TheState.com: Politics

Bill would force SC schools to be more careful with athletes’ concussions

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:47 EDT

A high school athlete who suffers a concussion will have to get approval from a physician before returning to sports activities, according to a bill being considered by the state Senate.

The bill, H.3061, has passed the House, but it was amended by a Senate committee. If the full Senate approves the bill, the House must approve the amended version before it goes to Gov. Nikki Haley.

The bill has the backing of the S.C. Medical Association, the S.C. Athletic Trainers’ Association and the Brain Injury Association of South Carolina, all of which contributed to its content.

“All of the players have done a fantastic job of listening to us on this,” said Craig Clark, head athletics trainer at Furman University and president-elect of the state athletics trainers association. “It’s going to help take care of the athletes in South Carolina.”

Concussions have drawn more scrutiny in recent years as researchers have detailed an increase in the diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries among all athletes — from the National Football League to high school players. While football gets the most attention, concussions are common among basketball, hockey and soccer players.

SC political briefs, May 22

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:29 EDT

Haley on leave plans with husband: ‘Just hug each other’

Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday that she and her two children were very happy to have S.C. first gentleman Michael Haley home on a two-week leave from his year-long state National Guard deployment in Afghanistan.

“We are beside ourselves,” the governor said at a news conference, the day after her husband arrived in South Carolina.

Asked what the family planned to do while her husband is on leave from his unit aiding Afghan farmers, Haley said: “Just hug each other.”

“He’s been in the desert in 115-degree heat,” the governor continued. “When he came home he goes, ‘It’s so green here, it’s so green here.’ We’re letting him eat all his favorite foods and play basketball with (their son) Nalin. It’s family time in a big way.”

SC House panel proposes new computer agency

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:48 EDT

A South Carolina House committee proposed Tuesday creating a separate Cabinet-level agency to oversee information technology in response to a massive computer data breach at the S.C. Department of Revenue last year.

The House Ways and Mean Committee proposal varies from a Senate bill – as well as recommendations from a state-hired consultant – that would keep computer work at individual state agencies while centralizing security in a S.C. Budget and Control Board division.

The Department of Information Technology that the House panel proposes would have a director appointed by the governor. The department would develop annual statewide computer technology and security plans, and review similar plans from state agencies. The public could not review technology department records, other than expenditures, under the House bill.

Hackers stole passwords to take personal financial information belonging to 6.4 million consumers, children and businesses from electronic tax returns stored on state Revenue Department computers. The data theft is thought to be the largest ever at a U.S. state agency.

In response, the state paid $12 million to Experian to provide credit monitoring to individuals this year. Nearly 1.5 million people enrolled.

SC Senate kills last effort to expand Medicaid

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:44 EDT

The state Senate killed Medicaid expansion on Tuesday, the last hope for supporters who wanted to extend health insurance benefits to South Carolina’s working poor.

The vote was 23-19, with two Republicans – Ray Cleary of Georgetown and Paul Campbell of Berkeley County – joining all of the Senate’s 17 Democrats present in voting for the expansion. Four senators, one Democrat and three Republicans, were absent.

The proposal would have accepted $795.8 million in federal money to pay for health insurance for about 320,000 South Carolinians beginning Jan. 1. There would have been no direct cost to the state. Because the proposed Medicaid expansion was an amendment to the state budget, it would have expired after one year. Lawmakers would have had to vote to expand coverage again next year.

S.C. taxpayers would not have to pay for the expansion until 2017. By 2020, the federal government would have sent $11 billion to South Carolina while state taxpayers would have had to pay for 10 percent of the expansion’s costs – between $619 million and $1.9 billion, according to estimates.

Republicans, including Gov. Nikki Haley, said South Carolina could not afford the expansion, saying the state already struggles to pay for its share of the current Medicaid program. Health care is the largest single expense in the state’s $22.7 billion budget.

SC House bill would end ‘school choice’ for student-property owners

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:31 EDT

A decades-old form of “school choice” is under fire from lawmakers who say it is not fair to all S.C. families.

