You might not think something as simple as a street sign could make people emotional. But for people who lost their life savings in the Carolina Investors bankruptcy, driving down the Earle Morris Highway in Anderson County makes them angry.

Morris is a former lieutenant governor and comptroller general who became an officer for Carolina Investors. He was convicted in November of securities fraud for lying to investors.

Rep. Dan Cooper represents the area where the highway sign honors the now-convicted felon. "I'm actually surprised that somebody hasn't taken a pickup truck and pulled the signs down on their own, to be honest with you," he says. "But I think there's a lot of animosity, that they have to ride on that road and see that name every day."

The House has already passed a bill to take Morris' name off the highway, and it's now in the Senate. But Wednesday afternoon the House passed another bill to prohibit any future road, bridge or interchange from being named for a living person.

"The point is not the Earle Morris situation at all," says House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, the bill's main sponsor. "The point is this: every time you turn around there's a piece of concrete being named for somebody in this state and it really devalues that. You can't go anywhere without seeing interchanges, bridges, roadways, and at some point there's not going to be any roads left to name."

He says it's more appropriate to let a suitable amount of time pass after a person's death, to reflect on his or her accomplishments, before honoring them with a road name.

Six Mile Rep. B.R. Skelton voted against the bill and said naming roads and bridges should be left up to local legislative delegations.

Another opponent commented that lawmakers had named things after living people 225 times over the last five years, and Morris is the only one who's been convicted of a crime.

So how does someone get a road, bridge or interchange named after them? All it takes is a state lawmaker to introduce a resolution specifying what's to be named and for whom. The resolution then has to be passed by the House and Senate.

Or, the state DOT commission can name something after someone.

Since lawmakers can name things after fellow lawmakers, there's another argument against the practice; that it gives incumbents even more of an advantage at election time, sort of a permanent, free campaign sign.

Sen. Kay Patterson, D-Columbia, has the interchange at I-277 and I-20 in Columbia named after him. He says it doesn't give him an advantage at all at election time.

"People couldn't care less. I mean your people who are going to vote for you," he says. "I was around here for 30 years before the sign was up and didn't have opposition. The sign doesn't mean a thing."

The bill has to get a routine, final reading Thursday in the House and will then be sent to the Senate.