After nearly a year of debate, the South Carolina Senate last week passed a road funding plan.
The vote (30-15 in favor) was pretty-much along party lines and, among other things, it will take 400 million surplus dollars out of the general budget’s fund for roads.
However, the debate is still far from over.
While senate Democrats can’t block the bill, house Republicans can, perhaps, alter it. And some key house Republicans don’t like the senate plan.
For instance, House Speaker Jay Lucas (R-Hartsville) called the Senate’s plan deceptive and in a statement added, “not only does their plan mislead the people of South Carolina into thinking that a large pot of general fund money will be available every year for roads, it also practices reckless budgeting that jeopardizes the prosperity of our economy. While I acknowledge the Senate’s governance reform efforts, kicking the can further down the road and into a giant pothole defies the test of real leadership.”
South Carolina House Ways and Means committee chair Brian White (R-Anderson) added, “the Senate’s plan is not a fix for our chronic roads problem, it’s a plea for the House to budget them out of their inability to pass a comprehensive roads bill. The House has budgeted hundreds of millions of dollars for roads in the last several years and will continue to do so while we wait on the Senate to get serious about a long-term fix for our road.”
The differences between the Senate’s wishes and the House’s will need to be hashed out in a house/senate conference committee later this year.
To read the bill as it stands right now, click here.
This seems to aggravate a number of people and a bill introduced last Tuesday (3/8) in the South Carolina House would make it illegal for a cable tv services to allow commercials to be at a higher volume than the actual program in which they air.
Among the sponsors is Rep. Carl Anderson (D-Georgetown).
The bill is now in a House committee.
The South Carolina Senate passed a bill unanimously last week that would require the state to give prison inmates, who are deemed non-security risks, the chance to visit close relatives who are near-death in the hospital, or attend their funeral services.
The bill is now in a House committee.
The South Carolina House passed a bill Wednesday (3/9) that places limitations on the number of foster children who may be placed in a single foster home.
There are exceptions, but the bill says a foster home may not provide full-time care for more than five children, excluding the foster parents’ own children and other children who are household members, with a maximum of eight children in all.
The bill passed the House unanimously.
It’s now in a Senate committee.
All South Carolina Senate and House seats are up this Fall (all constitutional officers, including the Governor are not).
Filing begins March 16 and runs through March 30.
The primaries are June 14.
Any runoffs will take place June 28.
The general election is November 8.