Sanford suing General Assembly

Action to challenge use of $350 million in federal funds

By JOHN O’CONNOR - joconnor@thestate.com

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Gov. Mark Sanford is taking the General Assembly to court after lawmakers required him to accept $350 million in disputed federal money by overriding his budget vetoes.

Sanford quickly announced the federal suit after the Senate voted 34-11 on a state budget that forces him to accept the money.

“We know a suit will be filed against us on this issue, and as such we’ve filed a suit tonight in response,” Sanford said in a prepared statement. “We believe the Legislature’s end-around move won’t pass constitutional muster.”

PDF: Gov. Mark Sanford's lawsuit against the S.C. General Assembly
What’s next

The battle over the stimulus
• Gov. Mark Sanford said Wednesday he will file a lawsuit over control of $350 million in federal stimulus money. Sanford will make the lawsuit public today.• Lawmakers have given Sanford five days to accept the $350 million.
Sanford vetoes
Gov. Mark Sanford issued 49 budget vetoes and House lawmakers sustained 17 of them Wednesday. Here is some of what lawmakers and Sanford agreed upon.
Capitol police force. Budget item establishing a police force that would guard garage entrances to the State House complex. Sanford has opposed establishing another law enforcement agency to guard the capitol, something Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell favors.
ESC pay. Budget item that would continue to allow the state’s Employment Security Commission’s salaries to be set by a federal pay scale. The governor argued the General Assembly should determine pay, not the federal government. Sanford has been at odds with commissioners for months over employment data he has requested.
Cabinet oversight. Rule would require the 14 cabinet agencies under the governor to also report to the Senate Finance Committee chairman and House Ways and Means Committee chairman about time spent outside their offices. Sanford said this is micromanaging.
Competitive grants. Lawmakers and Sanford agree to abolish the competitive grants program, which allowed lawmakers to award millions of dollars to local government and pet projects.
What’s next

The fight over $700 million in stimulus money:
The override. Lawmakers could override Gov. Mark Sanford’s veto of the stimulus money. The lawsuit. A Chapin High School student said she would refile her lawsuit compelling Sanford to spend the money on education.
The deadline. If Sanford is overturned today, he would have to until May 26 to tap the money.
Left to do

What still has a shot at passing:
Payday lending. Senate bill sets payday loans at $500, and one-at-a-time limit. Point of sale. Senate bill would limit taxes increases on new home buyers.
Cigarette tax. Senate could raise the cigarette tax to 50 cents a pack — but how to spend the resulting $157 million remains an issue.e.
Vetoed

What Gov. Sanford scratched from the budget:
$5.7 billion. All the funding that would pay for state government beginning July 1
$350 million. The disputed federal stimulus money State golf courses. Were among the 47 vetoes that , among other things, would end state ownership of two golf coursesTo read Sanford’s veto message visit thestate.com.

Sanford will release details of the suit today.

Lawmakers said Wednesday there was little room to negotiate with the governor, and they would welcome a lawsuit if the governor chose to ignore the new state law. State courts should decide the issue, they said.

“This is the law of the state,” Senate Finance Committee chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, said. “He took an oath of office to uphold the laws of the state.”

Leatherman predicted law-makers would win any state legal battle. The S.C. Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit earlier this year because there was still time for lawmakers and Sanford to work out a compromise. The Chapin High School student who filed the original suit has said she wanted to file another once the budget was approved.

Sanford and lawmakers have battled for months over whether to include about $350 million in federal money over the next two budget years, the first beginning July 1. Sanford has said he will not accept the money unless the state pays off an equivalent amount of debt.

Lawmakers have said the money can only be used for schools, public safety and a few other expenses and warned of dire consequences if the money is not included in next year’s budget.

Looming over the debate as well is a new deadline from the U.S. Department of Education that states must apply for the money by July 1.

Many in the Legislature said it was past time the issue was resolved, while others hoped a judge might get the two sides to strike a compromise.

There was little compromise during House and Senate debate Wednesday.

The issue was particularly contentious in the Senate, where lawmakers accused opponents of distorting the arguments.

“There were deliberate holes blown in core services so political pressure would be applied to the governor,” Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort and a former Sanford chief-of-staff, said of the budget. Davis said it was irresponsible to pass a budget that spends money still in limbo.

“What you’re going to reap is the whirlwind,” he warned of court proceedings.

But others said that even if they agreed with Sanford, it was difficult to vote with him when he criticized them in public.

“Governor, it’s hard to help you when I am getting stabbed in the back,” said Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Newberry, arguing misinformation had been spread.

The Senate voted on just the two vetoes that contained the majority of the $5.7 billion budget and $350 million in stimulus, leaving the rest to deal with today.

The House dealt with the remaining 47 vetoes during an afternoon of debate, sustaining about one-third of Sanford’s vetoes, but rejected his request to redraw the entire budget.

House leaders said it was irresponsible to allow Sanford to strike the entire budget.

“The governor gave the House false, impossible choices on the budget,” Rep. Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, said in a written statement, “so we had to approve a budget that responsibly spends the taxpayer dollars entrusted to us.”

Among the biggest victories for the governor was striking a rule that would have stripped Sanford of the ability to appoint the chairman of the South Carolina Research Authority. Another victory eliminated language creating a capitol police force.

But a number of items Sanford had highlighted were overturned, including requiring state colleges and others to pay for traffic control at sporting events and allowing the privatization of state-run golf courses and state plane maintenance and operations.

Lawmakers argued ticket taxes paid for traffic control, the state could run golf courses more efficiently, and state plane maintenance was more reliable than private services.

Reach O’Connor at (803) 771-8358.

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