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Article published Mar 18, 2003
Sanford needs to take care of relations with lawmakers

Gov. Mark Sanford is consistently leading South Carolina in the right direction, but his effectiveness will be hampered unless he develops a stronger relationship with lawmakers.
The governor alienated lawmakers earlier this year when he delivered some surprise vetoes of local legislation. The governor had good reason to veto the legislation. Lawmakers shouldn't be passing laws that affect only one county. But the lawmakers who authored and successfully gathered support for the bills were upset. Sanford would have done better to inform them in advance of his veto plans.
Last week, Sanford announced that he wants the General Assembly to raise the cigarette tax in order to fund Medicaid, and he wants this offset by a gradual decrease in the state income tax.
This is a worthwhile plan. It would create a stable source of revenue for a necessary program, and the money would be matched by the federal government. But the governor's timing is off. Republican House leaders had just issued their plan for dealing with Medicaid. And it didn't include an increase in the cigarette tax.
Prospects for a cigarette tax increase looked good when the legislative session started in January. But the outlook for the tax increase dropped when Sanford delivered his State of the State address. His assertion that a tobacco tax increase would have to be offset by a corresponding tax decrease pushed the plan off legislative priority lists.
Now, the House Ways and Means Committee has designed its budget. House leaders have proposed their Medicaid plan. And then the governor clarifies his Medicaid plan -- he wants the cigarette tax increase.
You can't blame House leaders for being upset. Sanford's plan hasn't really changed, but his emphasis has changed, and his timing on declaring that emphasis has left much to be desired.
Sanford must remember that this is still a state in which the General Assembly holds most of the power, not the governor. And to accomplish his agenda, the governor -- an outsider to the Columbia power network -- must ask the legislature to hand over some of that power to him.
He has the potential to make that work. His party controls both houses of the General Assembly. But he must build a better working relationship with lawmakers, founded on better communication than he appears to have with them so far.