TheState.com: SC Politics

Loftis recommended two firms that ally later represented

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:13 EST

State Treasurer Curtis Loftis recommended the state’s $25 billion retirement fund consider two investment management companies that soon thereafter were represented by his friend Charleston businessman Mallory Factor.

Factor, who would make money if either of the firms won business managing part of the state’s pension money, said Tuesday he brought the two firms to the attention of Loftis – who sits on the five-member Retirement Investment Commission that oversees state pension money.

Factor denied any wrongdoing and said he did not pay Loftis to recommend the firms, which the Charleston businessman later told the Investment Commission that he represented.

“Zero. Nada. Nothing. No promises, nothing in the past, nothing in the future, no anything. Ever,” Factor said. “Anybody should be able to talk to the commission and submit the best possible firms for the people of the state of South Carolina.”

The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating what the state Attorney General’s Office has called a “possible pay-to-play scheme” involving the state’s pension system.

House speaker wants redistricting suit thrown out

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:39 EST

A lawsuit over redrawing the state’s new U.S. House districts should be dismissed because six black voters challenging the claims haven’t proved the map is discriminatory, attorneys for the leader of the S.C. House say.

Attorneys for House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, also argued in papers filed in federal court Monday that the black voters haven’t presented an alternative plan for judges to consider.

Harrell is among the defendants in a lawsuit over new district lines, including the state’s new 7th Congressional District along the coast. Six black voters are challenging the plan passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature, claiming it “creates a system of voting apartheid in South Carolina that segregates white and black voters into election districts” and packs black voters into one congressional district.

The Justice Department has said it would not challenge the new layout. The proposed S.C. maps require federal approval because of the state’s history of inequitable treatment of black voters.

The voters’ lawsuit asks a three-judge panel to throw out the plan, make lawmakers draw a new one and bar any elections based on the current plan. The trial is set to begin next week.

House bill: ‘In SC court, use S.C. law’

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:04 EST

A long list of S.C. lawmakers plan to send a message to Palmetto State courts: Don’t apply foreign laws here.

A proposed law, which a House panel will consider later this month, is part of a growing movement in legislatures around the country.

Twenty other states are considering similar measures to ban judges from applying the laws of others nations, particularly in custody and marriage cases. Three states — Tennessee, Louisiana and Arizona — already have added the laws to their books. Oklahoma put it in its state Constitution in 2010, a move now being challenged in federal court.

Proponents say the S.C. measure will ensure only U.S. and S.C. laws are applied in Palmetto State courtrooms, and foreign laws do not trump constitutional rights guaranteed to Americans.

Opponents say the proposal addresses a nonexistent issue and, while not specifically naming Islamic Sharia law, smacks of anti-Islamic sentiment. They say such bills target the practice of Sharia, a wide-ranging group of Islamic religious codes and customs that, in some countries, are enforced as law.

Panel: Education progress stagnant, change needed

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:48 EST

A panel of S.C. leaders says the state’s education system needs dramatic improvement to successfully compete economically.

The message came Monday from the Education Oversight Committee’s report titled “A Wake-Up Call for South Carolina.”

It shows the state is falling behind on its benchmarks and won’t meet the group’s 2020 goals.

The 18-member committee of business, legislative and education leaders is tasked with evaluating the state’s progress toward meeting accountability goals. It re-set the goals two years ago after legislators revamped the state’s end-of-school-year tests.

A key indicator of success is reading ability. Last year, results on nationally standardized tests showed nearly 40 percent of fourth-graders and 30 percent of eighth-graders could not read on grade level.

Plan would remove SC treasurer from investment commission

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:07 EST

Some state senators want to remove state Treasurer Curtis Loftis from the commission that oversees the state’s $25 billion retirement fund.

Two senators plan today to put forward a plan that would require the treasurer to appoint a representative to the S.C. Retirement Investment Commission, the five-member body that manages the retirement fund’s investments.

The board is made up of members appointed by the governor, comptroller general and chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. The treasurer can appoint someone or serve himself — an option every treasurer has chosen in the commission’s seven-year history.

