Lawmakers again thwart home rule to take care of a favored industry

Published February 24, 2006

Lawmakers have again turned their backs on the principle of home rule. This time they are denying cities and counties the ability to regulate billboards.

Lawmakers passed a bill requested by the outdoor advertising industry. Critics claim the industry's massive spending on lobbying and campaign contributions bought the bill, and it certainly seems like a sweetheart deal.

The billboard industry was upset that some cities were restricting billboards, demanding that nonconforming signs be removed.

Of course, when a law or ordinance takes away a profitable use of property, like the location of a billboard, the property owner must be reimbursed. Cities have addressed this by allowing billboard owners several years before they have to remove their billboards. This gives them a chance to recover their investment.

But billboard companies wanted more -- much more. They got the legislature to require that they receive compensation plus reimbursement for the future earnings of the billboards outlawed. This means that cities could have to pay up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per billboard.

The practical effect is that cities and counties are unable to regulate billboards. What this means is that communities across the state can no longer determine the image and the appearance they would like to project.

Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed the bill because it represented an erosion of home rule. "I do not believe it is the role of the state legislature to determine community standards from Columbia,'' he wrote in his veto message.

Sanford also stated that he vetoed the bill because it gave special privileges to the billboard industry that are not provided other businesses.

Yet the General Assembly overrode the governor's veto.

Why?

Why is it so important for lawmakers to protect the billboard industry from communities that want to set their own standards regulating signs? Don't lawmakers represent these communities? Aren't they responsive to their needs?

The General Assembly has certainly created the impression that intense lobbying can buy a new law in South Carolina.