South Carolina Senate Republican Caucus

The state Senate approved a $7 billion spending plan Wednesday after a 12-hour session that had coastal lawmakers sparring for cash and ended with promising state workers a 1 percent raise.

Final deals were reached just after 10 p.m. after Charleston and other Lowcountry legislators were promised millions to shore up spending for their schools, as well as more tourism promotion cash as soon as the economy turns around.

That cleared the way for the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 to head back to the House. A joint conference committee will work out final deals in the next few weeks amid fears a weak economy could prompt more spending reductions. Read the rest of this entry »

In a year when the number of alcohol-related driving arrests has increased in the City of Aiken by 50 percent, new legislation aimed at closing loopholes that proponents say will help prosecute those cases has been applauded locally.

The bill, signed by Gov. Mark Sanford on Tuesday, toughens penalties for most first-time offenses and all second and subsequent offenses, removing community service sentencing options after a repeated conviction and requiring jail time.

But it also closes loopholes that Solicitor Barbara Morgan once said, at times, makes prosecuting a drunken driver in the Palmetto State more difficult than prosecuting a murderer. Read the rest of this entry »

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford decided not to request an extension of time for compliance with the federal REAL ID program. I applaud his steadfast defense of South Carolinians and their rights and their pocketbooks. REAL ID represents nothing less than a massive federal intrusion with a multi-year, multimillion-dollar price tag paid for by us in South Carolina. REAL ID promises to return our South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles to the days of multiple trips and hours-long waits.

REAL ID threatens to leave thousands of South Carolinians without the ability to drive at all. REAL ID, finally, offers no solution to security inasmuch as if federal documents were the answer, then we would have no illegal aliens in this country. Thank you, Governor, for telling the federal government to keep their national ID card.

THE COST ALONE warrants Gov. Sanford’s defiance. The SCDMV reports that, to implement Real ID, it must develop new processes and build verification systems that do not currently exist. This would require an estimated $16 million in one-time funds and $10 million in ongoing funds — $10 million dollars a year, every year, that could be spent on education, public safety or roads and bridges, but would instead be paying for a federal mandate that offers no real hope of making us any safer than we are now.

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