Date Published: January 17, 2007   

Sanford reaches out to lawmakers in State of the State speech

By JIM DAVENPORT
Associated Press Writer

Gov. Mark Sanford reached out to the Legislature he's spent much of the past four years fighting with, telling them Wednesday he has come to realize they call the shots on his slimmed-down agenda.

In the first State of the State address of his second term, Sanford asked lawmakers for help restructuring state government, cutting income taxes, writing a tougher DUI law and addressing a property insurance crisis along the coast.

"We still have many miles to go in improving our state and the lives of people in our state," he told the General Assembly.

The governor, who once brought squirming piglets into the Statehouse to protest the budget, said it is "undeniable that I have had some made major differences" with the Republican-controlled Legislature over the last four years.

But Sanford said his first term has taught him "in amazingly concrete terms that in South Carolina, the governor can propose but that it is up to the legislative branch to dispose."

The best ideas fall prey to "whoever can speak the loudest or the longest" and individual legislators will have to step forward "if we are to have real hope of bringing change to South Carolina," Sanford said.

Sanford still has some fight in him. He has made it clear he'll use his bully pulpit - and $1.7 million left in re-election's campaign account - to put public pressure on legislators to move his agenda forward. The governor says he hasn't worked out all the details, but has hired his former campaign manager to make that push.

Sanford was interrupted a couple of times for applause during his 41 minutes speech broadcast statewide.

One came when he discussed tougher DUI laws. "Tragically, people are being robbed of their lives in South Carolina because of our relatively anemic DUI laws in this state," Sanford said.

A few minutes later, applause broke out again when Sanford called for legislators to work on consolidating school districts, limiting them to one a county.

The state's 85 school districts in some instances are a "throwback to the era of segregation," Sanford said.

"That's something we should have addressed long ago," said state Rep. Kenneth Kennedy, D-Greeleyville.

The governor also asked the Legislature to begin to tackle the coastal insurance crunch with market-based efforts, including setting up catastrophe savings accounts and a catastrophe fund with money from businesses and people on the coast. He said people should get tax deductions when they make their property more hurricane resistant.

"We simply must find some solution to the coastal insurance issue," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman said. "It's priced some people out of their homes."

Leatherman is helping push Sanford's restructuring legislation in the Senate and agrees tougher DUI laws are needed. But it will be tough to consolidate school districts. He tried to push a similar effort in 1980 and found "you just simply can't get the people to agree."

Senate Democratic Leader John Land of Manning said Sanford's speech was short on particulars.

"He doesn't give us any guidance. He talks about having a fatally flawed government. He's in charge of 80 percent of it through his Cabinet," Land said.

Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said the governor's Cabinet makes up only 16 percent of the total number of state agencies and controls less than half the state's budget.

In last year's State of the State, Sanford called for more diversity among the state's judges, which are elected by the Legislature.

"I find it very interesting that during an election year, the governor talked about increasing the number of black judges in the state," said Rep. Leon Howard, the chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus.

"This year, it doesn't seem to be a priority. He didn't mention it at all. ... I'm kind of disappointed that now he seems to be kind of running away from the issue," said Howard, D-Columbia.

Several lawmakers noticed Sanford's conciliatory tone.

"If he sticks to what he says, he'll get a lot of help out of the Senate. He sounds like he finally understands state government," said state Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia.

In the Democrats' response, Sen. Vincent Sheheen of Camden, said Democrats would push an agenda of protecting public school funding, raising the minimum wage and addressing health care concerns.

Democrats also want a broader-based income tax break than the one Sanford proposes. "Middle class families are shouldering too much of the state's tax burden," Sheheen said.

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Associated Press Writer Seanna Adcox contributed to this report.