South Carolina Senate Republican Caucus

Says USC should use money on classes

While other lawmakers worked to cut $500 million from the state budget, Sen. Chip Campsen was worried about folks at USC palling around with terrorists.

Campsen on Thursday called for the University of South Carolina to give back the money it paid to ’60s-era radical Bill Ayers for speaking engagements he has made on the Columbia campus over the years. Campsen suggested the money be used to teach more classes on the Constitution.

The Isle of Palms Republican offered the proposal as a budget amendment during Thursday’s debate before withdrawing it. Read the rest of this entry »

A 1960s radical’s speaking visits to the University of South Carolina became a part of the Senate’s debate Thursday on almost $500 million in budget cuts after a senator said he wanted to transfer the money USC spent to classroom instruction on the Constitution.

Sen. Chip Campsen, a Charleston Republican, said he was upset the university had spent any money to bring William “Bill” Ayers, an Illinois college professor of education, to USC given his 1960s and 1970s participation with a group labeled by the FBI as a domestic terrorism organization and his more recent praise of Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez.

Campsen proposed an amendment, later withdrawn, to transfer $6,846 from USC — the amount spent on Ayers’ visits — to a program to instruct students on the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Federalist Papers. Read the rest of this entry »

Lawmakers decide not to change House bill; Sanford indicates he might veto some items

The South Carolina Senate approved $488 million in spending cuts Thursday, refusing to change a bill the House approved earlier this week.

Slashing state support for higher education, state agencies and conservation while limiting the reduction to K-12 education, lawmakers tried to spend money where it was needed most. The cuts were required after state economists lowered revenue projections earlier this month. Read the rest of this entry »

The University of South Carolina’s link to a former 1960s radical is drawing criticism.

On Thursday, state Sen. Chip Campsen said he wanted the school to use the nearly $7,000 used to bring William Ayers to Columbia to pay for instruction on the U.S. Constitution.

Ayers founded the Weather Underground. Now a professor, he has spoken six times at USC and sometimes received reimbursements or a stipend. Read the rest of this entry »

Constituent boards, with limited powers, attract only handful of candidates

Charleston County constituent school boards are a part of the foundation of the school district, but their increasingly limited powers and responsibilities have led to growing frustration among their members and waning interest in this second tier of the district’s structure.

No one is running for nine of the 24 constituent school board seats that are up for grabs in the Nov. 4 election, which means this election has more seats without candidates than the previous two elections combined. Even on the most vocal constituent school board, which is downtown, no one is running for the three open seats.

Half of the constituent school board races have only one candidate, and only three of the 24 seats have more than one candidate vying for the job. Read the rest of this entry »

Future Scholar program has no waiting period

Want to knock 7 percent off this fall’s college tuition bill?

Using a South Carolina program intended to encourage long-term investing for college expenses, state residents can get a substantial tax break by parking their money in the state program for just a few days.

“You could call this one of the last true tax loopholes,” said DeAnna Moss, tax manager at the financial advisory firm Dixon Hughes, in Charleston.

State Treasurer Converse Chellis said the rules for South Carolina’s Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan might need to be changed if the program is abused, but he confirmed the tax maneuver is legal. Read the rest of this entry »

Tough questions from state lawmakers hit the State Ports Authority’s top executive in rapid succession Wednesday:

How have we slipped so far behind Savannah? Should the SPA maintain total control of the working waterfront, or should the Port of Charleston be partly privatized? Is anyone evaluating the SPA’s administration?

The port’s mainstay container business dropped 10 percent in the latest fiscal year, which ended June 30, said Bernard Groseclose Jr., the SPA’s president and chief executive. Though break-bulk, or non-containerized cargo, and cruise business both picked up, container cargo accounts for 90 percent of port traffic. Read the rest of this entry »

Contractors must not hire undocumented workers

The state Department of Transportation will start making contractors promise they’re not hiring undocumented workers almost a year before a new state law requires it.

New DOT contracts will require companies that get state road projects to promise they are in compliance with the South Carolina Illegal Immigration Reform Act, DOT Chief Counsel Linda McDonald said Friday.

Gov. Mark Sanford signed the law in June. One of the provisions is that employers must verify the immigration status of new workers. That part of the law takes effect next summer for larger companies. Read the rest of this entry »

Week of April 22 – 24, 2008

Quote of the Week– “The people of South Carolina deserve better
than what the House is doing. The House has tried to kill this bill
twice this year and they are now hiding behind some strange
interpretation of the rules to avoid delivering strong illegal
immigration reform to the people of South Carolina.”
Senator Jim Ritchie (R-Spartanburg), Chairman of the Joint Legislative
Conference Committee on illegal immigration reform, commenting on the
events of the past week by the House of Representatives and their
refusal to seek approval for free negotiating powers. Read the rest of this entry »

Senator Jim Ritchie and Committee Members Build Strong Bill for South Carolina

Columbia, SC – Senate and House members of the illegal immigration conference committee are close to final agreement following today’s meeting.  Senator Jim Ritchie (R-Spartanburg), conference committee chairman, has led the effort to craft a nation-leading illegal immigration reform package and is the principal author of the Illegal Immigration Reform Act (S. 392). Following today’s conference committee meeting, Senator Ritchie announced his intention to finalize the committees work in hopes of sending a comprehensive illegal immigration reform bill to the Governor in the next two weeks.

Illegal immigration reform is vital for the safety and security of our communities.  As states across the country work to address this crisis, we must work quickly to pass meaningful reforms for the people of South Carolina.  This is a complicated issue that drives a lot of passion, and the reality is that we are trying to respond to a crisis that affects every town across this nation.  While we cannot solve the larger federal issues of border security and immigration law enforcement, we can make South Carolina less attractive to illegal immigrants and the companies that hire illegal immigrants.  As the chairman of this conference committee, I am working to answer the peoples calls for reform, says Senator Ritchie.

What we have done does not require substantial new money, it requires substantial political will and law enforcement’s follow through.  And it requires our state government to get tough on companies that intentionally break the law, says Senator Ritchie. It takes all of theses elements working together to make this effort successful.

For the first time South Carolina will have a bill that contains language stating if an employer knowingly and willfully hires an illegal alien, they are breaking the law, says Senator Ritchie.

The joint conference committee is expected to meet again next week to review a final version of today’s work and vote on a Committee Report that will then be presented to the members of each chamber.

In addition to Senator Ritchie the conference committee consists of Senators Chip Campsen (R-Charleston), and Vincent Sheheen (D-Kershaw), as well as Representatives Jim Harrison (R-Richland), Greg Delleney (R-Chester), and Thad Viers (R-Horry).
###

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Cruelty is cruelty. Why put dogs on a pedestal?”

— Sen. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, as he expanded a bill that would make it illegal to tether dogs more than three hours a day to include all pets

CAMPAIGN TRAIL

News from campaigns competing in June’s primary. Read the rest of this entry »

How much water does it takes to make a stream a stream? A state Senate committee might well decide that today.

The Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee today will debate for a third time a proposed state water plan, a law that would create a permitting system and set withdrawal limits for most large surface water users.

The fight is over minimum stream flow, the least amount of water that must be left in a stream as water is drawn down for commercial use. Read the rest of this entry »