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Governor’s deadline for stimulus decision is Friday…?

April 2, 2009 By

Republican Senator Tom Davis of Beaufort, who served as chief of Governor Mark Sanford’s staff for five years, insists that the governor actually has two years to make up his mind about whether or not to take federal stimulus money. He says the stipulation was that state lawmakers had to wait until Friday before they could override the governor’s decsion. Not so according to South Carolina House Speaker Bobby Harrell, who says the White House, as well as the Congressional Research Service and Attorney General Henry McMaster, say that Sanford only has until Friday.

Sanford’s insistence on using federal stimulus dollars to pay down state debt is making him the focus of a lot of negative attention statewide, even nationwide. Hundreds of teachers rallied at the statehouse Thursday, calling for Sanford to accept the stimulus cash before the deadline.

South Carolina Education Association President, Sheila Gallagher says her membership is amazed that the governor is not ”getting the point” about what he is doing to public education.

Sanford said Thursday that Senate Finance Chair and other budget writers are distorting the budget figures by 578 million dollars, to scare teachers and the public.   “I don’t begrudge the teacers for showing up on the statehouse steps.  If I thought that there were going to be that kind of Draconian cut, I’d be out there joining them.  But the truth is, that $578 million is going to be there to spend.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Legislature, News, Politics & Government

Cub scout mom accused of stealing from pack

April 2, 2009 By

A group of cub scouts is without thousands of dollars they saved up from fundraisers, and one of scouts’ mothers is accused of taking it.

The boys of Cub Scout Pack 759 are without more than $14,000, the amount they raised last year from selling popcorn. Wendy Thornbury is the mother of one of the boys in the pack, and she is now accused of taking the money. An attorney for the Summerville woman says she is working on repaying the stolen funds. Legare Clement of The Coastal Carolina Boy Scouts of America.

“The sad thing is that the pack is without this money and the boys are without the money. They worked hard back in September and October selling the popcorn and were promised certain things throughout the year that if they worked hard they would be earning their own way, which is one of the values scouting teaches,” says Clement.

Thornbury is charged with breach of trust for allegedly draining the money from an account at Carolina First Bank, where she was branch manager, but she is no longer an employee.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News

Bill requiring 24-hour waiting period on abortions to Senate

April 2, 2009 By

A bill that would require women a 24-hour waiting period for an abortion has passed a Senate subcommittee and full committee and has made its way to the Senate. The bill, introduced by Republican Senator Mike Fair of Greenville, requires a woman wait for 24 hours after an ultrasound to have an abortion. Fair says that 70 percent of women that are considering an abortion change their mind after an ultrasound. Fair says he hopes, as a Pro-Lifer, to change the mind of the a woman considering aborting the fetus. “I’m a Pro-Lifer and that is the hope,” said Fair, “that with that one-hour wait that we passed last year, that women upon whom ultrasounds are done will look at the ultrasounds.

“It’s her decision whether to look or not to look and then will decide to go to term. That’s the hope. Again, no mandates on the woman.”

Fair says a precedent has been set for requiring women to wait 24 hours. “A court case coming out of Pennsylvania called ‘Casey’ is 18 or 19 years old now, I believe, where the state of Pennsylvania passed a 24-hour waiting period,” according to Fair.

“That was challenged in the courts and the courts upheld that using a legal term, ‘undo burden’. The law and the state of Pennsylvania w(ere) challenged on the basis that waiting 24 hours was an undo burden and that court case said no, 24 hours is not.”

Fair says if the woman does not have an ultrasound, she must sign a release stating she has read the ‘informed consent’ material which she can pick up at a clinic or receive through the mail.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News, Politics & Government

House gives second reading to cig tax bill

April 2, 2009 By

State lawmakers are pressing forward with their efforts to raise the state’s lowest in the nation cigarette tax. The South Carolina House voted 97-22 Thursday to give second reading to a bill that would raise the tax from 7 cents to 57 cents. It is estimated that the revenue raised from the increase would by $147 million of which $139 million would be used to finance health care coverage for uninsured South Carolinians. Thursday’s proceedings featured house members voting down several proposed amendments to the measure, including those which would have lowered the proposed increase by 20 cents.
One dissenting voice to the bill belongs to York County Representative Gary Simrill who says merchants in the 22 border counties would be hurt by the 50 cents increase with neighboring North Carolina with a 38 cents cigarette tax and Georgia at 37 cents.

“Interestingly enough, we don’t know how much money is going to be raised. They can only estimated it. But i’m telling you, if we start losing people across the borders into neighboring states either Georgia or North Carolina to buy cigarettes and while they’re there they start buying other goods and services, we are biting the hands that feed us.”
Simrill says shoppers migrating into neighboring states would mean lost revenue for the South Carolina and that ultimately would result in lost jobs.

Simrill says it is interesting to note that many persons support the bill for one reason or another but it is unclear whether the measure in the long run will achieve the desired results. “I hear one thing, raise the cigarette tax because it in itself becomes a deterrent and it will keep people from smoking. I hear the other is we need THE money that is generated from the cigarette tax. Well, you’re not going to have it both ways. With the federal government doing what they’re doing and that of course is in all 50 states, and with what South Carolina is doing in raising this cigarette tax, it puts South Carolina in an economic disadvantage to our neighboring states.”
Wednesday the federal tobacco tax increased from 39 cents to $1.01, pushing the price of most cigarettes over $4.00 a pack.

Filed Under: Economy, Legislature, News

Federal tax hike puts pinch on smokers

April 2, 2009 By

Smokers are wondering what has happened to cigarette prices, some of which have jumped several dollars a carton or more in recent weeks, even though South Carolina lawmakers haven’t passed a tax increase. House Speaker Bobby Harrell says legislative consensus remains strong for a 50-cent-a-pack price hike. But that could be months away from even passing, much less implementation. The price hike reflects a =federal= price hike that just went into affect, of 62-cents a carton. Some cigarette prices jumped weeks before the federal tax was implemented.

South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers says there is another market pressure taking place here, other than retailers passing on the tax to the customer. “We do see that when prices move up like that there is ‘push back,’ then a decline of domestic use of tobacco.  We’ve seen that trend for three or four years now, even without the price increase, involving smoking cessation programs and what not.” 

And Weathers says the new tax may affect South Carolina tobacco farmers.  “If it impacts the contract price they can receive for leaf tobacco, then it would have a negative affect, and we don’t know that yet.  The contracts for 2009 are probably already in place.”

He says for the short term, there is stability, but it may or may not last.   “But if a push back on consumption and a squeeze on the margins of processing tobacco, then unfortunately it will find its way back to the leaf grower and impact our acreage.” 

South Carolina tobacco growers now plant more than 21,000 acres.

Filed Under: Agriculture, News