Margie Williamson waited three and a half years for her son Wesley, who has autism, to speak his first word. Now he’s in a normal first grade classroom.

“He still has a long way to go,” Margie said.

That progress could be stalled for her and other parents.

“I would hate to see these children not to see the services that my son received and not to see the outcome,” said Margie.

Because of overspending, South Carolina’s Department of Disabilities and Special Needs could soon see a 12 percent cut in their budget.

“We are in a really dangerous place right now,” said Marcella Ridley, another mother of an autistic child. “I think (the cut would) be devastating for families — devastating.”

“In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to fight for needed services and equipment or things to make our children function better,” said Crystal Ray, whose twin daughters have special needs. Crystal knows she’s not living in a perfect world right now, but: “My plea is not to cut them.”

“If they could just come into our world just for a couple of days and see what our kids can do, I feel like they would continue to provide services.”

Lawmakers tried to spare big cuts in education, but Sherry Lawson says her special needs child’s health is important too.

“We have to have healthy kids to learn and reach their potential,” she said.

Senator Shane Massey says Senator Ryberg brought up an amendment to give more money to special needs, but that idea was voted down. Massey, who voted for it, said it was defeated by a wide margin.

The governor has until next Thursday (October 30) to either sign or veto parts of the nearly $500 million spending cuts.

Oct 25, 2008
Gene Petriello
WRDW

The Senate on Thursday gave key approval to nearly $500 million in budget cuts, after swatting down proposals to shorten next year’s legislative session, raise the cigarette tax or use one agency’s surplus to pay for shortfalls in children’s programs.

Gov. Mark Sanford criticized some parts of the budget-cutting plan and attacked what he called “misinformation” used on the Senate floor during the debate about an agency’s surplus.

“While we’re pleased that the Senate stuck with the overall approach we called for in making targeted cuts, we’re disappointed that they didn’t take this opportunity to address some real flaws in this spending plan,” Sanford said in a statement.

“We’ll be taking a close look at this plan when it reaches my desk to determine what if anything can be corrected via a veto. In the meantime, it bears repeating that at the end of the day, this budget is the result of four years of reckless overspending by the Legislature.”

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman said he awoke at 2 a.m. worried about the impact the cuts will have on the state’s residents. “During a tough year, no cut is easy,” he said afterward.

Cuts approved by lawmakers to the $7 billion budget include a nearly 15 percent reduction in state support to the state’s colleges and universities, nearly $20 million less in funding for local governments, a cut of 8.5 percent to the Governor’s School for the Arts in Greenville and more than $200,000 in cuts to University Center in Greenville.

The plan largely spares classroom education, Medicaid and the state’s prison system, currently operating at a deficit.

Discussed but never voted on were proposals to cut next year’s legislative session in half, to create a committee to study new sources of revenue including gambling, to raise the tax on cigarettes, and requests to restore funding to a state conservation land bank and for the nonprofit group the Protection and Advocacy for People with Disabilities Inc., which saw all of its state funding disappear.

Most senators with proposals to change the plan withdrew them after Leatherman warned that any change would have to be approved by the House, a delay that could trigger across-the-board cuts by the State Budget and Control Board, including $76 million for classrooms.

Sen. John Drummond of Greenwood, 89 and retiring after this session, told colleagues that they weren’t responsible for the financial shortfall and that the cuts were unavoidable. He later received a standing ovation.

“Folks, we just don’t have the money,” he said. “It has to be done. The public knows what we have to do.”

Sen. Greg Ryberg, an Aiken Republican, insisted the Senate hear and vote on his amendment, a proposal to transfer about $24 million in reserves at the State Budget and Control Board to other agencies for children’s education, electronic monitoring of sexual offenders and child protective services.

Ryberg said all three programs had been cut by the budget plan and all three are “more important than keeping that reserve fund.”

Leatherman countered that other agencies also had reserve funds. Sanford said that while senators were told agencies’ reserves total about $600 million, the true number “is a fraction of that.”

Other senators argued that Ryberg’s proposal could jeopardize an agreement between House and Senate leaders on the cuts and cause the Senate to have to return to Columbia unnecessarily as well as trigger the across-the-board cuts. Ryberg said any action taken by the Legislature would supersede any action taken by the State Budget and Control Board.

Ryberg’s amendment was tabled 37-6.

The Senate then approved the budget-cutting plan on a voice vote. It also approved automatic final approval today, sending the plan to Sanford. Lawmakers will return next week to take up any vetoes by the governor.