A House bill that advanced Tuesday would repeal a 1962 state law that allows students to attend school in districts where they do not live, as long as they own property in that district with a tax value of at least $300.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. James Smith, D-Richland, would eliminate the law. Critics say the law is a vestige of the segregation era, allowing families who are able to buy property in their children’s names to choose schools for them – a form of “school choice” not available to everyone.

Opponents of the bill, including S.C. Schools Superintendent Mick Zais, say it would eliminate educational choices for families. “The bill eliminates a form of school choice for students and parents without offering an alternative, such as an open-enrollment option,” said Jay Ragley, Zais’s spokesman.

The House Education Committee approved the bill by a narrow, bipartisan 9-7 vote. The bill now goes to the House floor for debate. If it passes, it is unlikely the Senate will take it up this year, but it would be on the upper chamber’s agenda when it returns in January.

SC Gov. Haley happy her husband home on leave from guard deployment

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:15 EDT

Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday that she and her two children were very happy to have South Carolina First Gentleman Michael Haley home on a two-week leave from his year-long state National Guard deployment in Afghanistan.

“We are besides ourselves,” the governor said at a news conference that day after her husband arrived in South Carolina.

Ask what they planned to do while her husband is on leave from his unit aiding Afghan farmers, Haley said: “Just hug each other.”

“He’s been in the desert in 115-degree heat,” the governor continued. “When came home he goes, ‘It’s so green here, it’s so green here.’. We’re letting him eat all his favorite foods and play basketball with (their son) Nalin. It’s family time in a big way.”

SC governor urges Senate to pass ethics reform

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:23 EDT

Republicans and Democrats pointed fingers at each other on Tuesday over an ethics bill that, as the legislative calendar winds down, appears more likely it will not pass this year.

Republican Gov. Nikki Haley held a news conference Tuesday morning, flanked by 14 Republican state senators, calling on the Senate to pass an ethics bill that would make lawmakers disclose who pays them and would force former lawmakers to wait at least eight years after their terms end before they can come back and get paid to lobby their former colleagues.

“If we can get a group of Senate Democrats to come our way, this passes,” she said. “This is not a partisan thing. This should be the issue of elected officials understand(ing) we work for the people and not the other way around -- and we’re going to prove it by passing ethics reform this year.”

Senate Democrats bristled at the implication they are holding up an ethics bill -- especially one supported by Sen. Vincent Sheheen, a Kershaw County democrat who plans to challenge Haley in 2014.

“She needs to be talking to the Republicans who are not supporting her,” said Senate Majority Leader Nikki Setzler, D-Lexington, referring to a group of far-right Republican senators who have refused to fast track the ethics bill because they want the Senate to first vote on a bill that would put the state on record as opposing the federal Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

SC eyeing Oregon for solution to meth lab ‘explosion’

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:32 EDT

Making methamphetamine is as easy as shopping at a store where the highly addictive drug’s ingredients – from cold medicine to batteries and soda bottles to “cook” the drug in – are available.

“If you can follow a Toll House chocolate chip recipe, you can make meth,” Marshall Fisher, director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, said at a round-table discussion in Columbia earlier this month.

Simplified cooking methods and easy access to ingredients, including a cold medicine that is key to making meth, have led to a spike in S.C. meth lab incidents, which increased more than 300 percent from 2010 to 2012, S.C. law enforcement leaders say. Efforts to curb the rising number of toxic meth labs are not working, they add.

The answer to the problem, they say, may lie in Oregon and Mississippi, states that say they have reduced the number of meth labs by enacting laws making cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, the decongestant used to make meth, available by prescription only.

A bill sponsored by state Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, would do the same in South Carolina.

SC has ‘significant problem’ with prescription-drug abuse, report says

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:33 EDT

South Carolina does not have a plan to fight prescription-drug abuse despite ranking 10th in the nation in painkiller prescriptions, the state’s inspector general said in a new report.

The statewide database that tracks painkiller prescriptions is not mandatory, “and only 22 percent of physicians are registered and much fewer actually use it for prescription decisions,” according to the report. Also, the state’s “pain management guidelines,” as determined by the state Board of Medical Examiners, allow “physicians broad discretion in their application, which in turn allows naive and pill-mill doctors to unintentionally flourish.”

