Date Published: January 20, 2006   

Lawmakers mixed on State of State

Party lines rein in reaction

By LESLIE CANTU
Item Staff Writer
lesliec@theitem.com

Local legislators reacted along party lines to Gov. Mark Sanford's Wednesday State of the State address.

"It was just a speech," said Rep. David Weeks, D-Sumter.

Sen. John Land, D-Manning, characterized it as an election-year "tiptoe through the tulips type speech."

"The governor gave the worst (State of the State) I have ever heard. He was confused, he was discombobulated, he lost his train of thought. He was so general he gave the General Assembly absolutely no leadership," Land said.

Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, said the speech had some positives, but it's taken the governor too long to come to certain conclusions, such as the necessity of adding state troopers to the highways.

Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, though, said the speech reflected the progress state government has made under Sanford's leadership. Many of the governor's early proposals were met with skepticism but are now starting to take root, Smith said.

"The whole tenor of Columbia's changed," Smith said.

For example, the House Ways and Means committee and subcommittees are discussing keeping spending within the governor's proposed limitations, he said.

Rep. Marty Coates, R-Florence, said there weren't any big surprises in the speech. The two items that stood out the most, Coates said, were Sanford's urgings to appoint more minority judges and his discussion of impact fees.

Weeks said some in the General Assembly want the body to vote on each judicial candidate.

There are plenty of blacks who are deemed qualified for a judgeship by the screening committee, he said, but the committee sends only three names to the General Assembly to vote on, meaning many of the blacks are left behind.

Coates said he thinks the General Assembly will discuss the issue this year, but he's most interested in finding the most-qualified people for the bench rather than choosing people by race.

There's probably room to improve the appointment process, he said, but he doesn't necessarily agree that all legislators should vote on all judge candidates.

"That would just make the process so cumbersome," Coates said.

Advocating for more black judges is good, Leventis said, but Sanford "had three years to advocate for the minority citizens of this state and he's not."

Instead, Leventis said, the governor's advocacy has been for the well-off.

"I couldn't believe that he tried to talk us into a notion that it wasn't a bad thing that our unemployment has skyrocketed," he said.

Sanford said in his speech that the state's unemployment numbers are inflated because of the rising number of people in the labor force. In the long run, he said, those additions to the labor force will strengthen the state.

Weeks said Sanford seems to be "detached from reality" when he talks about the state economy.

"This is a man who really does not have strong contact with everyday people," Weeks said.

The Democrats laid the blame for the economy at Sanford's doorstep, with Land saying the governor "slashed and burned" the Department of Commerce.

"These are the people that sell South Carolina to out-of-state industries," he said.

Smith, though, said it's unfair to blame Sanford for unemployment. The state has lost traditional manufacturing jobs because of "forces beyond our control."

What Sanford was trying to emphasize, Smith said, was that South Carolina's economy is in a state of transition. If the state's economy was as bad as opponents say, he said, people wouldn't be flocking to the state.

Leventis, though, said North Carolina and Georgia face the same problems as South Carolina, yet only South Carolina's unemployment rate has risen to the third worst in the nation.

"I think the difference is executive leadership," Leventis said.

Weeks said he was disappointed that Sanford didn't present more forceful initiatives about health care and public education. He does agree with Sanford that trust funds the Legislature raided in lean years should be repaid before spending more money, and he cautiously agrees that the Legislature should undertake workers' compensation reform.

However, he said, the way to reform workers' compensation is to look at the money insurance companies are making, not to clamp down on workers.

Both Weeks and Smith said they believe impact fees would hurt Sumter rather than help. Coates, too, said he doesn't think that impact fees are the best way to give property tax relief.

Sanford said he would be open to considering impact fees, but Smith emphasized that Sanford was advocating looking at the entire tax picture rather than specifically advocating for impact fees.

Impact fees are charged to new developments to help cover the costs of building new roads, schools and other infrastructure that becomes necessary as a community grows.

With 3rd Army headquarters slated to transfer to Shaw Air Force Base, neither representative wants incoming soldiers to shoulder impact fees.


Contact Staff Writer Leslie Cantu at lesliec@theitem.com or 803-774-1250.