Gov. Mark Sanford has less than 24 hours to decide the fate of a measure that business leaders consider critical to moving South Carolina’s economy forward.

It seems certain Sanford will veto the Life Sciences Act because of amendments not related to economic development. The question is whether the governor will reject the entire bill or try to use his line-item veto power to target the amendments.

Seemingly lost in the debate are the bill’s three pieces important to the business community:

• The Life Sciences Act would grant incentives to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. It is an effort to attract jobs that clearly pay at an annual rate higher than the state’s per capita income. A major pharmaceutical company is expected to announce a project in the Upstate if the measure becomes law.

• The Research University Infrastructure Act would raise the state’s debt limit and create a $220 million pot of money that could be used for “infrastructure” at the state’s three research schools. A separate provision in the bill would provide the research universities relief from state procurement regulations.

• The Venture Capital Act would use bank and insurance tax credits to create a $50 million fund to help startup companies.

“I’m hopeful that the governor will find a way to solve the problem that preserves this economic development legislation,” said Sen. Jim Ritchie, R-Spartanburg, an author of the venture capital legislation.

A lack of venture capital often has been cited as one of the reasons South Carolina has not grown a knowledge-based economy.

For 2003, S.C. attracted $46.2 million in all stages of venture capital, according to the industry’s MoneyTree survey. North Carolina attracted $368.3 million, and Georgia $344.3 million.

“That demonstrates the crying need to have resources available for innovative entrepreneurs,” Ritchie said.

The “poison pill” that threatens all three proposals is an amendment that would make USC’s branch campus in Sumter a four-year school.

“The governor very clearly indicated from the moment that the Sumter provision was added that he had a problem,” said Will Folks, Sanford spokesman. “That has not changed.”

But the Sumter amendment is not the only troubling measure for the governor. The bill also stipulates that the state Legislature must authorize any effort to close any state campus. That flies in the face of the governor’s desire to close USC’s Salkehatchie and Union campuses.

Sanford is on record as favoring portions of the Life Sciences bill, such as the granting of incentives to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

The Life Sciences Act became an omnibus economic development bill in the waning days of the last legislative session. The venture capital and university infrastructure bills were rolled into the Life Sciences Act in an effort to get all three passed, but it fell victim to a filibuster.

The governor can only line-item veto appropriations measures. Language added to the bill declares it “shall not be construed to appropriate funds.”

But Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, believes the bill is an appropriations measure.

“Certainly, any time the chief budget writer in the House of Representatives comments to the effect that it is an appropriations bill, that is obviously a perspective we are going to take very seriously,” Folks said.

Folks said the governor will decide what he will do once he has answers to specific questions. The deadline for that decision is midnight, five days after the legislation reached his desk.

While it appears legislators have the votes to override a veto, nothing is ever certain in the General Assembly.

Ritchie said he believes a line-item veto could be sustained if all the governor takes out of the bill is the USC Sumter provision.

If the governor vetoes the whole bill, Ritchie said, the votes are there to override the veto.

“I would prefer that it be a clean bill with three big pieces on it,” Ritchie said. “But at the end of the day, we are hemorrhaging jobs in this state. We had to take steps to address it immediately.”