CREDIT AGENCY PANS INCOME TAX CUT PLAN

Gov. Mark Sanford has touted his plan to cut the state’s income tax as a boost for South Carolina, but one of the nation’s top credit rating agencies doesn’t have as much confidence.

Standard and Poor’s said the state’s triple-A rating remains intact but cited Sanford’s plan as a reason for continuing a negative outlook on the state’s borrowing.

Sanford wants to reduce the state’s 7 percent income tax rate to 4.75 percent over several years. That means the state ultimately would do without $1 billion.

“Reduction of a major revenue source without a long-term plan to either balance the reduction or replace it poses a credit risk and is not commensurate with other” triple-A-rated credit, S&P credit analyst Eden Perry said. “The proposed reduction could also make the state more vulnerable to economic downturns.”

Sanford spokesman Will Folks called that analysis “fundamentally bad math.”

HOUSE PANEL OKS GAY MARRIAGE BILL

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved a measure that would let voters decide whether to amend the state constitution to state that “marriage is exclusively defined as the union between one man and one woman.”

It is an attempt to strengthen the law that prevents other states’ same-sex marriages from being recognized in South Carolina. Backers have said a 1996 S.C. law that limits marriage to a union between a man and a woman does not go far enough.

SHORTER SESSION

House Speaker David Wilkins said Tuesday he hopes his latest attempt to shorten the legislative session will get traction in the Senate this year.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell said a Senate Judiciary subcommittee will consider a proposal today that would allow the Senate and the House to set schedules separately.

The General Assembly meets three days a week from the second week in January until the first week in June. Wilkins’ proposal would cut about three weeks off each end of the Legislature’s session, which the speaker called one of the longest in the nation.

Wilkins’ bill was approved Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee.

RESTORING TRUST

Sanford visited the state’s low-level nuclear waste dump Tuesday as part of a push to seek restoration of funds for the Barnwell County site.

Sanford urged lawmakers to restore $90 million needed to monitor and clean up the waste dump. He has proposed a first installment of $25 million.

Lawmakers have borrowed money from the Barnwell fund and other trust accounts to balance the budget in recent years. Sanford said that needs to stop.

Operators say the Barnwell site is safe, but environmentalists say a tritium leak shows the dangers of burying radioactive waste.

Sammy Fretwell and The Associated Press contributed.