Sen. Kevin Bryant of Anderson later said he had voted against the plan because he feared it would cut out funding needed by the state Department of Pardon, Probation and Parole to continue electronic monitoring of more than 70 sexual offenders, one of the aims of Ryberg’s amendment.

“Out of a budget containing several billion dollars, this amount is a small fraction,” he said. “However, we cannot take the chance on allowing these predators to go unmonitored and our children fall prey.”

Some senators said they had received assurances that even with the cuts, the monitoring wouldn’t end.

By Tim Smith
The Greenville News
October 24, 2008

About 300 party members gathered under a tent at the Aiken Horse Park for the county party’s first candidate rally.

“This is taking an opportunity to act on people’s enthusiasm and excitement,” said Dennis Saylor, the local party chairman. “We decided to have a rally to bring people together and let them know that the party’s alive.” Local Republican government officials and candidates running in the Nov. 4 election attended the rally, including U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson and Gresham Barrett and state Sen. Shane Massey and Greg Ryberg.

Mr. Wilson faces Democrat Rob Miller on the ballot for the 2nd Congressional District; Mr. Barrett is challenged by Democrat Jane Ballard Dyer in District 3; Mr. Massey faces Democrat Greg Anderson in state Senate District 25; and Mr. Ryberg is unopposed in District 24.

With the smell of barbecue wafting through the air and the sounds of the AAA Homeschool Band providing the dinner music, candidates milled through the crowd, shaking hands and politicking.

As the stock market suffered another day of losses, Mr. Barrett pleaded with the crowd.

“Please don’t give up on the Republican Party,” he said, telling the crowd it was time for the party to take off the gloves and to get back to its roots.

“When we get back to Washington, if we’re going to get out of this, we’re going to have to start calling out names,” Mr. Barrett said.

Mr. Saylor said people seem to be taking an interest in the election, as evidenced by the increase of registered voters.

In Aiken County, registered voters rose from about 81,000 in January to more than 90,000 last week.

By Michelle Guffey
The Augusta Chronicle
October 10, 2008

Greg Ryberg is a native of Eau Claire who graduated from Marquette in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. After graduation he worked at Kimberly-Clark in Neenah and at the Sanford Corp. in Chicago before moving to South Carolina in 1977. He also served in the United States National Guard from 1968 to 1974.

In 1977, Ryberg purchased an oil distributorship in Aiken, S.C., and started a convenience store business. He built 53 stores employing more than 550 people before selling to a public company in 1999.

He is serving his fourth term as a South Carolina legislator.

Ryberg and his wife, Elizabeth Denkewalter, met at Marquette. They have three children.

By Tom Held
The Journal Sentinel
September 18, 2008

A plan to place ads inside and outside public school buses officially is dead.

So is the possibility of schools bringing in $10.6 million in new revenue, their estimated take from the ads.

The state Board of Education on Wednesday approved a ban on ads on school buses by a 15-to-2 vote.

The vote largely was symbolic. A state budget proviso, approved earlier this year, outlawed the ads.

But a state legislator who backed the ban praised the board’s action.

“This action prevents for-profit companies from forcing children to hear or view advertising harmful to them or objectionable to their parents,” said state Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken.

Ryberg said the state board acted on behalf of parents who “do not ride the bus to school with their children and could not prevent their children from being forced to view a cartoon character selling them donuts or a computer-generated salesman pitching the latest version of a seek-and-kill game.”

But two state board members say the ads would have been screened and would have raised much-needed money for schools.

“We encourage educators to think outside of the box,” said school board member Trip DuBard of Florence, who voted against the ban. “This is a great example of that. I got to believe there are appropriate ads out there that could be placed in buses and help schools and districts raise money they need.”

Appropriate ads likely would have included ones for colleges, universities, the U.S. military, even the local plumber, said Donald Tudor, state director of school transportation.

At the urging of some school districts, the state Education Department already had found a contractor, SAC Inc. of Aiken County, to place the ads in state-owned buses over the next five years. Under that agreement, individual school districts that wanted ads would contract with the company to place them on buses. A district committee would approve — or reject — all ads.

Up to 80 percent of the ad revenue raised would have gone to the school districts.

“We could choose the messages, make sure all of the messages were positive,” said Diane Sumpter of Columbia, who also voted against banning the ads.