“State authorities do not have a rigorous, systemic understanding of South Carolina’s painkiller problem,” Inspector General Patrick J. Maley wrote in his report. “However, from ad hoc national data, South Carolina clearly has a significant problem that is likely worse than an average state.”

Maley points to studies showing our state ranks 10th in the country in painkiller prescriptions per capita – 33 percent higher than the national average – and 23rd in the country in overdose deaths per capita – with 225 deaths recorded in 2011.

However, Maley was skeptical of the state’s record keeping, noting the state Department of Health and Environmental Control recorded only two drug overdose deaths in York County in 2011 while that county’s coroner reported 34 overdose deaths.

Alan Wilson wants IRS-targeted groups to come forward

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:26 EDT

S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson said Monday that he wants nonprofit organizations in the state that think they were “wrongfully targeted by the IRS” to contact his office.

The Internal Revenue Service admitted earlier this month that it had targeted groups with Tea Party-related names for extra scrutiny when they sought nonprofit status.

“It is important to determine whether ... South Carolinians had their legal rights violated and to protect our most basic freedoms,” Wilson, a first-term Republican, said in a statement.

Any findings would be passed to “the appropriate authority,” Wilson said.

The founder of the Laurens County Tea Party has said the IRS asked for extra information about that group’s activities, including its website and Facebook page. The Laurens group says it applied for tax-exempt status in 2010 but has not received an answer.

Nikki Haley's husband back home for leave from deployment

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:50 EDT

S.C. First Gentleman Michael Haley is back home for up to two weeks of leave from a year-long S.C. National Guard deployment in Afghanistan, the governor’s office said Monday.

The husband of Gov. Nikki Haley, a captain in the guard, left for Afghanistan in January as a part of a 47-member unit of agricultural and business professionals aiding local farmers.

He returned to South Carolina on Monday morning a few days earlier than expected, leading the governor to postpone two public events and a campaign fundraiser planned in Charleston today, her spokesman Rob Godfrey said.

Her weekly schedule that was released today had no other events this week.

Deployed guard members can request up to two weeks of leave, guard spokeswoman Maj. Cindi King said. Decisions are made by their commanders, she said.

Joe and Alan Wilson: Father and son

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:37 EDT

Alan Wilson became fatherless at age 2. His father, Army Captain Michael A. McCrory, was killed when his helicopter crashed at Fort Bragg. After his mother married Joe Wilson, Alan gained a father through adoption.

Joe’s career has included becoming a founding partner in the West Columbia law firm of Kirkland, Wilson, Moore, Taylor & Thomas, a member of the United States Army Reserves and the South Carolina National Guard, and a South Carolina state senator. However, he is most notable for his role as a congressman serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for the past 12 years.

Alan, now 39 years old, is South Carolina’s Attorney General. When he celebrated his election victory as America’s youngest attorney general o November 2, 2010, he paid homage to both fathers.

Alan, who grew up in Lexington, explains how his adoptive father, Joe, put a both a photo of himself and his biological father by Alan’s bedside so Alan would always remember and honor his biological father. Gestures like this, as well as watching Joe engage in public service, left a lasting impression on Alan.

Joe and his wife, Roxanne, first met at a Teenage Republicans camp. They became reacquainted after McCrory died. Joe Wilson and Michael McCrory had known each other before Michael was killed. They graduated the same year from neighboring universities: Joe at Washington and Lee and Michael at Virginia Military Institute.

SC Legislature: 3 final weeks, 2 key issues, 1 race in ’14

Sat, 18 May 2013 20:30 EDT

It’s going to be a busy three weeks for Gov. Nikki Haley and state Sen. Vincent Sheheen.

That’s how long the political rivals have to push through – and take credit for – two bills that both think hold the keys to their political futures.

One bill would reorganize state government, giving the governor more control over its day-to-day operations. The other bill would require politicians to disclose who pays them and change who punishes lawmakers when they break ethics laws.

Those two issues – government restructuring and ethics reform – will play major roles in the 2014 governor’s race. And what happens over the next three weeks will influence heavily what S.C. voters will hear in campaign ads and talking points for the next six months, as both candidates kick off their campaigns in earnest this summer.

