Senate Faces Choice on Dept. of Administration: True Change or Fig-Leaf Reform

Although myriad ifs, ands or buts could derail it, a full-on elimination of the state Budget and Control Board is in the works in the S.C. General Assembly.

On Tuesday, the Senate plans to resume debating a bill that would abolish the Budget and Control Board (BCB) and create an executive branch Department of Administration in its place.

The bill represents the most far-reaching attempt to make state government more efficient and accountable since the late former Gov. Carroll Campbell, a Republican, successfully pushed for restructuring while serving as the state’s chief executive from 1987 to 1995.

Arguably the biggest question about the bill though is not whether it will pass (it needs just one more affirmative vote from the Senate to do so), but how far it will go toward true change versus fig-leaf reform.

“I think that’s a good assessment,” says Sen. Tom Davis, a Republican from Beaufort County who is working closely on details of the bill, “and there’s going to be another episode in this drama – the empire strikes back.”

Davis uses that Star Wars metaphor in reference to forces fighting to protect the status quo.

Secret Budget Process Continues in S.C. General Assembly

If you’re a policy wonk or had a really bad case of insomnia and read Gov. Nikki Haley’s 379-page proposed executive budget for next fiscal year, you might have noticed something odd on pages 298 and 299.

Unlike dozens of other state agencies and entities, neither the S.C. House of Representatives nor Senate filed fiscal year 2013 budget plans for themselves with the Office of State Budget. Haley specifically noted that in her proposed budget, which was unveiled on Jan. 13.

As pointed out previously by The Nerve, state law requires agencies to file proposed budgets for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1, to the governor (now done through the Office of State Budget) by Nov. 1 of each year.

The 170-member General Assembly, however, apparently does not believe that 11-11-30 of the state code applies to itself, routinely revealing its proposed chamber budgets months after other state agencies have done so.

A state lawmaker on the House’s budget-writing committee acknowledged last week when contacted by The Nerve that the normal budget-hearing process traditionally hasn’t been applied to House or Senate chamber budgets.

That gives legislative leaders the opportunity to slip in large budget increases for their chambers much later when public scrutiny typically has diminished.

Lawmaker: What About the Debt?

Sen. Kevin Bryant, a member of the Joint Other Funds Oversight Committee, questions an S.C. Commission on Higher Education official as to when the agency is going to do something besides ask for more money.

Bryant, R-Anderson, raised the question during a meeting on January 19 after a request was made for the committee to authorize $445,240 in matching funds for a SmartState endowed chair at Clemson.

Clemson Sustainability Program in Line for $445,000 in State Funds

A Clemson University program that at least one legislator thought would be better suited for state government was recommended to receive nearly $450,000 in state funding last week.

The S.C. Commission on Higher Education got approval from the Joint Other Funds Oversight Committee on Jan. 19 to present a request to the Office of State Budget for $445,240 for Clemson’s “Endowed Chair in Sustainable Development,” part of the SmartState program.

In late November, the committee recommended $868,199 for Clemson‘s sustainable development chair. In order to request state funds for an endowed chair, an institution must have non-state matching funds on hand.

If the latest amount is approved by the Office of State Budget, Clemson will have $1,313,439 in state funds, plus an equal amount in private funds, for its sustainable development chair.

Established in 2002, the SmartState program uses state lottery money and non-state matches to pay for high-priced professors and research centers at the state’s three public research universities – the University of South Carolina, Clemson University and the Medical University of South Carolina.

There currently are more than four dozen approved research centers among the three universities. SmartState provides grants of $2 million to $5 million to each qualifying center, with the idea of attracting new businesses to South Carolina through research in such fields as science and medicine, according to program literature.

The $4 million sustainable development endowed chair, the first such position in Clemson’s Center of Economic Excellence in Sustainable Development, was approved in 2010.

DEW Director: Unemployed Can’t be Forced to Volunteer

S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce Executive Director Abraham Turner says federal law prohibits the state from devising a plan where individuals receiving unemployment would have to take on community service in return.

The U.S. Department of Labor doesn’t allow states to force anyone into a community service program, Turner tells the House Transportation and Regulatory Budget Subcommittee, adding that if the state defies federal statute, it will get no more funds to pay unemployment compensation.

Guv’s Office, Commerce Can’t Produce Job-Creation Records

In an interview on Dec. 15, Gov. Nikki Haley told a reporter with The State newspaper, “I sleep, eat and breathe jobs every day.”

