Tag: SC General Assembly

Amending the State Impact Fee Law Would be Real Government Effectiveness

Earlier this month, Rep. William Bailey (R-104) posted the following on his Facebook page to his constituents in Horry County:
“As the federal and state governments start to review and reform their financial responsibilities to our taxpayers, I strongly encourage local governments to begin a process of enhancing infrastructure projects, limiting governmental expansion, and encouraging and assisting small businesses as they struggle with related inflation that negatively impacts us all. Every dollar should be a wise investment for our future but more importantly, they should be dollars that improve our economic stability.”
Bailey has generally done a good job representing his constituents in the North Myrtle Beach area. One thing he could do to further help all the citizens in Horry County would be to sponsor a bill to amend the state’s current impact fee law to help local governments correctly apportion the costs of infrastructure improvements and additions caused by new construction.
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The Mica’s Law Press Conference Was Not a Political Stunt

The recent Mica’s Law press conference held by Conway Attorney Regina Ward and the reaction to it by District 33 Sen. Luke Rankin provided a microcosm of why voters are increasingly fed up with government and why change is needed in Columbia.
Mica’s Law is named after Mica Miller, a client of Ward’s who, reportedly, suffered from coercive control domestic violence before she tragically took her own life in a state park in North Carolina on April 27th of this year.
Ward criticized both houses of the SC General Assembly for ignoring bills which were filed in two consecutive legislative sessions, The bills dealt with providing law enforcement authority to investigate a form of domestic violence known as coercive control.
During her remarks, Ward mentioned that Rankin is Chairman of the Senate Judiciary, where the proposed legislation was left to die without any work being done on it. Ward’s press conference was covered extensively locally.

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Rankin Claims Victimhood From Mica’s Law Press Conference

Senator Luke Rankin responded to Attorney Regina Ward’s press conference yesterday about a proposed coercive control bill (Mica’s Law) with a Facebook post saying Ward was taking a political cheap shot against him.
Does Rankin actually believe that a press conference aimed at helping a coercive control bill to become law is in South Carolina is all about him?
Ward only mentioned Rankin as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the bill died in the Senate, in passing during her press conference. But, Ward did note that Rankin thought enough of the problems of domestic abuse to falsely charge his 2020 opponent for the District 33 Senate seat with committing domestic abuse.
Maybe the political stunts are being confused.

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Rankin Defends Current Process for Selecting SC Judges

Horry County Senator Luke Rankin spoke for approximately one hour on the SC Senate floor last week defending the current process for electing judges in the state.
Rankin, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and current Vice Chairman of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission (JMSC), spoke during debate on the Senate floor about possible changes to the way in which judges are elected in South Carolina.
A major point of contention is that lawyer/legislators in the General Assembly have too much influence in the process. A change currently being considered is to not allow attorneys to serve on the JMSC, a point Rankin ridiculed during his speech. Candidates who pass screening are then voted on by a joint session of the General Assembly or the county legislative delegation, depending on the judicial position. South Carolina and Virginia are the only two states in the nation in which the legislatures play the primary roles in electing judges.
A member of JMSC since 2017, Rankin, several times during his speech, likened the current process of electing judges to “kicking the tires of a car” when considering purchase of a new vehicle. Rankin spoke of the several “touch points” during the process which include inputs from appointed citizens committee, the SC Bar review and what is known as the ballot box technique of collecting anonymous comments about judicial candidates, all of which are available to the JMSC when it considers judicial candidates. Candidates are reported out of the JMSC as qualified or not qualified for consideration for the judicial position they are seeking.

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SC House Ad Hoc Committee Begins Hearings on Judicial Reform

The new House Ad Hoc Committee to Examine the Judicial Selection and Retention Process in South Carolina began hearings earlier this month.
The committee was formed because of the increasing calls from citizens, prosecutors and law enforcement personnel from around the state that judicial reform should be a priority in the coming legislative year.
South Carolina is one of two states (Virginia is the other), where judges are elected by the legislature. The Judicial Merit Selection Commission was a key component of the inquiry by the ad hoc committee at its second hearing of the month.
SC Attorney General Wilson was asked by a member of the committee if he thought it was possible that undue influence was put on judges by lawyer/legislators who are members of the JMSC or the larger General Assembly as a whole. Wilson answered, “Yes.”
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SC General Assembly Must Amend Impact Fee Law to Allow Local Government Freedom

Horry County Council is again wrestling with the question of how to raise impact fees to help offset the cost of providing needed infrastructure to serve the ever-increasing number of new homes being built in the county.
While county council investigates to increase impact fees, the state enabling legislation governing those fees provides the largest hurdle to overcome.
In 1999, the General Assembly passed legislation governing the imposition of impact fees by local governments with enough restrictions and obstacles to make them virtually unworkable for local government use. The development industry launched a huge lobbying effort against the law and was generally successful in making the law extremely difficult for local governments to use.
The legislation dictates how the local governments must use the money and in what time frame it must be used. It also requires commercial structures to be treated the same as homes with respect to taxing, something that makes impact fees on commercial structures an excessive burden.
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Bills Sponsored by Rankin and Crawford Expected to Increase Electricity Bills

Companion bills filed by Rep. Heather Crawford and Sen. Luke Rankin, in the two houses of the SC General Assembly, appear to have a goal of requiring electrical cooperatives to purchase electricity from Santee Cooper regardless of the cost.
The bills, introduced by Rankin in the Senate on February 9, 2023 and by Crawford in the House on February 28, 2023, read as follows: “A BILL TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY AMENDING SECTION 58-37-40, RELATING TO INTEGRATED RESOURCE PLANS, SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT CENTRAL ELECTRIC POWER COOPERATIVE MUST SUBMIT ALL PROPOSED CONTRACTS OR OTHER PLANS FOR THE PROCUREMENT OF ELECTRIC GENERATION TO THE JOINT BOND REVIEW COMMITTEE, THE STATE REGULATION OF PUBLIC UTILITIES REVIEW COMMITTEE, AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA PRIOR TO EXECUTION.”
Central Electric Power Cooperative provides wholesale electric service to South Carolinas electric cooperatives such as Horry Electric Cooperative and Pee Dee Electric Cooperative. It obtains most of its power through long term purchase agreements with Santee Cooper, Duke Energy Carolinas, and the Southeastern Power Administration.

