House speaker praises utilities shut off bill

Kelly Mitchell, For the Herald-Journal

A utilities shut-off bill and workers' compensation reform both drew support Tuesday during SCETV's weekly news teleconference with Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston.

Rep. Harry Cato, R-Travelers Rest, said the utilities shut-off bill came about primarily because of what happened in Greenville last winter when an elderly woman's power was cut off and no one in the community knew it. The woman died.

Cato said a bill on the floor will require every gas and electric company in the state to have a written procedure on what steps must occur in order to cut off a person's power.

"We feel like we're walking a pretty fine line here. You want to encourage personal responsibility and people will pay their bills. You don't want those people out there who will to take advantage of the situation and not paying their bills just because the utility can't cut them off," Cato said.

The bill would prevent utilities from cutting off utilities in certain temperatures, establish lists a person can be placed on where certain procedures must be followed, and allow for third party notification, Cato said.

If the local utility company has a better plan, then this can be submitted to the office of regulatory staff to be approved, Cato said.

"This is one area where there is strong bi-partisan support," said Rep. James Smith, D-Columbia.

He said there are many private and nonprofit groups willing to give support at this time of the year and this bill would give a window of opportunity to make sure a person who needs assistance has the time to be connected to those groups before their power is cut off.

"Putting it in statute has a way of cementing it and making it very clear to people that you have to do this," Harrell said.

Commenting on a bill introduced last week, Cato noted that the state has had very low workers' compensation rates in the past, and it has been a great economic development tool.

"The rates are slipping from some of the best in the country to the middle of the pack," he said.

There is now a proposed rate increase of 32.9 percent, Cato said. "Nobody that I've talked to can put their finger on why South Carolina is slipping in rates in relation to the rest of the states. That is what this debate is about," Cato said.

"We all want to see business in this state flourish and do very well, and part of that was enacting workers' comp to begin with," Smith said. He said cracking down on fraud will help keep rates down to a reasonable level.

Kelly Mitchell is a graduate student at the

University of South Carolina

School of Journalism.