From the Dome to Your Home: July 1
Senators met in session Monday through Wednesday to debate congressional redistricting and budget vetoes, while the House met in session only on Wednesday to handle vetoes. House and Senate members adjourned on Wednesday with plans to reconvene on Tuesday, July 26, to debate changes to the congressional redistricting plan.
Highlights of the Week
State budget update
Governor Nikki Haley returned her vetoes to the budget conference committee report on Tuesday, June 28, and lawmakers convened on Wednesday to vote on those vetoes. Both the House and Senate sustained nine of the governor’s 34 vetoes. Governor Haley vetoed the entire capital reserve fund bill, H3701. Both the House and Senate voted to override the veto of H3701.
Included in the budget conference committee report is a 10 percent cut to the current year distribution of the Local Government Fund. This equals an $8.9 million loss to cities and towns for FY 2011-2012.
There are also several provisos in the budget that affect cities and towns. Provisos are temporary changes to state law that are only effective for one fiscal year. A proviso regarding speed camera restrictions was vetoed by the governor and sustained by both the House and Senate because S336 was signed into law by Governor Haley that achieves the same purpose. All of the following provisos are in the final version of the state budget.
Methamphetamine labs – This proviso establishes a study committee through SLED and local governments to review problems associated with cleaning up meth labs and appropriates $1 million of non-recurring funds to assist in the cleanup.
Rural Infrastructure Authority – This proviso transfers $13 million from the Rural Infrastructure Bank fund to the authority to fund local government revolving loans for improving local infrastructure.
Transparency – This proviso requires grants to non-profits be included in local government budgets as a line item and requires recipients of the grants to send an annual report to the local government detailing how the grant money was spent.
Crime Victims’ Fund – This proviso provides guidelines on how the Crime Victims’ Funds may be spent.
Contact Melissa Carter (
mcarter@masc.sc) at 803.933.1251 with questions about the budget or Local Government Fund.
Illegal immigration bill
Governor Nikki Haley signed
S20, the illegal immigration bill, into law on Monday, June 27.
This new law will increase costs to local governments for enforcement and will increase the potential for lawsuits against local governments. The law requires local law enforcement officers to verify immigration status of individuals who are stopped or detained. The law also allows lawsuits against local governments that intentionally do not enforce the law, and it requires cities and towns to revoke the business license of a business that violates the immigration law. Contact Warren Harley (
wharley@masc.sc) at 803.933.1270 with questions about the immigration bill. Watch for additional details about specifics of
S20 in Monday’s Uptown Update weekly email.
Redistricting update
The House of Representatives completed its redistricting work on
H3991, the House redistricting plan, and
H3992, the congressional redistricting plan. The Senate completed its work on
S815, the Senate redistricting plan. Senators began debating the House version of the congressional redistricting plan last week offering several amendments to the bill. The Senate adopted a congressional redistricting plan that creates a new congressional seat in the Beaufort county area. Since this plan is different from the House plan that creates a new congressional seat in the Horry and Pee Dee region, legislators will return to Columbia on Tuesday, July 26, for one day to debate and adopt the congressional plan. House and Senate staff plan to work on amendments and changes to the plan before members are called back into session by the Speaker and the President Pro Tempore on July 26. Contact Ed Schafer (
eschafer@masc.sc) at 803.933.1203 with questions about redistricting.
Committee Action This Week
There were no subcommittee or committee meetings this week. All of the debate took place on the floor of the House and Senate.
2011 year-end legislative report
An updated wrap-up of the 2011 legislative session is available
here. This is an updated version of the booklet from the Association’s Annual Meeting including bills acted upon during the extra session of the General Assembly that just concluded on Thursday, June 30.
The Municipal Association encourages reprints and reproductions of this report; however, contact the Municipal Association for permission and give credit for any reprints or re-use of this report.