Lawmakers to debate divorce, school choice, taxes

By Kirsten Singleton
Bluffton today Columbia Bureau

COLUMBIA — State Rep. Don Smith is convinced.

He wasn’t at first, when North Augustan Karyn Grace approached him about changing the state constitution to allow “mental cruelty” as grounds for divorce.

Grace believes that, if she had been able to divorce her estranged husband earlier, he might not have killed her young sons in January.

“Initially I was doing it to help her,” said Smith, R-North Augusta. “Now I think it’s the right thing to do.”

But it will not be an easy thing to do, he acknowledged.

The resolution goes before a House Judiciary subcommittee Thursday.

Smith said one of his main concerns about the proposal is that “mental cruelty” is hard to prove — a concern he expects Judiciary committee members, who hold law degrees, will share.

But Grace convinced Smith that, in cases such as hers, there is enough evidence to prove mental cruelty.

On Thursday, she will have the chance to convince the subcommittee.

Because the proposal requires a constitutional amendment, a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate would have to approve the resolution for it to be posed to voters on the November general election ballot.

And there are just five weeks left in the session.

So the legislation might not get passed this year, Smith said. If it doesn’t, he said he’ll re-introduce it, or try another method, next year.

“We’re fighting an uphill battle,” Smith said. “I understand that.”

HOUSE IS HOUSECLEANING

This week, House members will take a look at the Fiscal Year 2007 budget proposal the Senate passed last week.

Ultimately, a conference committee of representatives and senators will meet to reach a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the budget.

Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, said the House also will do some “housecleaning” this week, including considering a bill intended to clean up the tax law to reflect budgetary changes.

Lawmakers, though, may try to amend the bill to include a cigarette tax increase and a school choice tax credit, he said — two proposals he believes have significant support.

“There’s a likelihood that it might (work),” he said.

Also this week...

• The Senate begins a third round of property tax debate. The issue is being given top priority, and few committee meetings have been scheduled to distract from the discussion.
• House members are scheduled to consider whether to agree with Senate amendments on several issues, including Capital Reserve Fund spending, allowing absentee ballots to be counted earlier on Election Day and enabling voters to vote somewhere else besides their precinct in emergency cases.

Reporter Kirsten Singleton may be reached at kirsten.singleton@morris.com or (803) 414-6611