THE SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS

Lawmakers don’t trust governor, McConnell says

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell on Thursday called Gov. Mark Sanford’s latest suggestion to get the Legislature back in session a $50,000-plus gamble.

Using an example of how lawmakers could use creativity to return to the Statehouse and make discretionary budget cuts, the Governor’s Office raised the idea of taking up an outstanding veto Sanford issued in June.

“I am not going to waste the taxpayers’ money so he can have a political dog-and-pony show,” said McConnell, R-Charleston. (more…)

Sanford, legislators bicker over how to meet

State Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell and House Speaker Bobby Harrell are becoming regular penpals with Gov. Mark Sanford over South Carolina’s budget woes.

McConnell and Harrell, in an Aug. 29 letter, accused Sanford of “misleading the public” during a recent road show in which the governor called on lawmakers to return to Columbia to make targeted budget cuts in response to revenue shortfalls. Sanford’s tour across the state, and an Aug. 26 letter to McConnell, Harrell, Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper, came on the heels of the Budget and Control Board’s 3-2 vote for an across-the-board 3 percent cut to make up for a shortfall of about $188 million.

Sanford and Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom voted against the cuts, saying they favored the targeted cuts. Treasurer Converse Chellis joined Leatherman and Cooper in voting for the 3 percent reduction. (more…)

If a proposal by the S.C. Budget and Control Board that’s endorsed by Gov. Mark Sanford and state Sen. Hugh Leatherman of Florence is approved, state employees who smoke may have to pay more for health insurance.

Starting in 2010, workers covered by state health plans and HMOs who use tobacco products — or have family members on their policies who do — would be charged an additional $25 a month. The surcharge could affect tens of thousands of employees and save the state millions, according to the S.C. Budget and Control Board.

Sanford said those who choose to smoke should shoulder more of the burden of caring for ailing tobacco users. (more…)

Governor urges lawmakers to reconvene to trim state budget

The six highway patrolmen didn’t move a muscle while the governor tried to move a Legislature.

Gov. Mark Sanford, flanked by the troopers, appealed to people on Thursday to call their legislators to go back into session and stop across-the-board budget cuts. The cuts would impair “core government functions” like public safety, he said. Sanford wants the Legislature to make cuts agency-by-agency instead.

He compared it to how a family cuts its budget — they skip going to the movies, they don’t skip paying the mortgage. (more…)