Posted on Thu, Jun. 08, 2006

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Budget focus of Sanford tour, vetoes

“His time would be better spent debating his primary opponent and explaining his lack of accomplishments.”

— Sen. Glenn Reese, D-Spartanburg, commenting on Gov. Mark Sanford’s state tour discussing the budget and decision to skip a debate with GOP challenger Oscar Lovelace

WHERE THE CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR ARE

A summary of planned campaign stops for those on Tuesday’s ballot

REPUBLICANS

OSCAR LOVELACE

Campaigning in Rock Hill, Clarendon County and visiting stump meeting in Springdale

MARK SANFORD

Stops in Walterboro and Hilton Head, signing legislation in Myrtle Beach, attending grand opening in North Charleston and groundbreaking in Florence

DEMOCRATS

DENNIS AUGHTRY

Attending stump meeting in Springdale

TOMMY MOORE

Declined to provide schedule

FRANK WILLIS

Campaigning in Chesterfield County

THE DAILY BUZZ

A HEAD START

Sanford got in some practice while touring the state this week.

Practice using his veto pen, that is.

Sanford vetoed several bills, including one that raised the minimum liability insurance requirement on cars and another that gave the attorney general more authority to pursue cases of price gouging during times of emergency.

Calling the increase a “government fiat,” Sanford said it would increase automobile insurance rates, adversely affect low-income drivers and reverse the recent decline in the number of uninsured motorists.

Advocates of the change said it was needed to bring the state’s minimum rates closer to North Carolina and Georgia and to make coverage more in line with losses.

The legislation increases minimum liability coverage that drivers are required to buy to $25,000 for bodily injury for each person injured, $50,000 for all people injured and $25,000 to cover property damage. That’s up from $15,000 for bodily injury, $30,000 for all people injured and $10,000 to cover property damage.

Of course, lawmakers have time to practice this week, too. The Buzz figures some already are locking on “green” for overriding.

MORE ON THE WEB

What you can find online at thestate.com

• S.C. Politics Today, news from inside the campaigns, is updated each day.

• Our searchable list of state employee salaries for workers earning more than $50,000 a year

A QUICK SPIN AROUND THE CAMPAIGNS

Sanford got a ratified version of the next state budget Wednesday even as he was discussing his concerns about the plan in five S.C. cities.

Leaders of the Senate and House signed off on the state budget, property tax breaks and tougher animal fighting legislation. Those are among more than 65 bills that will end up on Sanford’s desk.

The governor said he would get down to the business of vetoing hundreds of millions of dollars in planned spending Wednesday night, targeting mostly items that aren’t part of the state’s “core” operations.

Lawmakers plan to return to Columbia next week and might override much of what Sanford vetoes.

Plans to raise the state’s sales tax in exchange for eliminating school operating expenses from property tax bills for homeowners was the year’s most fought-over legislation.

“Yeah, I’ll sign it,” Sanford said.

Sanford said he has some misgiving about that. Along with the property tax break, it reduces the state’s sales tax on groceries from 5 cents on the dollar to 3 cents and creates a sales tax holiday the two days after Thanksgiving.

“We don’t like the sales tax holiday for the two days after Thanksgiving,” Sanford said. “If there’s a way for me to get in and veto that particular component, I would.” He wasn’t sure a two-day tax holiday would make the state more competitive.

The budget has been getting most of Sanford’s attention this week as he traveled around the state.

He wanted the $6.6 billion spending plan on his desk last week and legislators back to work this week taking up vetoes. But Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell did not invite House Speaker Bobby Harrell to sign off on the stack of bills before the regular legislative session ended last week.

Sanford spent Tuesday on the road telling business owners in Anderson, Clinton and Orangeburg that state spending is growing by 13 percent in the fiscal year that begins July 1. He says that’s a rate that can’t be sustained without future budget cuts or tax increases. He was on the road Wednesday, selling the same message in Aiken, Camden, Greenwood, Rock Hill and Roebuck.

AG CANDIDATES SPAR

A challenger in the Republican primary for S.C. agriculture commissioner criticized incumbent Commissioner Hugh Weathers on Wednesday for participating in a groundbreaking ceremony for a relocated state-owned farmers market in Columbia.

William Bell of Saluda County said Weathers’ attendance at the event on the new site on Shop Road was “a flagrant misuse of tax dollars to promote my opponent’s election campaign.”

Weathers said the opening of the farmers market was planned months in advance. “It is my responsibility as commissioner of agriculture to bring it in, and we can’t bring it in unless we start it.”