Legislators lower drunken driving standard to .08

Speaker of the House David Wilkins, R-Greenville, explains that there is a lot of business to take care of on the last day of the session Thursday at the Statehouse in Columbia. AP/Mary Ann Chastain e-mail this story Related Online extra • How would you balance the state budget?

The chaotic adjournment came on a sour financial note, as officials disclosed the state's revenue for May was about $68 million less than May of 2002. Senate leaders said the figures could mean more budget cuts later this year, while House members said they were not as concerned because officials base budget planning on how well collections match estimates.

Lawmakers did not agree to return in any extended session, leaving any possible budget vetoes by Gov. Mark Sanford unanswered until January.

While legislative leaders were pleased at the passage this year of some measures, including predatory lending reform, an overhaul of the Division of Motor Vehicles, and reapportionment, many criticized the session as being too partisan and contentious.

"It's the worst session South Carolina has ever been through," Senate Minority Leader John Land said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell of Charleston said "anger has gotten in the way of good judgment."

Sen. Darrell Jackson, a Columbia Democrat, said Democrats and Republicans plotted against each other during the session.

"But you know who really gets gotten, the citizens of this state," he said.

House Speaker David Wilkins, however, praised the session for noteworthy legislation during hard financial times.

"It was a tough but ultimately productive year," he said.

Not passing Thursday was a $250 million bond bill for universities and colleges in the state. Sen. John Kuhn, R-Charleston, held up the bill in a filibuster, accusing officials at the state's three research institutions of showing "sheer greed" because all but $30 million of the money would go the three schools. Kuhn wanted $60 million to be divvied among 30 smaller schools.

The drunken-driving legislation almost didn't make it Thursday. House and Senate lawmakers negotiating differences failed to reach agreement until Gov. Mark Sanford helped mediate the discussion.

The resulting agreement was brought to the Senate floor minutes from adjournment and failed to get a vote before House officials entered the chamber for ratification proceedings. But with seconds left, a vote was requested and the compromise passed.

The new measure lowers the level from .10 to .08 and requires testing to be done using state guidelines. The federal government had warned that states not lowering the drunken-driving level this year could see the loss of millions of dollars in highway funds.

Under the campaign finance bill, reporting requirements would be extended to independent groups spending money to influence elections and political parties, which have been exempt from filing.

Also, the bill would require electronic filing by candidates, allowing Internet review of reports by the public.

Sanford said as a result of the bill "more of the money spent in the political process will see the light of day."

High-profile bills were left stalled in the Senate, including legislation to impose more stringent requirements for service on the rate-setting Public Service Commission and make failure to wear a seat belt a primary offense.

In the last hour, the Senate also passed a symbolic vote on raising cigarette taxes, 27-16.

The Senate spent five weeks debating the budget but could never agree on various revenue proposals, including one by Sanford to combine an increase in cigarette taxes with a reduction in income taxes. Democrats have said the failure to raise new revenue has left the state's education system shortchanged.

Sen. Tom Moore, an Aiken Democrat who proposed the symbolic vote Thursday, said Thursday's revenue collection figures, when combined with the spare budget passed this year could lead to financial problems by this fall.

"We have built a gallows very high with a very short rope to hang ourselves," he said afterward.

Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell of Charleston praised some of the Legislature's accomplishments but criticized the lack of an extended-session bill, a move he said led to an atmosphere in the Senate's final hours of "desperation" as members raced to get bills passed before 5 p.m. He said leaving the governor's vetoes unanswered sets "a dangerous precedent."

"We're engaging in Russian roulette," he said.

But Land said since Republicans are the majority in the Senate and House and Sanford is Republican, "anything he would veto would be within the family. We Democrats don't feel like we should get involved with that."

"I just don't see the need to come back and spend $75,000 a day to take up vetoes that probably won't get two-thirds vote to override in either chamber," he said.

Democratic members gathered on the Statehouse's north steps during the session's final hours Thursday to denounce a 2003-04 budget presided over by a Republican governor and Legislature.

"They can win campaigns, but they cannot govern," said House Minority Leader James Smith of Columbia.

To illustrate their contention, the Democrats issued a "Republican Majority's 2003 Legislative Accountability Report Card" that gave the GOP majority an "F" on five of seven categories, plus an "F-" on education.

Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, called it "a dramatic image of what is happening in South Carolina."

Sticking with imagery, Smith painted a verbal portrait of fired teachers, bulging classrooms and deteriorating school buildings because of budget cutbacks that reduced per pupil spending to mid-1990's levels.

The GOP received a "C" for the passage of anti-predatory lending legislation, but Democrats said they deserved the lion's share of credit for pushing the bill.

Democrats said the Legislature failed to reform Medicaid and establish a stable funding base for it, eroded environment protections, reduced the number of troopers on state roads, and failed to adequately fund essential services while leaving local governments no choice but to raise property taxes.

Sanford and Wilkins rejected the criticism.

"Let there be no mistake," Wilkins responded in a post-adjournment press conference on the House floor, "the only solution was to raise taxes." The comment drew supportive boos from GOP lawmaker arrayed behind him.

Sanford sloughed off Democratic accusations of a lack of executive leadership, saying, he displayed "an appropriate level of involvement and leadership" considering that he never served in the Legislature and knew few of its members when he took office in January.