Area would come out OK in $5B spending proposal

By Yvonne Wenger

The Post and Courier

Friday, March 19, 2010

COLUMBIA -- Smokers would pay 30 cents more for a pack of cigarettes and thousands of state workers could lose their jobs under a $5 billion budget that the state House approved early Thursday after a marathon session.

The spending plan that has been stripped of about $2 billion in the last couple of years does contain some bright spots for the Lowcountry, including $7 million to move forward with a wind-turbine testing facility on the former Navy base.

Other good news locally is the decision to provide enough money to keep open the Charles Webb Center in West Ashley that provides day care services for 30 children with severe disabilities, and the cash to allow the Sea Grant Consortium on Meeting Street to continue its coastal and marine research and education outreach.

The plan also includes incentives designed to attract a discount aircraft carrier to Charleston International Airport to replace AirTran Airways, which took its final flight out of the Lowcountry in December.

Charleston had been one of the most expensive places to fly to before AirTran, which was estimated to have saved travelers in and out of the airport $80 million a year.

The House voted 64-52 to give key approval to the budget that begins July 1. The 22-hour session marked the House's first all-night deliberation in at least a decade.

The Senate now must write its version of the budget, and legislative negotiators will have to compromise on the differences later this year.

"When you have an economy like we have, the simple fact is you end up in two situations. You either raise taxes or you cut spending," said Rep. Jim Merrill, R-Daniel Island. "We cut spending."

The budget allows agencies to furlough employees as a way of dealing with cuts. And as many as 3,000 workers could be laid off, including at the Departments of Public Safety and Probation, Pardons and Parole.

Merrill tried without success to send $2 million to the Conservation Bank to preserve open space, but he and other Republicans were able to fend off efforts by some Democrats to raise property taxes, sales taxes and re-establish a tax on groceries.

How they voted

The House voted 106-12 to approve a 30-cent increase in the tax on a pack of cigarettes. Here's how local legislators voted:

Republicans voting for: Daning, Goose Creek; Harrell, Charleston; Horne, Summerville; Limehouse, Charleston; Merrill, Daniel Island; Sottile, Isle of Palms; Umphlett, Moncks Corner; and Young, Summerville.

Democrats voting for: Brown, Hollywood; Gilliard, Charleston; Hutto, Charleston; Jefferson, Pineville; Knight, St. George; Mack, North Charleston; Miller, Pawleys Island; Stavrinakis, Charleston; and Whipper, Charleston.

Republicans voting against: Scott, North Charleston.

Democrats voting against: None.

Still, the cigarette-tax increase passed by a vote of 106-12. South Carolina has the lowest cigarette tax in the nation at 7 cents per pack. It hasn't increased since 1977.

A 37-cent tax would generate $122.8 million. The cash would sit in a savings account for a year to be used after July 2011 for Medicaid expenses, although it is unlikely that the increase will pass the Senate as part of the budget.

Before the Senate is a bill the House passed last year to raise the tax per pack by 50 cents. A tax of 57-cents a pack would generate $189.2 million a year.

Raising the state tax would be the second major hike on the price of cigarettes in South Carolina. The federal government last year raised its tax on a pack by 62 cents. The combined increases would push the cost of a pack up about $1.

Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, led the effort to raise the cigarette tax this year. "We're having a difficult time funding government, but we wrote a balanced budget," Limehouse said.

Rep. Anne Peterson Hutto, D-Charleston, wanted the House to pass a higher cigarette tax increase to spare public schools from some budget cuts. She said she will push for the Senate to reprioritize spending, including freeing up cash to continue restoring the Morris Island Lighthouse on Folly Beach.

"Time is of the essence," Hutto said. "It is a historical treasure and with one good hurricane it is going to be gone forever."

Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston, also is not satisfied with the House plan. He wants the Senate to find money for the Florence Crittenton Home, which cares for unwed pregnant girls.

Rick Magner, executive director of the Disabilities Board of Charleston County, credits Gilliard for helping the Webb Center survive after it struggled week to week last year to keep the doors open after it lost its state funding.

This year Gilliard is going after a $10 million loan the House approved in the budget for the Verizon Heritage professional golf tournament on Hilton Head Island, which will lose Verizon as its sponsor after this year.

Many legislators supported the loan as a way to help preserve hundreds of jobs and pump tens of millions of dollars into the state.

But the golf loan was not the most controversial budget provision. The House agreed to ban most abortions covered by the state insurance plan, the only exception being if an abortion was an "incidental" effect of a doctor trying to save a mother's life.

About six women received a state-paid abortion last year under the current exceptions to victims of rape or incest and women whose lives are in jeopardy.

Republicans argued that it's an ethical issue about protecting the innocent, and that a child should not pay for others' crimes. Democrats accused their GOP counterparts of playing God and imposing a religious viewpoint.

Gilliard said in the wake of that decision, money for the Florence Crittenton Home in Charleston is more important than ever.

"How dare we as elected officials allow this happen? Our children and their quality of life come first," Gilliard said Thursday.

"Last night was a good night for golfers in South Carolina and bad night for children and women. We have to do better than this."

AT A GLANCE

The House voted 64-52 to give key approval to a $5 billion budget that begins July 1. The Senate is drafting its version, and the two chambers must agree on a spending plan that survives Gov. Mark Sanford's vetoes before summer adjournment.

In the House-passed budget:

WINNERS INCLUDE: The Charles Webb Center in West Ashley that will receive enough cash to provide 30 severely disabled children with day care; $7 million to help proceed with a wind turbine testing facility operated by Clemson University's Restoration Institute on the former Navy base; $364,900 to allow the Charleston-based Sea Grant Consortium to continue its coastal and marine research and education outreach; and about $50 million to maintain essential services provided by the state Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, including money to provide 660 children ages 3 to 5 with early intervention programs.

LOSERS INCLUDE: Smokers, who could be paying a higher state tax for the first time in more than 30 years; the Morris Island Lighthouse on Folly Beach that is owned by the state and in need of restoration; thousands of state workers who face layoffs and furloughs, including teachers and state troopers; and victims of rape or incest -- including state employees -- who seek a government-funded abortion and would be banned from billing the procedure to a state insurance program.

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