It happens all the time, folks bake a few cakes in their home to sell to friends or at church. But, under state law, that is an illegal activity. Edgefield Senator Shane Massey says he has introduced a bill to help those folks stay above the law. He also anticipates that retail bakeries will step up to oppose this measure.

“They think it’s unfair to let people sell from their homes,” says Massey. “But what we are talking about people who will just do a few of these here and there, but we are not talking about the type of sales that you’d see from a retail bakery.”

People who sell from their kitchens also have to regulated some way by the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control.

“One of the debates we will have to have is what kind of warning we will have to put on the product so that consumers understand that it is not a DHEC- inspected facility, ” Massey says.

It’s happening anyway, says Massey. He says, “It is illegal right now and if you sit back and think if it, is this really something that you’d want to punish anybody for.”

Courtesy of South Carolina Radio Network

GRANITEVILLE, S.C. — A bipartisan group of six state senators has an important job.

“Primarily on good budgeting, sound budgeting practices for the state. Hopefully, we can propose some good reform measures, and we can get it out to the full Senate to have a debate on early in the session,” said Republican Senator Shane Massey (R – Edgefield).

He’s been chosen to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Fiscal Fitness Subcommittee. He says Governor Nikki Haley promised belts would be tightened across state government, but he says last session was a bit of a fluke from that policy.

“Governor’s budgets can low-ball it and look like they’re saving money, and then they turn around and back the trucks up at the Budget and Control Board and get the hand-outs on the deficit to balance their books. It is an irresponsible way, and I think it is unconstitutional,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell (R – Charleston).

He hopes he, Massey, and the other senators will help send multiple pieces of legislation to the full committee and then the General Assembly floor.

“We’re going to move forward with permanent legislation to stop the practice of the deficit,” he told News 12.

He says even though South Carolina has to balance its budget each year by law, there are plenty of loopholes. Just last year, he says the Department of Health and Human Services ran a quarter of a billion dollar deficit.

“That was a quarter of a billion dollars we didn’t have to put into education or to put into the highway patrol,” said Senator Massey.

But now, the six senators hope to be the ‘highway patrol’ of bad fiscal policy. They say reforming the Budget and Control Board will be one step. They believe any increase in state spending constitutionally should come from the General Assembly, not the BCB.

Governor Haley is one of the five members on that board. Besides a deficit prevention act, the subcommittee also wants spending caps, a taxpayer fairness act, spending and fiscal reform, a trust fund protection act, and regulatory reform.

Courtesy of WRDW-TV

A Senate subcommittee will take public comments on a fiscal fitness plan for South Carolina at 6:30 tonight in North Charleston City Hall.

The meeting, which will end at 8:30 p.m., follows an initiative by Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, to develop a plan for better financial restraint among lawmakers. The meeting will be in council chambers on the third floor at 2500 City Hall Lane.

McConnell’s plan calls for a constitutional cap on spending, a streamlining review committee to examine state government spending, a review of executive agency regulations and how they are adopted, a Taxpayer Fairness Act, a Deficit Prevention Act and a Trust Fund Protection Act.

The Taxpayer Fairness Act is intended to stop government agencies from interpreting laws that allow them to collect more taxes than were intended by lawmakers.

The Deficit Prevention Act would block agencies from spending more money than the Legislature budgeted. The Trust Fund Protection Act would bar the Legislature from taking cash set aside for one purpose and spending it on another.

The subcommittee will also consider zero-based budgeting.

Courtesy of Post & Courier

Courtesy of Post & Courier

The U.S. Justice Department has decided that it will not oppose South Carolina’s redrawing of state Senate election district lines, state Senate leaders said Tuesday.
The decision — which Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell said he learned from a Monday letter from Justice officials — means that that the 46 districts may now be lawfully implemented. However, there are already plans to challenge them in court.

State Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian, a top lawyer who has handled similar cases in the past, said Tuesday he planned in the next two weeks to file a lawsuit challenging the validity of both the state House and Senate district lines.
“That will allow the process to go forward,” Harpootlian told The Associated Press Tuesday.

Because of South Carolina’s growth in the past decade, the population of each of the 46 Senate districts has increased to approximately 100,551 people, McConnell, R-Charleston, said.

In September, Justice Department officials questioned plans drawn by the South Carolina Senate for its districts, asking specifically about District 17, which now serves voters in Chester, Fairfield, Union and York counties. The American Civil Liberties Union had argued that the district could be drawn with a black majority, but the state Senate rejected that argument.

The Justice Department sought details on precinct-by-precinct voting tallies for state and federal offices dating to 2006 that included candidates’ race as well as voter demographics.

Local governments in South Carolina are in debt more than $10 billion, an amount that has grown by 22 percent over the past five years, records provided to GreenvilleOnline.com show.

Borrowing by school systems accounts for almost half of that debt and has grown by 35 percent since 2006, according to the state Comptroller General’s Office.

Local government officials say the borrowing is appropriate and needed for various projects, such as sewer and water construction, the building of roads, construction of recreational facilities, schools and various renovations and repairs.

However, some fiscal conservatives in the Senate say they are concerned by the amount of debt.

Their interest in the issue has been triggered by proposals by some school systems to borrow money to pay operating expenses.

“I’ve got a personal conviction about opposing all kinds of debt, that’s how I was raised,” said Sen. Kevin Bryant, an Anderson Republican and among those who have fought allowing school systems to borrow for operating expenses.

“If you’re going to borrow for a capital project to build something, that’s better than borrowing to run your day-to-day operations,” he said. “That’s totally different and irresponsible.”

Bryant said he was “shocked” by the $10.4 billion number.