Loftis has criticized the commission for its investments, saying they are too risky and put taxpayers and state workers at risk. Others, including state Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, have criticized Loftis, saying he has politicized the commission.

Meanwhile, the State Law Enforcement Division is investigating claims by two financial-management firms that they were told they would be considered for a lucrative state contract to manage some of the retirement system’s investments if they paid a fee to a Charleston businessman connected with Loftis. The businessman and Loftis have denied doing anything wrong.

DHEC’s top lawyer quitting the agency

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:47 EST

The top attorney at South Carolina’s environmental and health department has resigned after 18 years.

Carl Roberts, who has spent his entire career as a government lawyer, will leave the Department of Health and Environmental Control to work with the Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd law firm.

Roberts’ departure as chief legal counsel comes at a time of change for DHEC. Gov. Nikki Haley installed a new governing board last year, and longtime Commissioner Earl Hunter retired a few months later. Some legislators say Hunter was pressured to quit.

But Roberts, 56, said he was not asked to resign. Instead, he had an opportunity from Haynsworth he could not pass up, Roberts said. He leaves the $116,000-per-year DHEC job in a month.

“They contacted me out of the blue and asked me if I was interested in talking to them,’’ Roberts said. “I met a number of folks and they made me an offer.’’

Money crunch may force changes at SC State

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:17 EST

Students at South Carolina State University could find fewer courses and larger classes this fall as school officials cope with the latest financial squeeze.

Those changes are designed to “right-size” a campus with declining enrollment, said school president George Cooper.

School officials on Tuesday stunned even board members when they revealed that instead of the $2.5 million surplus expected by June 30, they will have a $3.5 million deficit. They attributed the shortfall mostly to spring enrollment falling by 350 students.

And, to top off a tumultuous week, Cooper announced on Friday that he had fired several school officials but wouldn’t say who or why.

Meanwhile, Cooper says he is taking steps to cut costs.

Highlights from the fifth week of the S.C. legislative session

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:18 EST

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“We don’t have shared goals with the Democrats. ... Every time we compromise with Democrats, we spend more, we borrow more, we grow government.”

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-Greenville, addressing the Conservative Political Action Committee’s annual meeting last week, urging no compromise with President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats

SCHMOOZING

S.C. Politics: The Buzz

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:20 EST

A sometimes irreverent look inside S.C. politics

Gold rush!

We at the Buzz have been scratching our heads about what to do with these nuggets of gold we discovered while panning along the Wateree recently.

Thank goodness, S.C. lawmakers have helped us figure it out!

Later this month, a House panel will consider a bill declaring that any type of gold and silver coin is legal tender in the Palmetto State. A similar bill has been filed in the state Senate. The bill also would establish a committee that would work out the details on this new alternate form of currency. (Just need to hammer those little nuggets into our own coins, and the Buzz will be in business!)

S.C. & Ga. at impasse over Jasper port

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:11 EST

Gov. Nikki Haley met privately Friday with Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal to discuss a troubled $5 billion port project in Jasper County, but their session failed to resolve an impasse between the states that threatens to kill the ambitious proposal.

Haley and Deal quickly left the two-hour meeting and did not make themselves available to the media. Ports officials said they were instructed not to discuss the meeting, held at a locked office building in this city along the Georgia-South Carolina border.

But Georgia governor’s office spokesman Brian Robinson later characterized the meeting as “productive” and said the two sides would meet again.

The two states have been working on a joint port in Jasper County, just downriver from the established port of Savannah. They jointly own about 1,500 acres in South Carolina, and each has spent more than $3 million already.

Plans for the new port hit a wall two months ago when the S.C. Ports Authority voted to withhold funding for the Jasper project until Georgia meets certain demands.

S.C. political briefs

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:15 EST

Eastover, S. Congaree voters go to polls in April

Voters in Eastover and South Congaree will go to the polls in early April to settle contests for town posts, but those in Pine Ridge probably won’t need to do so.