But other board members, including Kristin Maguire and state Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, said the debate over which ads are appropriate would not be worth the added money.

“The controversy it could create is not worth the revenue,” Rex said, adding the state — not local school districts — should be on the hook to provide more support for public education.

By GINA SMITH
The State Newspaper
September 11, 2008

S.C. Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, has acknowledged that the Lower Savannah Council of Governments has been cleared of any violation of its nonprofit status involving its assistance to the GVW study committee.

But in a press release, Ryberg continues to contend that LSCOG “violated the intent of the law” in providing bookkeeping services for the committee, which was preparing for the incorporation referendum. He plans to introduce legislation in January that would prohibit LSCOG’s involvement.

In an Aug. 19 letter to Ryberg, however, the S.C. Department of Revenue determined that LSCOG – a regional planning assistance agency for Aiken County and five other counties – was not lobbying in favor of the referendum as a substantial part of its function of providing accounting activities.

“We engaged in no political activity, and the citation of the law is clear” said LSCOG director Wayne Rogers Wednesday. “We were never involved in the campaign or promotion of the proposed incorporation.

The bookkeeping services were the extent of our involvement. That’s what we did and did not do more, and the Department of Revenue is confident we haven’t engaged in political activity.”

But the spirit of the law was violated, Ryberg insisted Wednesday.

“There was clearly an political consequence to their endeavors,” he said, “when they helped organize a campaign to create a consolidated district, city or town. They were doing that with the intent of it succeeding, and I don’t think that should be the case.”

LSCOG staffers also provided other financial services in handling about $40,000 in donations to the study committee’s planning and early legal efforts prior to the referendum campaign.

Only three companies agreed to be identified publicly by name; other companies and individuals sought anonymity.

Ryberg sought that their names be released prior to the referendum.

Rogers said LSCOG had an obligation to abide by the donors’ wishes, and the Department of Revenue also agreed with that position.

In the letter to Ryberg, attorney Rick Handel said, “There is nothing in the state income tax law that would require the release of contributors’ names.”

However, Handel suggested that Ryberg could ask the attorney general’s office if the names should be released through the Freedom of Information Act.

The letters from the contributors were send to LSCOG as the fiduciary agent, Rogers said.

“We have received no letters from contributors changing their position relative to their anonymity,” he said. “What I’m trying to say is that it would be a violation of trust. I don’t think another individual – regardless of his position – telling us to release the names makes it right.”

Handel also wrote that contributions earmarked for use in connection with legislative activities could not qualify for tax deductions.

Ryberg plans to amend existing law on this issue as well, he said. He called it distasteful “in the ability of certain private individuals to use a public body for anonymous political contributions. These individuals used a law designed to allow gifts to public schools or charities and used it for a vehicle for their political ends. I intend to stop that practice.”

By ROB NOVIT
The Aiken Standard
August 27, 2008

More than 7,000 registered voters live within the 23.7 square miles proposed for incorporation.

Charles Hilton, the chairman of the Graniteville-Vaucluse-Warrenville Inc. Study Committee, said he expects strong voter turnout.

Efforts to incorporate have been ongoing for more than two years, since the Graniteville train wreck devastated the area’s economy.

Mr. Hilton said because the towns aren’t incorporated, residents have missed out on money that could have helped in the area’s recovery, such as funds from state-shared revenue and the local option sales tax.

“If we had been incorporated, the last time the local option sales tax was passed, that’s probably three-quarters of a million dollars that would have been coming into this area,” he said. “And state-shared revenue — that’s $1.5 million that would be coming into a very small area that has really seen some hard times in the last few years with the loss of jobs we have experienced.”

Mr. Hilton says that with incorporation, the area would be controlled by people who live there, rather than the Aiken County Council.

If the referendum passes, there would be an election for a mayor and council.

Mr. Hilton admits the downside to incorporation is taxes.

“But with a 5-mill tax, you’re looking at $20 to $40 (a year),” he said. “To me, the future of this area is worth that kind of investment.”

A native of Graniteville, Mr. Hilton said he has witnessed the area’s decline for the past 20 to 30 years.

“It’s quite apparent that no one else is going to take care of this area,” he said. “It’s up to us to take a stand and try to turn it around and make the area better than what it’s been in the past.”

Residents will also be asked Tuesday to choose a name for the incorporated town. The choices are: Horse Creek, Gregg Township, GVW Tri-City and Gregg Valley. William Gregg built the first cotton mill in Graniteville.

