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Article published: Dec 17,
2006 Legislators
face full plates during 2007 session
When the state
General Assembly opens its 2007 session on Jan. 9, legislators will have plenty
on their plates.
That was evident from last Wednesday’s Greater Sumter
Chamber of Commerce Red Carpet Breakfast during which the local legislative
delegation discussed a host of pressing issues dominated by two: money and
education.
Also on the table will be other issues currently in the news,
such as Gov. Mark Sanford’s proposed tax hike on cigarettes with the revenue
generated, some $107 million, that he would like used to pay for tax cuts in
business and personal income taxes, and a growing movement to change the way the
state’s constitutional officers are chosen to serve. The latter has been
triggered by recent allegations that the state Department of Transportation has
cooked the books in its handling of the public’s money and has become
unaccountable in the manner in which it operates.
Just this week House
Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, prefiled legislation that would allow the
governor to appoint seven of the nine constitutional officers, with the
exception of the attorney general, and allows the governor and lieutenant
governor to run on the same ticket. At present all the constitutional officers
are elected. If the change is approved, voters would have to make the decision
in a referendum to change the state constitution giving the governor appointment
powers.
Local legislative delegation members expressed concern about the
funding of schools through the newly-passed statewide sales tax that replaces
school property taxes in 2007. If the economy slows, as noted by Rep. Joe Neal,
D-Hopkins, whose district includes a western portion of Sumter County, it could
have a negative impact on the funding of schools. That’s a good point. Sales tax
revenues are heavily dependent on a healthy economy; if it erodes, so do the tax
proceeds as consumers cut back on their spending.
The cigarette tax will
attract plenty of attention from legislators. South Carolina currently has the
lowest cigarette tax in the nation at only 7 cents a pack. Sanford wants to
raise it to 30 cents, but instead of earmarking its additional revenue for the
state’s sorely-strapped Medicaid fund and a state Children’s Health Insurance
Program as used by neighboring Georgia and North Carolina, he wants to use it to
cut business and personal income taxes. That idea didn’t receive much, if any,
support from local legislators at the Red Carpet Breakfast. We should expect a
continuation of the four-year tug-of-war between the governor and the
Legislature in 2007 over this and other issues.
Also looming before
resident legislators is the matter of future elections. After this year’s
general election debacle of long lines, malfunctioning and inadequate numbers of
voting machines, and poorly trained poll workers in some precincts, as reported
at Thursday’s Sumter County Election Commission meeting, serious improvements
must be put in place before the 2008 general and presidential elections. If the
League of Women Voters of Sumter County is on target with its No. 1 suggestion
for improvements -- purchasing an additional 100 voting machines, and we believe
its recommendation has merit, there’s a $300,000 due bill for the machines that
must be addressed. Either the county must come up with the money or another
funding source must be found, such as the Legislature, which has been
notoriously parsimonious in sending state money to Sumter County.
However, with Neal being appointed to the powerful Ways and Means
Committee, perhaps he, with the assistance of local legislators, can explore the
possibility of extracting some funding from the state. If not, the county,
meaning the taxpayers, will have to bite the bullet and do what it takes to
ensure a trouble-free election in 2008 so that potential voters won’t be
discouraged from exercising their constitutional right to cast a
ballot.
Those who are in a position to reassure these voters should heed
the ominous warning from League of Women Voters President Chuck Gibbs at
Thursday’s Election Commission meeting: “There’s no way, in my opinion, they
(the commission) can get by with trying to run an election two years from now
with the same number of machines.”
