June 6 , 2008
The second regular session of the 117th S.C. General Assembly ended June 5. Lawmakers will return to Columbia for up to three days later in June to deal with any vetoes by Gov. Mark Sanford and other unfinished business. As of the session’s end, the governor vetoed 69 bills for the proposed $7 billion state budget.
“This has been a challenging session for our lawmakers, and they’ve had to make some tough decisions,” said Brad Dean, president and CEO, Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. “In the end, they delivered on issues important to the Myrtle Beach area—continued funding of I-73 planning and tourism promotion despite an economic downturn, end-of-year school testing, health insurance for small businesses and immigration reform. In reviewing the 2008 legislative agenda, I’m delighted that considerable progress was made to the issues that matter most to our membership.”
All 46 seats in the Senate and 124 seats in the House are up for election this year. Primaries are June 10.
Highlights of the 21st week (May 25-31) and 22nd week (June 1-7) of the session include legislative action and activities on immigration reform, Interstate 73/74 funds, cigarette tax and a new authority for Horry County airports.
Immigration Reform
The governor has signed an immigration bill which is now law. The new legislation allows for the temporary shutdown of businesses and fines up to $1,000 per illegal immigrant worker. Employers caught not checking their workers can be fined between $100 and $1,000 per worker, and if an investigation finds they knowingly hired an illegal immigrant, their business could be temporarily shut down, up to 30 days on the first offense and five years if caught a third time.
All employers must either check Social Security numbers of new hires through a federal online database (called E-verify) or hire workers with a driver’s license from South Carolina or another state with strict laws such as Georgia, Arizona, Oklahoma and Colorado.
The S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation will investigate complaints and can randomly audit companies.
Parts of the law took effect June 4. Public contractors with at least 500 employees must begin verifying their new hires by January. All other businesses must follow by July 2010. Nationwide, more than 1,560 immigrant-related bills were introduced last year, with 240 becoming law.
Rep. Thad Viers sponsored dozens of illegal immigration bills in the past two years and served on the committee that worked out the compromise measure. He predicted the law would lower the state’s unemployment rate, at 5.9 percent in April, because the immigrants would voluntarily leave the country and make more jobs available. Others argue that the law would hurt tourism and agriculture, the state’s two top industries, because citizens don’t want to do the manual labor of picking crops and housekeeping.
I-73/74 Funds
The House and Senate overrode the governor’s veto of the $1 million annual allocation for I-73/74 planning. Sanford had vetoed the bill because it isn’t enough to build the roadway, so he viewed the amount as unnecessary. Although a small expenditure, the funds show federal officials that the state is committed to the project. The highway, which will be Horry County’s first interstate link, is a top priority for new construction for the state.
Cigarette Tax
The governor vetoed the bill that would have raised the state’s cigarette tax 50 cents a pack to pay for the expansion of state Medicaid programs and smoking cessation programs. Sanford axed the bill because it would have linked important health care programs to a source of revenue that would likely shrink.
New Authority for Horry County Airports
The bill to establish an Horry County airport authority will not pass this year. Instead, on the last day of the session, Horry County lawmakers successfully pushed a resolution to appoint a study committee to determine how the airports should be governed. The resolution allows the legislative delegation to establish the Grand Strand Air Transport Investigative Study Committee to report by Jan. 15.
The panel would consist of 15 members: four members from Horry County Council; two from Myrtle Beach City Council; a senator and a House member from the delegation; a resident or council member from each of the cities of North Myrtle Beach, Loris and Conway; and representatives of Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp., Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday and S.C. Aeronautics Commission.
The panel will look at how to form a partnership between the public and private sectors and to recommend to the General Assembly any necessary legislation and the best form of governance, structure and operations for a more competitive air transport system in the Grand Strand area.
Source: Information has been compiled from reports in The Sun News.On the Net
MyrtleBeachAreaChamber.com
SCStateHouse.net
House.gov
Senate.gov
USA.gov
SCChamber.net
USChamber.com
I-73.com