State Sen. Greg Ryberg, a Republican whose district includes Aiken County, has questioned the role of a nonprofit agency in the ballot initiative.

Earlier this month, the state Department of Revenue said it was reviewing whether the Lower Savannah Council of Governments acted properly by working on behalf of supporters of incorporation. Mr. Ryberg also asked the department to consider the council’s refusal to reveal a complete list of donors to the incorporation effort.

The council has said its work on behalf of the anonymous, pro-incorporation donors is standard activity. The council works with local governments in Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun and Orangeburg counties.

By Michelle Guffey | South Carolina Bureau
The Augusta Chronicle
August 25, 2008

Wants Property Valuation Notices to be Mailed Prior to End of Fiscal Year

Senator Kevin Bryant (R-Anderson) continues to fight for greater transparency in state and local government. Senator Bryant wants county tax officials to send out new property value notices at least 60 days before the end of a county’s fiscal year, so taxpayers can have a better understanding of how much money is being collected due to an increase in property values.

“I am working on legislation that would require counties to send reassessment notices to taxpaying homeowners 60 days prior to the end of the county’s fiscal year,” says Senator Bryant. “Many taxpayers in Anderson County are still in the dark about the reassessed value of their property and the potential impact on their personal finances.”

Senator Bryant wants taxpayers to have a greater understanding of how their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent. “It is all about information. The more people understand about how government is using their money, the more likely they are to hold elected officials accountable for fiscal responsibility.”

South Carolina law (Section 12-43-217) requires counties to “appraise and equalize” property once every five years and send notice to the property owner if the value or classification increase is more than $1,000. Although the notice is required, there is no specific time frame of when notice of the increase should be provided. The legislation being drafted by Senator Bryant would put a specific time frame in place. The reassessment valuation notice differs from the annual tax notice that is sent out annually.

Senator Bryant is joined in his desire to see legislation requiring a time schedule for reassessment notices by fellow Senators Larry Grooms (R- Berkeley), Greg Ryberg (R-Aiken), and Danny Verdin (R-Laurens).

Senator Bryant expects to pre-file the legislation in December ahead of the 2009 legislative session.

###

But those funds are not taxpayer money and were not used as part of the upcoming political process, said Charles Hilton, chairman of the GVW Incorporation Study Committee.

The Lower Savannah Council of Governments — an Aiken-based regional planning agency — has provided bookkeeping services for about $40,000 from the study committee as it went through legal processes to have a referendum on incorporation, said LSCOG executive director Wayne Rogers.

The agency’s role “was to basically disperse and receive the funds,” he said. “This is not taxpayer money. It all came from private citizens and corporations, and none of our money is in it. We were paid $411 for our accounting.”

Ryberg’s Senate district doesn’t include the GVW area. He said he’s responding to concerns from prospective referendum voters who want to know who donated funds to the study committee.

“This is public money, not private,” Ryberg said. “Any entity that spends public money, as the LSCOG undeniably does, owes a legal and moral obligation to the taxpayers who provide that money to be transparent in its dealings.”

Ryberg submitted a Freedom of Information request to get the donor names. Rogers responded in writing, saying that donors requesting anonymity had the right to do so.
Three contributors did not request anonymity — Olin Corp. ($5,000), SRP Federal Credit Union ($1,500) and H Three Oh ($500).

Hilton acknowledged concern in the communities about local developers — primarily Weldon Wyatt and FineDeering — “somehow controlling this process. But they haven’t given a dime for this thing,” Hilton said.

When the incorporation process started more than two years ago, he said, study committee members agreed they didn’t want to handle the money themselves. They eventually chose LSCOG.

All funds expended to this point, about $33,000, have gone to a feasibility study and legal costs to meet formal requirements to have a referendum, said Hilton. Two sets of attorneys, he said, have confirmed that donations in this circumstances can be tax deductible and meet the criteria to be anonymous.

Ryberg claims a GVW official told one of his staffers that donors will be disclosed after the election and that Ryberg could see the list now if he agreed not to disclose them. As time goes by, he said, “it only heightens my determination to get answers for the citizens who contacted me.”

It would be an understatement to say he’s frustrated with Ryberg, said Hilton. Incorporation in the GVW area has been discussed for as long as 20 years. Not until the Graniteville train wreck in 2005 did the discussion move forward. Even then, Avondale Mills was still open, but its closure has contributed to the area’s decline.

