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State agrees Ports Authority has right to project

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State ports officials Thursday backed off plans to send expensive lobbyists into Columbia next week to fight for their interests on the Savannah River, citing strong legislative support for a state-run shipping terminal in Jasper County.

The county and S.C. State Ports Authority have been in a legal deadlock for a year over the rights to develop the 1,800-acre site, and ports officials last month hired two prominent lobbyists to persuade lawmakers to stop the county's multimillion-dollar plansThe port officials said the Ports Authority has the sole right to operate such a facility, and powerful state officials said they agree Thursday.

House Majority Leader Jim Merrill, who outspokenly disagreed with any state agencies using taxpayer dollars to pay for lobbyists, said Thursday he is confident the Ports Authority would be able to move ahead with the project.

House Speaker Bobby Harrell said he is working on a bill that would clarify that the Ports Authority's claim to the Savannah River site supersedes that of Jasper County.

Harrell, R-Charleston, said he thinks the state's best interests lie in ending the infighting between the Ports Authority and Jasper because a battle remains ahead between South Carolina and Georgia over the port's existence.

The two parties both moved in January 2005 to condemn the land, owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation, and Georgia has challenged both claims. But Harrell said he also expects Georgia to do whatever it can, such as citing environmental concerns, to keep it from being built and prevent the competition the Jasper port would pose to the Port of Savannah.

The lobbyists, Fred Allen and Dan Jones of Fred Allen & Associates, were hired last month. Although the Ports Authority always has a lobbyist on its payroll, Stern had said the extra two were necessary to ensure accurate information was presented to lawmakers.

"Given the support that has been expressed to me directly in recent days, the need for contract lobbyists has been mitigated," Stern said in a release.