education and other state entities, but Gov. Sanford's very own Republican Party controls both houses of the Legislature that approved the budget he is carving up. He's unlikely to be happy with the outcome of the votes on his vetoes.