“People ought to have a choice as to their future,” said Hilton. “Now we’ve got a senator from another area criticizing people for having a choice. The study committee is not going to make the decision. We’ve got 3,000 voters in this area, and they’ll make the decision.”

When other areas in Aiken County have expressed interest in incorporation in the past, said Rogers, his agency has provided them with state statue information outlining the process they have to go through. GVW is the only one to have gone all the way through the process.

The study committee has worked with the state’s office of Research and Statistics, as well as the tax assessor and county tax office, Rogers said. His office has had no role in those efforts, he said.

“They weren’t campaigning for incorporation of the community,” Rogers said. “They were involved in identifying the potential boundaries to meet the requirements of state law. They have completed the process and submitted it to the Secretary of State. They have now been authorized to have a referendum and now the political process starts for those campaigning for incorporation and those opposed to it.”

The committee has met the letter of the law at every point, said Hilton. He has donated money to “Vote Yes” committee — funds that are entirely separate from the study committee’s donations. The study committee has gotten approval from the Secretary of State, said Hilton, that its remaining funds, about $7,000, can be used toward the cost of the election, but not for anything that would sway a “yes” or “no” vote.

But Ryberg remains undeterred. The money dispersed by LSCOG is public and is supporting GVW incorporation, which is a political effort, the senator said.

“The only purpose of the activities that the LSCOG admits to pursuing is the eventual incorporation of GVW,” Ryberg said in a press release. “There is no other possible purpose and to claim otherwise insults the taxpayers who fund the LSCOG.”

By ROB NOVIT
The Aiken Standard
8/6/2008

The state senator released a statement Tuesday asking that the organization release all information that relates to its support of the incorporation effort for the three towns of Graniteville, Vaucluse and Warrenville.

Ryberg said he filed two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests on July 16, asking for “all documents, correspondence and other material including electronic material related to the Graniteville, Vaucluse and Warrenville incorporation effort.” The request also asked for “all records from the accounts engaged in the Graniteville, Vaucluse and Warrenville incorporation effort to include names of all donors and all recipients of any and all money involved in the effort,” according to the release.

The law allows 15 business days for FOIA requests to be fulfilled; thus far, Ryberg says he hasn’t received the information yet.

“Since they are a public body, those records should be disclosed,” he said Tuesday. “I think those that will be affected by that decision deserve full disclosure.”

Ryberg also says he has recently learned that LSCOG has been lending financial support to the incorporation by taking “donations from individuals, made as tax-exempt donations, and appeared to funnel them through its accounts to further support the effort,” he said. “I remain puzzled by the arrangement whereby a public body take private money for political purposes,” Ryberg said. “I am alarmed by the reluctance of LSCOG to turn over the record of those transactions.”

An official with LSCOG could not be reached Tuesday; however, members of the GVW Incorporation Study Committee say they have not received any donations from LSCOG to fund the incorporation effort. The group issued a response Tuesday, saying “when the LSCOG releases the records it has the authority to release, it will show that approximately $39,500 in donations have been received through June 2008, and during that time, approximately $33,500 have been spent on legal services, accounting services, bank and accounting charges, office supplies and public meeting expenses,” read the statement. “None of these funds held by the LSCOG have been spent on any political campaign and none will be for any political campaign, including influencing the outcome of the GVW election.”

Charles Hilton, chairman of the GVW Incorporation Study Committee, said the LSCOG is providing only accounting services for the committee.

“They haven’t given a dime to us,” he said. “We’re paying them to do an accounting service.”

In the release, the group also writes that it “understands that the LSCOG is reviewing the requested records and seeking legal advice on what may and may not be released under the FOIA since some of the donors requested anonymity on their donations as expressly allowed by the provisions of the FOIA.”

The release also included a statement from the study group, saying that the U.S. Department of Justice has granted the needed clearance to GVW officials to hold the referendum on Aug. 26.

Ryberg said he has been contacted by several people wanting more information about the proposed incorporation, which is why he issued the request. Though the residents in the proposed GVW incorporation area are not his constituents, he says that as an elected public official, he feels it’s his job to answer those questions.

“Again, we are seeking transparency,” Ryberg said. “Voters have asked, and I believe the voters deserve the right to know how public money is being spent to influence their futures. The vote on incorporation will forever transform the lives of thousands of citizens, and these voters just want full disclosure before they vote.”

By APRIL BAILEY
Aiken Standard
July 29, 2008