Standing in the way of those two bills is the state’s $22.7 billion budget. It is the only bill lawmakers must pass before the legislative session ends on June 6, and it promises to bog down the state Senate for all of next week.

The Buzz: A new first at the SC State House?

Sat, 18 May 2013 20:45 EDT

State Rep. Ted Vick’s second DUI arrest in a year came in a place that is hard enough to drive around without having a couple glasses of wine – the S.C. State House parking garage.

The charge against the Chesterfield Democrat might be a first in the maze-like complex under the State House complex.

A trio of former longtime senators who left office last year – Democrats Phil Leventis of Sumter and John Land of Manning, and Republican Jake Knotts of Lexington – said they are unaware of any lawmaker, before Vick, ever being arrested in the State House garage.

“I never heard of that before,” said Land, who spent 36 years in the Senate.

However, Leventis added, location does not matter when its comes to drunk driving.

SC State House for sale

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:34 EDT

Editor's note: Viewers using certain mobile devices will not see the video associated with this story. If that is the case for you, click here to watch.

Two of the highest-ranking members of the S.C. Legislature during the past decade are easy to spot at the State House this spring, shaking hands and smiling from the lobby of the grand old building.

But Tommy Moore and Dan Cooper no longer represent the public. They are lobbyists hired by the country’s largest garbage companies to influence their former colleagues and win passage of a garbage bill, now stuck in the state Senate.

Less than two years after quitting the Legislature, both Moore, the 2006 Democratic candidate for governor, and Cooper, the former Republican head of the powerful House budget committee, walked through the State House’s revolving door as lobbyists.

They are not alone.

Garbage giants are major political donors in SC

Sat, 18 May 2013 20:44 EDT

The country’s two largest waste companies have given at least $108,000 in campaign contributions to S.C. legislators and candidates for governor during the past four years, according to financial reports filed with the state Ethics Commission

Waste Management has donated the lion’s share – about $90,000. Republic Services has contributed about $18,000.

• Republican Gov. Nikki Haley has received at least $3,500 in campaign contributions from Waste Management. Her opponent in the 2010 election, state Sen Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, has received $5,500 from Waste Management since 2009 as a Senate and gubernatorial candidate, records show.

• Waste Management has contributed about $90,000 to the campaigns of about 90 lawmakers since 2009, records show. Republic has contributed about $18,000 to public officials, including at least 13 legislators. A garbage bill that the two companies support passed the S.C. House earlier this year. Of the 89 representatives who voted for the bill, 37 received contributions from Waste Management or Republic. Of the 23 who voted against the bill, seven received contributions from the two companies. The state Senate has not yet voted on the bill.

What the companies say

SC legislators: Who got garbage bucks and how they voted

Sun, 19 May 2013 02:11 EDT

SC HOUSE

The S.C. House voted 89-23 on Jan. 30 to approve a garbage industry-backed bill to limit the authority of counties to run landfills. House members receiving contributions from the country’s two largest garbage companies, Waste Management and Republic Services, and how they voted on the waste bill those companies favor.

House member	Contributions, Waste Management	Contributions, Republic	Voted for bill?
Allison, Rita	$1,500	0	Yes
Anthony, Michael	$0	$1,000	Yes
Bales, Jimmy	$2,000	$1,000	Yes
Clemmons, Alan	$1,000	0	Yes
Cole, J. Derham	$2,000	0	Yes
Crawford, Kris	$1,000	0	Yes
Crosby, Bill	$500	0	Yes
Daning, Joseph	$250	0	Yes
Delleney, Greg	$500	0	Yes
Forrester, Mike	$2,000	0	Yes
Funderburk, Laurie	$750	0	Yes
Gambrell, Mike	$1,000	0	Yes
Hardwick, Nelson	$1,500	0	Yes
Harrell, Bobby	$1,500	$1,000	Yes
Henderson, Phyllis	$250	0	Yes
Hiott, David	$1,500	0	Yes
Horne, Jenny	$2,250	0	Yes
Huggins, Chip	$500	0	Yes
Knight, Patsy	$500	0	Yes
Limehouse, Chip	$1,000	0	Yes
Loftis, Dwight	$500	0	Yes
Moss, Dennis	$750	0	Yes
Moss, Steve	$1,250	0	Yes
Murphy, Chris	$500	0	Yes
Pitts, Michael	$1,000	0	Yes
Rutherford, Todd	$500	0	Yes
Sandifer, Bill	$2,500	$250	Yes
Skelton, B.R.	$750	0	Yes
Smith, Garry	$1,000	0	Yes
Smith, James	$1,000	0	Yes
Stringer, Tommy	$500	0	Yes
Toole, Mac	$1,000	0	Yes
White, Brian	$1,500	0	Yes
Wood, Donna	$250	0	Yes
Total for “Yes” votes	$34,500	$3,250
Edge, Tracy	$500	$0	No
Brown, Grady	$0	$1,000	No
Dillard, Chandra	$500	$0	No
George, Wayne	$250	$0	No
Howard, Leon	$1,000	$0	No
Neal, Joe	$500	$0	No
Total for “No” Votes	$2,750	$1,000

