Sen. Massey’s Town Hall Meeting covers broad range of topics
State Senator Shane Massey held another of his popular Town Hall meetings Monday night at the Edgefield County Council Chambers covering a broad range of topics and questions from residents. Of all the problems the state faces there was a single common threat to most facing funding and deficit problems, irresponsible spending by the Legislature. Sen. Massey pointed out that last year the state had a surplus of $1 billion, “and they spent it all.” This year the state is facing a $238 million deficit that cut funding “across the board” three per cent, another thing Sen. Massey said he did not agree with.
Included in some of the line items listed in last year’s budget, that was only cut because of pressure from media exposure, “was a $900,000 ear mark for a green bean museum in Lancaster,” Sen. Massey said. That common threat ran through discussions on Education, Immigration, health care, and the hotly debated increase in the cigarette tax.
Sen. Massey explained that he supported the increase in the per pack cigarette tax, which would have raised the tax from 7 cents to 57 cents. “The cost of Medicaid has risen 50% in the last five years,” Sen. Massey said, “that’s a big increase.” Yet the programs ultimately earmarked for use of the revenues in the passage of the tax would have given $80 million to expand Medicaid participation, growing the number of those eligible to participate and thus increasing the cost dramatically.
“We have a $7 billion budget in this sate. $1.1 billion of that is Medicaid, or 1/7th of our budget,” Massey said. Increasing the number of people drawing against the system and funding it with a tax that – if its intended purpose to lower the number of people smoking – would be a decreasing source of revenues. “You don’t have to be a math wiz to figure out that is a bad thing.”
The Legislature passed the rise in the cigarette tax that was vetoed by Governor Sanford and was upheld by the SC House. “I can assure you it will be coming back up,” in the year Sen. Massey said.
Sen. Massey touched on some of the accomplishments of the past legislative session saying reforms in immigration were addressed and it was a good start towards dealing with the problem. Massey made it clear that he felt immigration was a job for the Federal government to handle, but since they have failed to enforce the borders or immigration the state had to act.
The most important aspects of the immigration reform was that in order to obtain government assistance a person must verify they are a legal citizen, making “knowingly” housing or transporting illegal aliens a felony, and employers will have to verify within ten days of employment the citizenship or legal ability of a person working in the state. Enforcement of the program will be handled by the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulations (LLR).
All employers will be required to obtain a free state business license and the LLR would do random checks to assure that employers are obeying the law. If they do not they will face heavy fines and repeat offenders will lose their license to do business in the state. Employers can use two ways for verifying the employee, the E-Verify systems or a South Carolina Driver’s License. An out of state license would be accepted if the issuing state has similar standards for the issuing of the license.
Sen. Massey championed the toughening of DUI laws making a second offence offender face mandatory jail time. “We had some of the weakest DUI laws in the country,” Sen. Massey said that made getting a conviction very difficult. South Carolina had two DUI laws that have now been combined making the DUI blood alcohol content (BAC) a set .08%. Those who test at that level will lose their drivers license and face a standard fine. The higher the BAC, the higher the fine is on a graduated scale.
The number of DUI convictions will be limited to a ten-year period. “If you had a DUI in 1987 and you get one tomorrow, you will be charged with a DUI first,” Sen. Massey said. The new law takes effect in February of 2009.
Also discussed was the predatory Pay Day Lending legislation. “Ultimately, nothing got done last year,” Sen. Massey said. Two bills passed the Senate that addressed some of the major issues, but both failed to pass the House. “The Pay Day Lending lobby is very strong in South Carolina,” Sen. Massey said. Sen. Massey said he did not support a ban on the businesses because low-income families sometimes need to have access to short-term loans.
However, with a standard fee of $15 per $100, often times the person would end up getting a loan to pay off the previous loan and again for the third and the increased fees would trap the individual into economic hardships. Under the Senate plan a person would only be able to obtain one loan at a time and if your name was entered by a payday lender into the database, the borrower could not get a second loan to pay off the first, breaking the vicious cycle so many find themselves faced with. The bill would have also limited how much a payday lender could loan based on the person’s income and ability to pay the loan back in the time allotted. Sen. Massey supported both Senate bills.
Education was also an area of reform in that the PACT testing has now been replaced with a new test called the Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS) that will be given three times a year and will offer a more comprehensive take on where a student stands in the educational process. Under the PACT test, which was given at the end of the year and the results were not returned until after the next school year started, “It may show that little Johnny scored an 80 in math, but it didn’t show that little Johnny scored high in addition and subtraction but very low in multiplication and division,” Sen. Massey said.
The new tests will have a quicker result and break down what areas individual students need help. Sen. Massey said he has spent a lot of time talking to teachers and he takes their recommendations above those of administrators. “The biggest problem in education is the money doesn’t make it to the classroom”, because of the many layers of administrations within the districts.
The meeting continued for two hours and the public peppered Sen. Massey with a litany of questions, each of which he took the time to answer and would expand if needed and also covered offshore drilling, energy, and water needs.
The Edgefield Daily
September 9, 2008