Filing for all posts ended Friday, although write-in candidates may emerge.

The April 10 ballot in Eastover features Councilwoman Geraldene Robinson challenging incumbent Leroy Faber for mayor. There also are three candidates for three Town Council posts — incumbent Judith Bailey along with Heyward Patterson and Rhudine Robinson.

The April 3 ballot in South Congaree features Councilman Jerry McCormick challenging incumbent Mayor Bobby Vining. There are four candidates for two Town Council posts — incumbent Eddie Enfinger along with Jerry Smith, Lila Gantt and Larry Jackson.

DeMint: Contentious GOP race helps party

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:05 EST

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint kicked off a three-day gathering of conservative activists Thursday, telling thousands of cheering supporters that the divided Republican presidential contest is good for the party and will produce a stronger nominee to take on President Obama.

In a TV interview before his opening speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee’s annual convention in Washington, DeMint said the GOP race could go all the way to August’s Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.

That could lead to delegates choosing the GOP nominee at a brokered convention for the first time since 1948.

“The way it’s set up this year – with the divided delegates – it could very well go to the convention,” DeMint told CNN.

At the gathering of conservatives, DeMint said the fierce primary competition is good for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

Stress, poor diet, lack of exercise plague state

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:52 EST

Nearly one-third of South Carolinians don’t get any regular exercise and nearly one-third of the state’s population feels stressed, but the two conditions aren’t necessarily related.

Those are among the results from health-related questions in the latest Winthrop Poll, which for the most part backed what state health officials have been saying for years. Despite some recent improvements, South Carolina has too many physically inactive people, too many who don’t eat right and too many who don’t get care when they’re sick.

For instance, 68.5 percent of the poll respondents said they had done strenuous exercise in the past month, including 29.4 percent who exercise two of fewer times a week, 25.9 percent who exercise three to five times a week and 11.6 who exercise more than five times a week. That’s all good, but 31.2 percent said they hadn’t exercised in the previous month.

“To me, the more telling part of it is the number who said no, who said that they had done no vigorous exercise in the past month,” said Russ Pate, a USC exercise science professor who has served on several national physical activity task forces. “That’s higher than you see in national surveys, and that’s alarming.”

In another survey cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 27 percent of South Carolinians in 2007 reported they didn’t exercise routinely. The lack of exercise often is listed among the reasons for the rapid rise in the number of overweight and obese people in the state, now up to one-third of the population.

State could take cut of city fees, fines

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:57 EST

You may have to pay more money to park in city-owned parking spaces because of a proposal lawmakers inserted into the state budget on Thursday.

The proposal, sponsored by state Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, would require S.C. cities to give 35 percent of the money that they collect from parking tickets and meters on state-owned roads to the state government.

If it passes, the proposal would transfer almost $2 million a year that now goes to South Carolina’s two largest cities to the state.

That’s because the state owns 70 percent of the roads in Columbia and 75 percent of the roads in Charleston. The proposal would cost Columbia $700,000 a year and Charleston $1.13 million a year, according to city officials. That loss, they said, likely would lead them to increase parking rates.

Limehouse’s company, Palmetto Parking, manages 27 private parking lots and garages in and around Charleston, according to its website. But Limehouse said he would not benefit financially if Charleston raised its public parking rates because he does not own the private parking lots and garages that he manages. Instead, he said his proposal is designed to recoup money derived from state-owned roads so the state Department of Transportation can better maintain those roads.

Proposal squeezes retirees, workers

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:59 EST

South Carolina’s 106,000 retired teachers, state employees and local government workers would get raises only if the state’s retirement fund makes more money consistently from its investments.

And state workers hired after July 1 would have to work longer – 30 years, up from the current 28 – before they could retire.

That’s what’s facing state employees according to a proporsal moving through the state House of Representatives designed to reduce the state’s $13 billion pension debt.

