Unlike in sports, sometimes in the field of politics, a tie is as good as a win. On Wednesday afternoon as the House jumped to the task of working on Governor’s Sanford’s 47 vetoes to the state budget, one of the more interesting votes occurred on the item of the prohibition on the Highway Patrol recouping costs from game day traffic control, which is part of the nearly one million dollars it costs the Highway Patrol to provide traffic enforcement for special events around the state.   Anderson County Representative Dan Cooper spoke in favor of overriding the Governor’s veto. “This has been in there for quite sometime. We view this as a public safety issue. When there is a lot of traffic for various events be it Clemson or Carolina football games or Darlington Raceway. As Mr. (Marlboro County Representative Doug) Jennings just told me, NASCAR had to start making some payments for traffic control at Darlington. We might just lose the only race we still got down there so I ask you to Override this veto.”

Richland County Representative Nathan Ballentine sided with the Governor.”I”m a big Gamecock fan and we got several tiger fans and there are several other sporting events out there. Can’t these universities cover this? Let them pay instead of using state tax dollars. think of all the people. we represent four million people. we don’t have four million people who need this service. the people at the ball games and other events might. I simply ask that we sustain this (veto).

in the end the vote was so close it nearly confused House Speaker Bobby Harrell who announced the final vote tally. “By a vote of 58-58 the House sustains, excuse me; yes, the House sustains the veto.”

A measure that would expand the scope of the state’s Amber Alert system received third reading in the House Wednesday and now moves on to the Senate. The amended legislation states that when any person who suffers from a cognitive disability, including dementia, goes missing and is believed to be on the roadways in South Carolina, the Amber Alert system can be used to locate that person. Bill sponsor Horry County Representative Alan Clemmons says right now the system is only used to locate missing youngsters.”Let’s say grandma, who is in a nursing home, goes missing at the same time a car in the parking law goes missing and it had a key in the ignition. You now with this legislation will be able to advertise the vehicle that’s missing with grandma. Under the current amber alert law that is not allowed. You can only used it for missing children.”

Clemmons says there is strong indication that the legislation will pass, but not until 2010. “There are some strong advocates for the bill over in the Senate. I don’t think it’s going to happen this year. I think they’re bogged downed in the Senate with other issues, but I feel like in January that they will be taking it up as one of their first issues.”

Charleston County Representative Chip Limehouse suggested Tuesday that lawmakers look into cross state activation of the Amber Alert system noting for example that when an amber alert is activated in Hardeeville, South Carolina the amber alert is not activated in Savannah, Georgia which is less than 20 miles away.