Republican caucus leaders in the House and Senate say the state’s open meeting laws need to change so they can meet in private to discuss politics, public policy and legislative priorities out of earshot of the media and their constituents.

There have been concerns for years that the Republican majority caucuses in the House and Senate decide the fate of legislation behind closed doors. That concern has grown as the Republican majority in the Senate grew to 26 of the chamber’s 46 seats, and the GOP majority in the House reached 74 of 124 seats.

Last summer, Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, asked state Attorney General Henry McMaster for a legal opinion on whether closed-door Republican majority caucus meetings broke state law. But McMaster, a Republican, is not ready to release an opinion, his spokesman Trey Walker said.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, and House Majority Leader Jim Merrill, R-Berkeley, said they want changes to make it clear that caucuses don’t have to open their meetings.

For the time being, however, Merrill said he would keep the doors open. Closed caucus concerns grew last year when attempts were made to keep reporters out of meetings involving the election of a new Senate majority leader and new House speaker.

In other action Thursday:

• Senate action stalled. Sumter Democrat Phil Leventis continued his days-long filibuster Thursday against a bill that would require counties to pay billboard owners if their signs are relocated against the owner’s will. The continuing debate limits the movement of all but uncontested legislation.

Senate Republicans failed in their attempt to end the filibuster under rules approved last year that require a smaller majority to end debate. Members received only 20 of the 24 votes needed to end debate.

Leventis will continue to argue against the bill when the Senate returns Tuesday.

• Senate leader raises rebate concerns. Gov. Mark Sanford’s income-tax rebate plan appears to be in for a rough trip in the state Senate.

The idea of rebate checks “sounds good,” but the state has more pressing needs for surplus money, Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, said. Peeler’s view is important because the rebate plan must clear both chambers.

The state’s roads and bridges are in bad shape, and its public schools desperately need new buses, he said. Those priorities must come ahead of Sanford’s plan to give a $75 tax rebate to each taxpayer.

“If we have a surplus,” Peeler said, “I’d like to put that toward our secondary road system.”

• Indians get support. Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, and Senate Minority Leader John Land, D-Clarendon, both said Catawba Indians should be allowed to open a high-stakes bingo site in Orangeburg County.

Both men said that if the Catawbas want to do it and the people of Orangeburg County support it, then it should be allowed. Especially, McConnell said, if the tribe eliminates video poker from its York County facility.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, however, said he had deep misgivings about the idea.

• Toll road possible. Bills to make the proposed Interstate 73 through northeastern South Carolina a toll road were introduced in the House and Senate.

Both bills, which feature bipartisan support, skipped the committee process and could be considered in both chambers next week.

Interstate 73 would run from the Canadian border in Michigan to Myrtle Beach. The state and federal governments are now completing environmental impact statements for the interstate, which would be the first to reach the Grand Strand.