On Wednesday, she told lawmakers in her state-of-the-state address that South Carolina was “surging,” pointing to the recruitment of approximately 20,000 new jobs during her first year as governor.

But if you ask Haley’s office exactly how many jobs have been actually created in the Palmetto State since she took office on Jan. 12 last year, you likely won’t even get an educated guess.

The lack of verification allows politicians to trumpet job-creation numbers without backing up their claims.

The Nerve on Dec. 19 submitted a request to Haley’s office under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act seeking all records showing the number of “actual jobs created to date.” The request sought records specifying the name and location of the company, and the number of employees by company “receiving paychecks as of the date of this letter.”

In a Jan. 13 written response, Swati Patel, Haley’s chief attorney, said: “Please be advised that this office does not have any records responsive to your request. Information that you are seeking may be available from the South Carolina Department of Commerce.”

Legislature Flouts Law Requiring Joint Public Hearings on Budget

It looks like the S.C. General Assembly’s two appropriations committees once again are flouting a provision of state law requiring the panels to hold joint public hearings on the state budget.

Under Title 11, Chapter 11 of the S.C. Code of Laws, the budget-writing process begins with the governor submitting a recommended spending plan to the presiding officers of the House and Senate within five days of the annual legislative session beginning.

Gov. Nikki Haley met that requirement, beating the deadline by two days in unveiling her proposed budget for the upcoming 2012-13 fiscal year on Jan. 13. This year’s legislative session began Jan. 10.

The new budget year starts July 1.

After the governor presents a proposed budget to the Legislature, its appropriations committees “shall sit jointly in open sessions while considering” it, the law says.

And, the code says, those joint open sessions must begin within five days of lawmakers receiving the governor’s proposed budget.

So, with Haley having put forth her spending plan on Jan. 13, the five-day deadline for combined public hearings on it by the committees – Senate Finance and House Ways and Means – is today.

Charleston Council Changes Citizen Participation Guidelines

Warwick Jones
Citizen Reporter

As Charleston County Administrator Allen O’Neal noted, the Jan. 19 Finance Committee meeting was likely one of the shortest on record.

The explanation was that there was very little on the agenda.

The only thing of note arising from the session was the decision to begin council meetings at 6.30 p.m. instead of 7.

As well, the citizens’ comments session would now be heard at the beginning of the meeting and extend to 30 minutes.

Chairman Teddie Pryor said that the move would be given a 90-day trial and then reviewed as to its effectiveness. Council meetings will still be held on every second and fourth Tuesdays of the month and Finance Committee meetings on the preceding Thursday.

Changes and Evaluation Likely Coming to Lt. Governor’s Office

A proposal that has passed the S.C. House would change the election and responsibilities of the state’s lieutenant governor at the same time lawmakers are questioning the effectiveness of a state office that has faced much controversy in recent years.

Rep. Tom Young, R-Aiken, introduced a joint resolution last January to require that the governor and lieutenant governor be elected on a joint ticket beginning in 2014. If the bill becomes law, each gubernatorial candidate would have to be listed with a lieutenant governor running mate on the ballot, and one vote would be cast for both offices.

The resolution would also remove the lieutenant governor’s role of presiding over the Senate and serving as president of the Senate. Instead, state senators would elect their own president from among their members to preside over the chamber and perform related duties.

Young’s resolution, which would amend the state constitution, has 24 co-sponsors and passed the House by a 106-6 vote in March.

If the proposal passes the Senate by a two-thirds majority, the changes will be presented to voters as a ballot measure at the next general election in November and would require a simple majority to become state law.

Under the joint resolution, the lieutenant governor would still be first in line to succeed the governor if the governor dies, is incapacitated or is impeached.

State Loses Money on Film Incentives, Study Says

A new study confirms an old conclusion about state incentives for the film and TV industry: The subsidies are a bad deal for South Carolina taxpayers.

“For every $100 spent on (such) rebates, $31 came back in the form of taxes, a net loss as is the case with many other film incentive programs in the U.S.,” the study says.

That equals a net loss to the state treasury of 69 cents for every taxpayer dollar given to film and TV productions – or a 69 percent negative return on investment, according to the study.

AECOM, a global consulting firm with an office in Columbia, conducted the analysis and detailed its findings in a Dec. 9 report. The S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT) commissioned the study.

Marion Edmonds, a spokesman for the agency, was traveling Wednesday and unable to immediately provide the cost of the study or the department’s response to it.

The PRT agency is part of the governor’s cabinet and includes the S.C. Film Commission, which works to lure film and TV productions to the state.