South Carolina’s taxpayers and state employees put $1.6 billion into the state’s retirement fund in 2010, but the state paid out $2.6 billion in benefits to retirees. That gap – coupled with the cost of early retirements, cost-of-living increases and stock market losses – means the state has a $38 billion liability to its employees but only $25 billion to pay them – a $13 billion deficit. The House proposal, which has not yet been introduced as a bill, is tied to a larger plan that would overhaul the retirement system in an effort to corral corral that deficit.

For instance, it would promise a cost-of-living raise to retirees only if the average earnings over five years from the retirement fund’s investments equal or exceed 7.5 percent. Right now, retirees are promised a raise, capped at 1 percent, every year based on inflation.

Poll: Climate change real, but environmental laws costly

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:22 EST

Global climate change is real ...

More than 4 of every 5 South Carolinians surveyed by the Winthrop Poll said global climate change is real, and almost 3 of every 4 said humans contribute “greatly” — 31.8 percent — or “somewhat” —40.6 percent — to it. Another 11.1 percent said climate change is for real but humans do not contribute to it.

Only 10.2 percent said climate change is “not real.”

Democrats were mostly likely to say climate change’s cause is human — 43.7 percent — while Republicans were most likely to say humans are not the cause or reject the whole idea — at 16.4 percent and 15.3 percent, respectively.

But many say environmental laws too costly

Winthrop Poll’s fun facts

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:26 EST

What year was 9/11?

Quick: What year did the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occur?

If you answered 2001, you are among the 71.1 percent of South Carolinians who got it right when surveyed by Winthrop University in its most recent poll.

Almost 12 percent said another year, and almost 17 percent didn’t know.

OK, who is the vice president?

House GOP wants to cut tax exemptions

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:29 EST

S.C. House Republicans pledged Wednesday to introduce a bill that would eliminate two-thirds of the exemptions to the state’s sales tax and, in exchange, lower the overall sales tax rate and business income taxes.

The bill is one of 10 bills that Republicans, who control the House and Senate, plan to introduce dealing with tax reform this legislative session.

At $2.2 billion a year, sales taxes account for 42 percent of the state’s revenues. But the state has 78 sales tax exemptions – so much, that the state actually exempts more revenue from the sales tax than it collects.

In November, a Columbia attorney asked the State Supreme Court to throw out those sales tax exemptions, arguing they are unconstitutional because they amount to “special legislation” that only affects certain people. The exemptions also take money from important state functions, like public education, the lawsuit argues.

Republicans have spoken out against the lawsuit. House Speaker Bobby Harrell and Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, both Charleston Republicans, say eliminating all of the sales tax exemptions would amount to a $3 billion tax increase.

S.C. political briefs

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:42 EST

Meeting has some officials nervous

Some state lawmakers are nervous about a Friday meeting between Gov. Nikki Haley and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal about a proposed port in South Carolina’s Jasper County.

The two, along with port officials from both states, are scheduled to meet Friday in Augusta to discuss the yet-to-be-built port, which they say would benefit both states.

“The last time these two got together, it didn’t do a heck of a lot for us,” said state Rep. Jim Merrill, R-Berkeley.

Added Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence: “They cleaned our clocks.”

Corps of Engineers to pay for Charleston Harbor deepening study

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:35 EST

Sen. Lindsey Graham Wednesday hailed the news that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had allocated $2.5 million to expand its study on deepening the Charleston, S.C., port to accommodate a new generation of super-tankers.

Graham said he’s hopeful that President Barack Obama will include additional funding beyond the start of the 2013 fiscal year in the budget he sends Congress next week.

The $2.5 million in new funding will be used for the remaining almost eight months of the 2012 fiscal year. The Republican senator obtained details about it in a work plan from the Army Corps of Engineers, which started the Charleston port study last year with a $150,000 grant.

“Today, about one out of every five jobs in South Carolina is tied, directly and indirectly, to the operation of the (Charleston) port,” Graham said. “Deepening the port will allow us to keep these jobs in our state and also create more jobs in the future.”

No president gets everything requested in a budget, and Republican lawmakers likely will seek to block many of Obama’s funding requests in an election year focused on federal spending and government debt.