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McMaster’s Liberal I-73 Agenda in State of State Speech

Governor Henry McMaster revealed what a pseudo-conservative he really is by including funding for the proposed Interstate 73 project in his State of the State agenda.
In his speech, McMaster said, “Our booming economy and rapid population growth have outpaced the state’s ability to keep up with improvements to our transportation infrastructure.”
Anyone driving on South Carolina roads would agree.
McMaster went on to say that he was asking the General Assembly to appropriate $660 million from the state’s share of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds and $600 million from the state’s excess revenue to the SC Department of Transportation.
McMaster said this one-time injection of $1.26 billion into the DOT budget would allow accelerate work on “some of the state’s highest priority projects.” Among those “highest priority projects” named was “the long-awaited start of construction on Interstate 73 from the Pee Dee to the Grand Strand.”
I’m sure McMasters’ words warmed the cockles of Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Karen Riordan’s heart and those of the special interests gathered around the Chamber supporting I-73.
Can we conclude payback to those interests for the many campaign contributions made to McMaster’s war chest?
Consider this:
When McMaster attended a Chamber press conference on I-73 last fall, he announced he would ask the General Assembly for $300 million from ARPA funds to construct six miles of the road in Dillon County. Fifty million dollars per mile, even for this boondoggle, seems a bit rich, but those are McMaster’s words.

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Gov. McMaster Tries to Keep I-73 Project Alive

Gov. Henry McMaster requested the General Assembly appropriate $300 million, from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds the state received from the federal government, to construction of Interstate 73 as one of the items in the executive budget he submitted to the legislative body earlier this week.
McMaster made good on the promise he made to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce at an October 2021 press conference when he said he would request the I-73 funding from the General Assembly.
Traditionally, executive budgets submitted by governors of this state have received minimal consideration before being shelved and ignored when the SC House writes the budget. There is no reason to believe the same won’t happen with the governor’s request for I-73 funding.
McMaster presented a funding plan for the I-73 project which consisted of $800 million from the state, including the $300 million which is actually federal funds given to the state, an additional $450 million from the federal government and $350 million from the local governments in Horry County.
However, Chamber President Karen Riordan attempted to spin the governor’s remarks at the October press conference as a pledge that the I-73 project would receive $300 million from the state. She was joined in that spin effort by Rep. Case Brittain, who in his first year in the SC House was made president of the I-73/74/75 Corridor Association, which is a high-sounding name for a Chamber created entity.
In addition, Congressman Tom Rice and SC Rep. Russell Fry were prominent at the press conference and enthusiastic in their statements on I-73 funding. Fry, of course, announced in August that he was challenging Rice for the Congressional seat because Rice has been a failure to his constituents in the 7th Congressional District. GSD has said over and over that Fry is really a clone of Rice who hopes to gain Chamber support for his Congressional run should Rice continue to falter with voters.
Actually, the press conference and statements by the various elected officials was nothing more than an attempt to keep the I-73 project on some kind of life support.
What has happened since that October press conference?

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Chamber and Governor Mull Press Conference to Announce I-73 Funding with No Funding Approved

The latest effort by the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce to make construction of Interstate 73 a viable project in the minds of the voters of Horry County took several bizarre twists yesterday.
A brief recap:
In recent weeks, the Chamber has promoted the idea that a mysterious poll of voters in South Carolina (405 in all) showed 82% of those responding favored construction of I-73. The actual questions and responses have never been revealed, just questionable results.
The poll announcement was followed by news that Chamber President and CEO Karen Riordan, state Rep. Case Brittain, Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune and Horry County Council member Dennis DiSabato were working on a $750 million funding package for the I-73 project that included $250 in funding from local governments and $500 million from the state. It was announced that the governments of Horry County, the City of Myrtle Beach and the City of North Myrtle Beach would approve their respective portions of the $250 million funding package by the end of this month.
Monday it was announced that the Horry County Administration Committee would vote the next day on a resolution to dedicate $4.2 million per year, for up to 30 years, to the I-73 project from county hospitality fee revenue. That vote, however, was postponed until at least October 26 after a short executive session by committee members on Tuesday.
Tuesday evening Horry County Council Chairman Johnny Gardner was informed that Gov. Henry McMaster would hold a press conference Monday October 4, 2021, at the Myrtle Beach Chamber offices to announce the state was committing $300 million to I-73 construction. (There was no explanation of why alleged state funding was reduced from the $500 million announced by Brittain to the $300 million over a two-week span.)
Now the bizarre:
According to a number of sources familiar with events, word began to spread from Riordan to local politicians yesterday that the governor would be coming to Myrtle Beach on Monday to make an announcement about I-73 funding.
Unless the state government receives specifically earmarked funds for I-73 from the federal government, the governor cannot order any state agency to spend money on the project. Appropriations must receive voting approval from the General Assembly.
State legislators, from around the state, contacted by Grand Strand Daily, said the news that Gov. McMaster was going to announce funding from the state for I-73 was a surprise since the General Assembly had not approved nor even considered any such appropriation.

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