Date Published: June 1, 2006   

Legislators leave unsure when they will return to handle budget vetoes

By JIM DAVENPORT
Associated Press Writer

Lawmakers wrapped up the regular legislative session with goodbyes and a flurry of last-minute work, uncertain exactly when they will return to the Statehouse and handle Gov. Mark Sanford's state budget vetoes.

Both chambers adjourned just after 5 p.m., but they'll be back in Columbia soon. It just hasn't been decided when.

Sanford has said he'll call the General Assembly back next week before the June 13 primary to take up the vetoes, while legislators in the Republican-controlled House and Senate want to come back after the primary, citing a tradition of waiting a week after the regular session ends to return.

They say the governor is posturing before his own GOP primary, and it is unclear whether Sanford has the authority to bring them back because both bodies agreed to return June 14.

Sanford huddled with Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell and House Speaker Bobby Harrell for a half-hour to talk about what's ahead. What Sanford will do remained unclear after the meeting. "I do not know," McConnell said.

Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said the message Harrell and McConnell left was clear: "If you call us back, we're not coming. If you want us to come back into session, you're going to have to take us to court to force us to do that."

With less than two hours left on the clock, Sawyer said Sanford had not decided "if that would be a productive option." Any decisions won't come until the House and Senate ratify the state's budget Thursday afternoon, he said.

Sanford is relying on a 1984 attorney general's opinion to support his authority to force the extraordinary session. Trey Walker, a spokesman for Attorney General Henry McMaster, said neither Sanford nor legislators have asked to revisit that nonbinding opinion.

At a House Republican Caucus lunch, a couple of legislators said they would return if Sanford told them to. But Harrell told them he wasn't telling them what they should do. And it was clear Sanford's action peeved some who saw raw politics at play.

"I'm distressed about the politicization of this by the governor," Rep. Jim McGee, R-Florence, said. "It's unprecedented and we've got to stand firm on" how extended sessions are handled, he said.

Others worried vetoes they overrode in a legislative session clouded by questionable legal authority could be thrown out with a court challenge.

They talked about returning and addressing a couple of vetoes to create an issue that could be taken to court. "That's the only way that I can think of to set up scenario where a challenge occurs," Harrell said.

No matter what action Sanford takes, "I am not advocating that we ignore him," Harrell said.

Rep. Lewis Vaughn, R-Greer, said the Legislature needs to pass a law that says governors pick up the tab when they call legislators back to Columbia.

The questions about returning came in midst of goodbyes in both the House and Senate.

In the Senate, legislators honored the Rev. George Meetze. Just a few weeks shy of his 97th birthday, Meetze has told the Senate he will make his 56th year as the Senate's chaplain his last.

"I wouldn't exchange this moment with anybody on the face of the earth," Meetze said.

In the House, there was a parade of speeches recognizing and poking fun at legislators giving up their seats, such as House Education Committee Chairman Ronny Townsend, R-Anderson. Earlier in the day, the committee elected Rep. Robert Walker, R-Landrum, as its new chairman.

Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston, made a trip to the podium. The legislator, known for his sharp tongue, admonished colleagues to keep the door closed to illegal immigrants. "We are high on Mexico's food chain right now," he said.