Morning Buzz: Lawmakers tackle roads, Syrian refugees, SC State this week

Highlights of what is happening in the S.C. politics this week:

The S.C. Senate continues its debate over how to fix roads Tuesday.

A panel meets to talk about a bill to remake the transportation oversight board in the morning, while the Senate Finance Committee will discuss a roads funding bill in the afternoon.

The state’s transportation secretary told a roads-advocacy group Monday that South Carolina needs $1.2 billion a year to bring the state’s existing roads to perfect condition. Current proposals have the state funding about one-third of that.

▪  S.C. Rep. Mike Pitts talks Tuesday about his journalism registry bill, which the Greenville Republican said he filed to protest his belief of the media’s bias against guns rights.

▪  S.C. State University, still struggling with debt, makes a budget pitch Tuesday to the House panel that recommended last year closing the state’s only public black college for two years. The proposal did not pass, but the school’s trustees were replaced. The new trustees chairman told a legislative panel last month that its debt, including loans owed to the state, could force the 120-year-old college to close.

▪  U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-Indian Land, speaks before a state Senate committee Wednesday about efforts to keep Syrian refugees from coming into South Carolina. A Senate panel considers bills Tuesday that would ban state agencies from being involved in refugee placement and require refugees to register with the state.

▪  2016 in SC: GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump visits Harmon’s Tree Farm in Gilbert on Wednesday. The New York billionaire still holds a commanding lead in South Carolina polls.

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 1:00 AM.