Without consulting Town Council, S.C. Rep. Tom Keegan, R-Surfside Beach, caused part of Ocean Boulevard in Surfside Beach to be renamed for Horry County Councilman Terry Cooper, who died last month. That was a rare political misstep for Keegan, who announced last week that he won't seek a ninth term in the S.C. House.

His departure in November could precipitate a crisis for Horry County. Unless some other Horry County delegation member steps up to take Keegan's place, the county will lose one of its two seats on the House Ways and Means Committee.

That committee originates the state budget, apportioning money among state agencies and programs. Keegan and former Rep. Mark Kelley, R-Myrtle Beach, who retired in 2002, could not always get our county everything it needed. But they made certain that committee members considered our needs and desires.

Keegan's departure will be especially painful to Coastal Carolina University and Horry-Georgetown Technical College. Keegan, as chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on higher education, took the best care he could of both schools at a time when the budgetary deck is stacked against them.

By legislative tradition, higher-education institutions with flat or declining enrollments are held harmless from shrinkage in state financial support. Thus, with each added S.C.-resident student, schools with booming enrollments, such as Coastal and HGTC, lose support, measured against inflation. Underperforming schools, meanwhile, get more money than they deserve.

Despite this constraint, Keegan explains our local schools' needs to legislators from other parts of the state. He has helped them avoid the traps that can result when legislators fight over money that shrinks relative to need.

Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, also sits on Ways and Means - a post he won after Kelley's departure. Knowledgeable about the state budget, Edge needs to develop quickly into a formidable advocate for county needs. He says he's working on doing that.

To allow House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, to give the seat uncontested to a non-Horry County legislator should be unthinkable. What's needed now is another Horry County representative to vie for Keegan's committee slot - or an Horry County senator to seek a companion slot on the S.C. Senate Finance Committee. One way or the other, the void created by Keegan's departure has to be filled.

email this

print this