SC SENATE

Senators have not voted on a waste industry-backed bill to limit county control of landfills. But 18 of the Senate’s 46 members have received campaign contributions from Waste Management and Republic Services.

Lobbying for, against the SC garbage bill

Sat, 18 May 2013 19:50 EDT

A half-dozen former legislators are among the almost 30 lobbyists trying to sway S.C. legislators to pass or defeat a controversial garbage bill.

Lobbying for bill

At least 15 lobbyists represent the waste-management industry, about a third of them ex-lawmakers. Veteran lobbyist Sara S. Rogers represents Waste Management Inc., while long-time lobbyists Stephen Smith and Jason Puhlasky are among those who represent Republic Services. Ex-legislators who are lobbying for the waste industry include:

• Former Rep. Billy Boan, a Democrat-turned-Republican who represented Lancaster County in the House from 1983-’99, including a stint as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Boan later was chief of staff to Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges. Boan, who says he has not been as actively involved as others in the garbage debate, reported receiving $49,507 in lobbying income from the MRR Southern garbage company from 2009-’12.

• Former Rep. Dan Cooper, a Republican who represented Anderson County in the House from 1991 until 2011, at one point chairing the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Cooper registered as a lobbyist for Republic Services in January, about 18 months after he left the House. He is not required to report his lobbying income for 2013 until this summer.

Garbage, garbage everywhere in SC

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:25 EDT

The garbage bill, the “Business Freedom to Choose Act,’’ got its start from a dispute between Horry County officials and a Marion County landfill owner. In 2009, Horry County passed an ordinance saying all of the trash produced in that county had to be disposed in the county, barring garbage from going to another landfill in nearby Marion County, which relied heavily on the Myrtle Beach market. The bill has been up for legislative debate since 2011, drawing national interest.

What the garbage bill says

What state law says now: State law currently allows counties to require that all local garbage go to a local landfill or transfer station. Thus far, a county’s right to direct waste to a local landfill has withstood state and federal court legal challenges.

How the “Business Freedom to Choose Act” would change state law: The bill would ban counties from requiring that local garbage be sent to a county landfill. It also would void any county ordinances that require garbage go to “one or more designated solid waste management facilities.’’

What counties and “green” groups say: The bill has broad implications that ultimately could render public garbage service obsolete in South Carolina, leaving waste companies to take over, set prices and import more out-of-state trash into the state. Counties say that if they can’t depend on local garbage going to their facilities, they won’t be able to generate the revenue to keep those facilities running. Eventually, that would force the landfills to close, leaving only private landfills that could begin bringing more out-of-state trash into South Carolina.

SC Senate to take up controversial school-choice proposal

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:26 EDT

The S.C. Senate is poised to vote on a controversial school-choice proposal next week that the upper house’s leader says “could be very close.”

The vote will come on an amendment to the state’s budget, which senators have been debating all week.

School-choice supporters tried twice Thursday to force a vote on the proposal. But opponents blocked them because three reliable “no” votes – state Sens. William O’Dell, R-Abbeville; Yancey McGill, D-Williamsburg; and Clementa Pinckney, D-Jasper – were absent.

The proposal would give parents tax deductions of up to:

• $4,000 a year for tuition paid to send their children to private schools.