THE BUZZ: The week that changed SC State

State lawmakers sent a message to S.C. State University last week: Radical change is coming.

With proposals backed by powerful legislators, the state’s only historically black public college likely will lose its trustees – and then its president – in coming months.

Why? Those leaders did not get the school out of a deepening financial crisis.

The legislative proposals would have S.C. State fall under control of temporary leaders, expected to turn around the Orangeburg college’s finances before lawmakers elect new trustees.

Two turning points Wednesday contributed to the imminent overhaul of the 119-year-old college.

No one thought S.C. State would dig out of its debt overnight.

But lawmakers expected the school to keep its deficit in check by making spending cuts. Not enough cuts were made and not enough answers concerning the school’s finances were provided, lawmakers said.

That gave lawmakers confidence to move ahead with proposals to remove S.C. State trustees. House budget writers went first Wednesday, followed the next day by a bill sponsored by the state’s most powerful politician, Senate President Pro Tempore Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence.

Consider just how fast faith in S.C. State’s leadership has been lost: Leatherman moved to sack the school’s board less than three months after engineering a $12 million infusion for the university.

Why the change of heart? Leatherman cited the school’s still-growing deficit.

“That’s certainly going in the wrong direction,” Leatherman said Friday.

Additional powerful voices also have weighed in.

House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, and University of South Carolina president Harris Pastides, a member of legislative-appointed committee examining S.C. State, both said removing the school’s trustees is the right move.

Change seems even more inevitable after lawmakers who graduated from S.C. State and African-American legislators said they had enough.

Four African-American lawmakers – including a top Democrat, state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter of Orangeburg – backed the House budget amendment to oust S.C. State’s trustees.

Leatherman’s bill to oust the school’s trustees was co-sponsored by state Sen. John Matthews, a Orangeburg Democrat who graduated from S.C. State.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat who is one of school’s most prominent alums, also called last week for the removal of the school’s trustees – most of whom he called “jokes.”

Influential backers of punting S.C. State’s trustees think any interim board should fire president Thomas Elzey.

Elzey pledged last week to keep his focus on rebuilding the school. Meanwhile, S.C. State trustees chairman William Small said the university’s board has been “unfairly disparaged.”

“I am convinced that this situation could have and should have been handled in a much more professional and substantially less damaging manner,” Small said, critiquing the actions of legislators. “My hope and prayer is that the histrionics will cease and that better judgment and reason will somehow find a place at the table.”

S.C. State supporters – more than 1,000 of whom attended a State House rally Monday – can take solace in the fact that the college will remain open.

A House budget proposal to close S.C. State for two years died last week. But the proposal, pushed by House Republicans including Rep. Phillip Lowe of Florence, achieved its goal of sparking debate on changing the university’s leadership.

“You tell Mr. Lowe if that was his intention,” Clyburn said, “he succeeded greatly.”

How to spend $6.9 billion

State representatives’ priorities were on display when the House Ways and Means committee approved a $6.9 billion general fund budget last week for the state’s fiscal year that starts July 1.

While a final spending plan is a long way from reaching Gov. Nikki Haley’s desk, here’s a snapshot of what House budget-writers approved and sent to the House floor:

Additionally, if the state closes its books in June without a deficit, the Department of Commerce would receive $17.6 million for its fund to close economic-development deals, while the Department of Education would get $30 million for new school buses.

Several local projects – critics call the items “pork” – made the cut with House budget writers.

They approved: $25,000 for the Newberry Opera House; $150,000 for the Palmetto Conservation Foundation; and $200,000 for the Columbia Museum of Art.

2016 in S.C.: The four horsemen?

A quartet of prospective White House candidates are coming to the South’s first presidential primary state this week:

Buzz Bites

Thurmond would ask him to visit South Carolina, Biden said. Doing his best Thurmond imitation, Biden said the legendary senator would ask him, “ ‘Joe, you mind goin’ to Clemson fo’ ma institute?’ ”

“What the hell heck was I going to say?” Biden said Wednesday. “ ‘No, I don’t mind.’ ”

One problem, Mr. Vice President: Mayor is the only elected office that Benjamin has held.

Staff writers Cassie Cope and Jamie Self contributed

This story was originally published February 21, 2015 at 6:45 PM with the headline "THE BUZZ: The week that changed SC State."