COLUMBIA--The massive Life Sciences Act hit a snag Thursday as the S.C. Senate postponed a vote on the measure, opting instead to give senators the weekend to mull changes made in a conference committee.
The bill, which opens the door for pharmaceutical and biotech companies to apply for millions of dollars in bonds, easily passed the House earlier in the day and seemed certain for a date with the governor. A group of senators, however, held up the vote long enough to push for the postponement.
"This is a classic example of what is wrong with government in South Carolina," said Sen. Chauncey Gregory, R-Lancaster. "We have 170 politicians trying to run 34 colleges."
Chauncey was among a group concerned over some of the changes made in the bill in committee. A conference committee is made up of three senators and three representatives appointed to hammer out compromises on particularly sticky bills.
In committee, the act, already dubbed the "kitchen sink" bill by House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, received several additions, including one that allowed Trident Technical College to add infrastructure improvements to an amendment that would create a new four-year culinary arts program at the school.
The bill, which contains more than 20 parts, already contained a
rather large assortment of programs, including:
-- The Venture Capital Investment Act, which would allow the Commerce Department to borrow up to $50 million at low rates from banks and insurance companies to invest with professionally managed venture capital companies.
-- Authorization for the University of South Carolina-Sumter to offer four-year degrees.
"They have just loaded it up with too much," said state Sen. Bill Mescher, R-Pinopolis.
Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, said he was not surprised by the postponement. He does, however, expect the measure to pass when taken up next week.
Should it pass, the bill would head to Gov. Mark Sanford's desk for final approval.
The governor has said all along that he supports the majority of the bill. But Sanford has serious problems with the USC-Sumter proposal.
He has used the school as an example of how the state's university system is too big. In his executive budget, he suggested cutting USC-Sumter's funding by $111,310 to provide incentive for resource sharing with nearby Central Carolina Technical College.
If Sanford vetoed the bill over the USC-Sumter issue, it would require a two-thirds vote by both houses of the General Assembly to override his decision.
