(Columbia) April 30, 2003 - House members worked to change the way counties re-assess improved property on Wednesday. It isn't legislation that usually produces memorable speeches.

House Speaker David Wilkins (R) Greenville, says even when the issue doesn't make headlines, the General Assembly is getting a lot done, "Campaign finance reform passed the third week of the session, the budget bill which the Senate's getting ready to take up, the health care reform bill, DMV reform, predatory lending, PSC reform. We've passed one major bill after the other."

Wilkins and other lawmakers have said from the beginning the state's budget crisis would rule this year's session. There's little more than a month before lawmakers wrap up and funding issues, in particular the potential for tax increases, dominates much of the debate.

Legislators have yet to agree on solutions to shortfalls in spending for schools, healthcare and prisons.

Among the most controversial, a plan already approved by a Senate committee to eliminate or modify tax exemptions, including the cap on car sales taxes. The plan raises the $300 cap to $2500.

Pat Watson with the Automobile Dealers Association says a full page newspaper ad shows car dealers are rolling out major opposition, "I can't tell you how to fund government, but I simply know that just because government runs out of money, they can't simply say well, we're hurting and we've got to call on you other people that are hurting to pull us out of the hole."

The Senate Finance Committee also supports Governor Mark Sanford's plan to increase the state's cigarette tax to 60 cents a pack to pay for Medicaid programs, while decreasing the state's income tax.

Some lawmakers do have other issues on their minds.

Richland Democrat Leon Howard has introduced a bill to prohibit restaurants from handing out unwrapped straws, "I was in a restaurant a while back and a young man came out of the restroom with a pocketful of straws and kind of distributed them in the restaurant. And I immediately became concerned."

Even that seemingly minor issue has generated conflict. The Hospitality Association of South Carolina, representing restaurant owners, is strongly opposed to Howard's straw bill. President Tom Sponseller says requiring restaurants to provide wrapped straws means many will have to buy new dispensers for them.
    
Sponseller says that could cost up to 200% more and prompt many restaurants to simply stop giving out straws.

By Jack Kuenzie
Updated 7:22pm by BrettWitt