Legislative action for the week of Feb. 19-25:
STATE BUDGET: Gov. Mark Sanford riled some House leaders
with a news release Wednesday saying budget writers weren't doing enough to
return cash raided from state trust and reserve accounts during five lean budget
years. In the news release, Sanford included quotes from three GOP leaders who
shared some of his spending concerns. House Speaker Bobby Harrell said Sanford's
criticism was "just raw politics." The episode forced Ways and Means Chairman
Dan Cooper to cancel Thursday's budget meeting. Republicans retreated to a
locked room to regroup.
BUDGET PLANS: The House spending plan, for now, calls for
$51 million to be used for a 3 percent raise for all state workers and $26
million to buy new school buses and $26 million to buy gas for them. The House
budget committee easily found ways to spend more than $547 million that the
state Board of Economic Advisors added to its revenue projections since
November.
TRUST FUNDS: The fight over trust funds is complicated
because the House and governor can't agree on exactly what a trust fund is.
State agencies have put the word "trust" in front of some reserve accounts to
protect them. Other trust funds have been created to help during chemical or
radioactive leaks. Sanford's office says a trust is any money set aside outside
the general fund for a specific purpose.
PROPERTY TAXES: A Senate subcommittee Tuesday received a
review of a House plan to swap most property taxes with an increase in sales
taxes. Senators openly dislike the plan, but the panel chose to wait until its
next meeting, likely Tuesday, before deciding how to continue.
BILLBOARD BILL: Sanford vetoed a bill Tuesday night that
would force local governments to pay billboard companies when they force removal
of their signs. Sanford said the legislation gave those companies a break that
others don't get in similar situations and that it would retroactively eliminate
local laws passed during the past year. The House and Senate overrode the veto
easily the next day.
HOG-DOG FIGHTING: A bill targeting bloody hog-dog fighting
has been broadened to target any contest involving dogs that harm or kill
animals so their owners can make money. Sen. John Hawkins, R-Spartanburg, said
the bill needed to target more than hog-dog events where animal owners gamble
and hogs are mutilated because people would simply come up with a new blood
sport using dogs and some other animal.
MINORS SMOKING: Sanford signed a bill into law that raises
penalties for store clerks who sell cigarettes to minors, limits locations for
cigarette vending machines and makes it unlawful for minors to possess tobacco.
Police would notify parents and minors would face a $25 fine or could be ordered
to perform five hours of community service.
METH-COLD MEDICINE: Sudafed and other cold medicines used to
create the illegal drug methamphetamine would be moved behind the store counter
under a bill a Senate subcommittee approved Thursday. People would have to show
a photo ID and sign a log showing their name, address and how much of the
product they purchased. Police could use it to investigate meth lab
suspects.
UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS: Presidents of the state's three
research universities say their schools play a key role in improving the state's
economy, but they could do even more with increased donations from alumni and
state funding. University of South Carolina President Andrew Sorensen, Clemson
University President James Barker and Medical University of South Carolina
President Raymond Greenberg also told the Senate Education Committee on their
research efforts in a rare joint Statehouse briefing that they said showed
increased collaboration.
FIRST STEPS: Sanford also signed a bill that reauthorizes
the First Steps early childhood program to operate until 2013.
WORKERS' COMP: A bill that would overhaul the state's
workers' compensation system is heading to the full House Labor, Commerce and
Industry Committee. The bill had at its heart plans to scuttle a program
established to help disabled or previously injured workers get jobs. Instead,
the program will be scaled back to cover only the most severely injured workers.
The bill also limits lawyer fees, awards for injuries that occur over a long
period and changes how disability awards are calculated.
CRIMINAL LIBEL: People would no longer be jailed for
criminal libel under a bill that cleared the House Judiciary Committee on
Tuesday. The law was found unconstitutional years ago, but because it is still
on the books, charges can be filed and people can be arrested and jailed, said
Bill Rogers, executive director of the South Carolina Press Association.
The Associated Press
* * *
Group calls for constitutional amendment on school
standards
By JIM DAVENPORT
Associated Press
COLUMBIA - A coalition of advocacy groups says the state's constitution needs
to be changed to require "efficient, safe, secure and high quality" public
schools to move away from the "minimally adequate" standard that was at the
heart of a lawsuit challenging education funding in poor districts.
Two months after a court ruled the state is not doing enough to address early
childhood education needs, Education First said the Legislature is not moving
fast enough to handle those and other shortcomings in the state's schools.
State Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum wants the constitution changed.
"Minimally adequate is nothing to be proud of," Tenenbaum said.
That will not make South Carolina students "competitive economically or
prepare them for higher education or successful careers," she said.
"I think that's a noble goal," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan
Cooper, R-Piedmont, said of the proposed amendment. But "what's it mean in
dollars?"
Apart from the constitutional change, Education First said it would push
legislators to put more cash into rural school districts immediately and set
aside growing state revenues for repair or replacement of the state's worst
schools.
With the state having $237 million more in revenues than anticipated for the
fiscal year that begins July 1, "no one has stood up to argue that the
Legislature should apply these newfound resources to our rural schools," Tom
Truitt of Education First said Friday.
Truitt was director of the Pee Dee Education Center in Florence and was
superintendent of Florence 1 when the initial school funding lawsuit was
filed.
He said the Legislature should require the state Education Department to
develop and publish a list of schools in the state with the greatest needs and
that cash exceeding projections should be spent to improve school facilities
with the greatest needs.
While it would help those schools, it would also demonstrate recognition of
needs and the state's "good faith effort to respond to them," Truitt said.
The Legislature already requires a similar report every three years.
The most recent, in 2004, said school systems statewide needed $4.8 billion
for facilities with funding planned for $2 billion of the total.
Tenenbaum said that report, based on reports from school districts, is a good
place to start looking at what is needed most in rural districts.
However, the Education Department would have to send people to those
districts to assess needs.
And the needs of many rural districts were barely touched by $750 million in
borrowing several years ago, Tenenbaum said. For instance, Allendale County
schools were bad enough that the state had to take them over, but Tenenbaum said
they received just $2.5 million.
The state has since returned control of Allendale schools to local
trustees.
Cooper said the tentative budget plan his committee is considering begins to
address the court's Dec. 29 ruling.
It adds $4 million to the First Steps early childhood program and creates a
$2 million grant program through the state Commerce Department to help
businesses start early childhood programs in the eight districts directly
covered by the judge's ruling.
But the suing school districts "received none of the money," Tenenbaum
said.
And, she said, legislators seem to be ignoring that the ruling covers the
three dozen school districts that originally sued, but dropped out to make it
easier for the court to handle the case.
