Posted on Fri, Jun. 02, 2006

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Budget held back as ‘trump card’

By AARON GOULD SHEININ

asheinin@thestate.com

Lawmakers will return to Columbia on June 14 and not a day sooner.

That means Gov. Mark Sanford will get his chance to pick apart the state spending plan legislators approved this week, but he’ll have to wait a little longer.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, refused to take the final step of signing the finished budget Thursday, thereby keeping it out of Sanford’s hands for the time being.

McConnell and House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, both must sign legislation before it heads for Sanford’s desk.

“I held that back as the trump card,” McConnell said.

McConnell has every intention of ratifying the budget. But his maneuver — and it was strategic, he said — makes it unlikely Sanford will try to order lawmakers to come back next week, as was his preference.

Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said Thursday evening there is no reason for Sanford to order the General Assembly to return next week. “Without having a budget to act on, we can’t call them back.”

Sanford wants voters in the June 13 primaries to know how lawmakers vote on his budget vetoes. But lawmakers said they traditionally have not returned for two weeks, and they voted Wednesday to come back June 14-16. Sanford promised to sign an executive order to try to force the Legislature back into session.

But with no budget to veto, there can be no vetoes for legislators to consider, so there is no apparent reason for Sanford to sign that order.

Besides, McConnell and Harrell do not believe the governor has the authority to do that. Now, McConnell said, he and Harrell will likely sign the budget bill Wednesday, giving the governor five days to issue his vetoes — just in time for the House and Senate to return June 14.

Harrell said the Senate has to invite House leaders to ratify acts, and that never happened Thursday. The House on Wednesday sounded defeated a proposal from its leaders to return next week as the governor requested.

Then Thursday, Sanford met privately with Harrell and McConnell. They told Sanford there were doubts as to whether the governor had the authority to call legislators back because they technically still would be in session, just not meeting until June 14.

The Senate went so far as to formally approve a motion declaring the Senate “will not” meet before June 14.

Staff writer Tim Flach contributed. Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658.