Sen. Lee Bright, a Spartanburg Republican, said local government borrowing is reflective of state and federal government borrowing.

“Everybody has spent beyond their means,” he said. “It’s something that eventually is going to catch up.”

Sen. Shane Massey, an Edgefield Republican, said the problem is that most people don’t realize how much their local governments are borrowing.

“That $10.4 billion is a lot of money,” he said. “I’m very concerned about it. You start to wonder if we are over-extending ourselves.”

Local governments by law are limited in their borrowing, at least general obligation bond debt, to 8 percent of the assessed value of taxable property, unless voters approve an increase through a referendum.

According to the Comptroller General’s Office, $5 billion of the $10.4 billion is debt owed by school systems. Of that amount, $4.38 billion is owed through general obligation bonds and $612 million through revenue bonds.

The rest of the debt is about equally split between counties and cities, with the state’s municipalities owing $2.4 billion, counties owing $2 billion and special purpose districts owing $953 million.

Greenville County’s $91 million in debt is ranked sixth in the state and far below first-place Horry County, which owes $449 million, according to the Comptroller General’s Office.

“We stay within our means to the best of our ability,” said Greenville County Administrator Joe Kernell. “We plan accordingly as we build our budgets and set aside funds for major projects so we can pay as we go.”

Anne Wright, assistant county administrator for Horry County, said only about $125 million of the county’s total debt is general obligation bonds, with the rest going for road construction paid for using a 1.5 percent hospitality tax.

“If you look at just the county’s general obligation debt, you will see that we are more in line with the other large coastal counties,” she said.

Among cities, those in Charleston and Richland top the list, with Charleston municipalities owing about $318.6 million and Richland County towns and cities owing $432 million.

Charlton deSaussure, Charleston’s bond attorney, said in an email that the city has general obligation debt of $49 million, well under its 8 percent capacity. That has been used, he said, for fire stations, recreation and municipal facilities.

The rest of the city’s debt has been from tax increment financing bonds, revenue bonds and public works revenue bonds, he said. In fact, the public works bonds skew the city’s overall debt profile, he said.

“In conclusion, the city has used provisions of state law relating to public infrastructure capital improvements for a number of important projects in the Charleston area,” he said. “In doing so, it has been prudent and disciplined in addressing these borrowing needs.

“The result is a use of debt which has served the community well while earning the respect of investors and the highest credit ratings earned by any municipality in South Carolina thus producing the lowest borrowing cost for our citizens.”

Among school districts, those in Richland County — Richland School District 1 and Richland School District 2, owe far more than other school systems, according to the Comptroller General’s Office, a total of $863 million.

By contrast, Greenville County’s school district — the state’s largest — owes $23.1 million, according to the records.

“All of our bonded indebtedness is either going toward new construction or our annual capital improvements,” said Jack Carter, executive director of operations for District 2.

“We have a very conservative board. And they are very conservative in how they borrow or let us spend money. I would say it’s not only appropriate but as about as conservative approach as you can find.”

He said his district is completing a $307 million bond program for construction. The district was able to get about $46 million in bonds with zero interest, saving taxpayers $10 million, he said.

Richland 1’s $512 million debt is due to 1996 and 2002 bond programs approved by taxpayers for construction and renovations, said Edith Caudle, a spokeswoman for the district.

The 1996 bond program funded 30 construction or renovation projects including all elementary schools and one new middle school, she said. The district was able to consolidate eight elementary schools into four, which resulted in significant savings to the district, according to Caudle.

Funding from the 2002 bond program was used to construct or renovate 17 projects including all middle schools, all high schools and most athletics stadiums and fields, she said.

“The district was a good steward of taxpayer money,” she said. “The millage rate for both bond programs was kept level for taxpayers.”

More troubling for some senators, however, has been an increase in the number of school districts requesting exemptions to borrow money to pay for operating expenses.

Several rural districts, including Florence 4, Hampton and Colleton, have requested the help. Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed the legislation allowing Florence 4 to borrow for operating expenses and last week the Senate sustained the veto.

“Borrowing money to pay the light bill is reckless and irresponsible,” Bryant said on the Senate floor. “What the Senate is asking me to do is put my fingers in my ears, put blinders over my eyes and say, ‘Present,’ with this irresponsible and reckless behavior of borrowing money to pay regular bills.”

But Debbie Elmore, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina School Boards Association, said school districts across the state are struggling financially because of problems associated with funding cuts and tax-swap legislation enacted several years ago that capped reassessment increases.

She said the districts asking for exemptions aren’t the first to do so but are a symptom of a larger problem of the need for school funding reform. She said school districts have been forced to operate in a one-size-fits-all funding system, which doesn’t work because of the large differences in wealth, size and demographics among the districts.

“We’ve got to address public education funding in this state, or you’re going to see districts potentially run out of cash,” she said.

She said Florence District 4, from an accounting point of view, is bankrupt.

“We don’t advocate this as the ideal way to fund education,” she said of the borrowing requests. “We haven’t looked at it holistically. All we’re doing is putting Band-Aids or patches or spackling on cracks. And the foundation is crumbling.”

Courtesy of The Greenville News

Gov. Haley praises Peeler, Martin and their colleagues for listening to the people of South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Governor Nikki Haley today issued the following statement after South Carolina Senate passage of H. 3004 to put legislative votes on the record:

“This is an exciting day for South Carolina. We have long said rules protect legislators; laws protect the people. Senate passage of this bill was a huge step forward to change the face of how we conduct business in our state in the eyes of the country. By passing this bill, the House and Senate clarify that we believe the people, not elected officials, are in charge. I want to personally thank Sen. Harvey Peeler, Sen. Larry Martin, and the Senators who supported this bill for their courage, fight and humility.”