General Assembly overrides governor's veto of jobs bill

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Greenville Tech dusted off a curriculum designed to crank out technicians for a major drug company looking to build a new plant in the county.

Russell W. Darnall, director of The Center for Accelerated Technology Training, an arm of the technical college system that trains workers for new or expanding industries, said he has met three times with executives of the drug company.

He said the company will need "in the range of" 200 biotechnology technicians with two-year degrees and a lesser number of employees with four-year degrees.

James Clark, chairman of the University of South Carolina's Research Foundation, said a technical workforce is crucial for high-tech manufacturing.

"You may have two or three PhD's designing some high-tech thing, but in order for those things to become more than paper you have to have a super highly skilled workforce in the labs to make it all work," he said.

Darnall said he understands South Carolina is "in severe competition" with another state to land the prospect, but if the drug company does build in Greenville County, it could have a "BMW type impact," prompting investments by other companies.

"What this enables us to do is get that large quantity of skilled technicians in that industry," he said. "Then we'll tout that to other companies."

The Senate voted 39-4 to approve the Life Sciences Act, less than 24 hours after Sanford vetoed it, complaining it was filled with "pork-barrel spending." The House voted 81-24 with no discussion.

Darnall said Greenville Tech and other Upstate technical colleges stand ready to train the work force, if needed, using a curriculum originally developed for Roche Carolina Inc., a unit of Swiss drug maker Roche Holdings that built a facility in Florence in 1992.

Ben Dillard, executive vice president at Greenville Tech, said he's also met with executives of the unidentified prospect.

"What they're looking at, the best we can tell, is a phase up," he said. "They would come in with a certain number of employees, and then over 48 months, they would phase this operation up to a large number of employees."

Dillard said the company is "very pleased" with what the technical college system can provide. Neither Dillard nor Darnall would identify the prospect.

Biotech drug plants can have an economic impact beyond the jobs created, said Patrick Kelly, vice president for state government relations with the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade association.

People in industries such as construction, utilities, maintenance and pipefitting also can benefit, he said.

Even the laundry business can benefit, Kelly said. At a biotech drug plant, "everyone has to wear a clean suit, and those have to be laundered on a daily basis."

Senators said they could not vote against a measure whose core purpose is to create more jobs, even though they were troubled by parts of the bill and by the lack of public debate about many of the measures tacked on in recent weeks. The legislation would provide financial incentives for pharmaceutical or biotech companies that invest in the state. It also creates a $50 million venture capital fund to help startup companies. It would provide $220 million for research "infrastructure" — land, buildings and roads — at the state's three research universities.

But it has been labeled the "kitchen sink bill" because of other provisions, including one that would make the University of South Carolina's branch campus in Sumter a four-year school. Other amendments would fund a convention center in Myrtle Beach and a culinary institute at Trident Technical College in Charleston.

Sanford said he supports the incentives for drug companies and the venture capital fund but objects to tacked-on measures.

Senate Majority Leader Hugh Leatherman said he didn't like parts of the bill but urged the Senate to override Sanford's veto because of the bill's importance for economic development.

"I keep being told there is a very large pharmaceutical company that is ready to locate in the Upstate," he said. "I'm willing to take the whole bill because of the good."

Sen. John Courson, a Columbia Republican, said he "strongly disagreed" with 20 percent of the bill but most of it benefits the state because "it creates jobs."

Sen. Scott Richardson, a Hilton Head Republican, was among several senators who said they were troubled by the process of loading an economic development bill with unrelated items.

"If we're going to have a Christmas Tree, fine," he said, "but let's inspect the Christmas balls first."

Sen. Robert Waldrep, an Anderson Republican who voted to sustain the veto, said the bill is so loaded with pet projects that no one wants to vote against it.

"Everybody has been co-oped in this process," he said.

When a senator asked whether the bill was constitutional because of a requirement that all parts of a bill relate to one another, Leatherman said they did.

"Every part of that you look at creates jobs in this state," he said.

Will Folks, a spokesman for Sanford, said he wasn't surprised the Senate overrode the veto.

"The governor is going to stand up in defense of taxpayers whenever pork-laden bills like this one are sent to his desk."

Brent Clinkscale, chairman of the Greenville Area Development Corp., the county's industry-recruiting arm, said he was glad Sanford supported the incentives portion of the bill.

"His veto was based on other reasons, and I think that sends a good message," Clinkscale said. "I'm happy that the Senate and the House seem to be moving quickly to get it done."