We had a busy week last week in the General Assembly in an effort to clear the calendar in preparation for next week’s budget debate. The House passed two major pieces of legislation designed to improve the business climate in South Carolina in an effort to create jobs and improve our economy. The House passed both the tort reform bill, H. 3489 and the Economic Competitiveness Act of 2010 H. 4478. I am also happy to report that H. 4248 which I co-sponsored requiring school districts to perform SLED checks on substitute teachers, passed the House. These bills will now be heard in the Senate.
Many members of our community with special needs children traveled to Columbia last week for disability advocacy day at the Statehouse to rally against cuts to the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs. During the budget debate next week, Chairman Dan Cooper of Ways and Means will offer an amendment to restore some of the federal match monies which may be used to continue autism services and in-home respite care.  Currently, those services are threatened because of proposed budget cuts. For more information about specific cuts to DDSN, I will speak at a public forum at Seacoast Church in Summerville on Sunday, March 14 at 2 p.m. I invite any interested member of our community to attend this meeting to voice your concerns to your legislative delegation.
Cuts to education continue to cause great concern and much heartburn for those of us in the General Assembly who oppose further cuts in K-12 education. The House Ways and Means Committee rejected a proposal from the South Carolina Department of Education to require mandatory state-wide furloughs of five days for teachers and ten days for administrators. Last year, the House of Representatives granted school districts flexibility and autonomy to decide whether to furlough teachers and administrators to save money.   Dorchester District Two made the decision to furlough teachers for three days and administrators for six days this school year at a cost savings to the district of $1.6 Million and 29 jobs. The House plan allows the decision to furlough to continue to be at the discretion of the local school districts and rejects the mandatory furloughs requested by the State Department.
As Legislators and citizens, all of us should ask where we can find revenue to solve the education funding crisis in the midst of one of the worst recessions in our state’s history. The Dorchester County Legislative Delegation met this week with a group of parents, teachers, and administrators at Summerville High School to discuss this very issue. We welcome your suggestions as well. We have been discussing four-day school weeks with increased hours of daily instruction.
The Tax Realignment Commission will also be making recommendations in November of 2010 as to whether to revoke $3 billion in state sales tax exemptions. Theoretically, some of this new revenue could be used for education. The State Superintendent of Education has suggested raising the cigarette tax to fund education; however, the cigarette tax debate has always centered on providing healthcare. Last year, the House passed a 50-cent increase to the cigarette tax for funding healthcare, but the bill stalled in the Senate. Other ideas for funding education include increasing the share of lottery proceeds that go to K-12 education. Currently 40 percent of the education lottery proceeds go to K-12 education and the other 60 percent funds life scholarships for South Carolina college students. These are just a few of the ideas that I have heard from South Carolinians concerned about education funding.
There are very few sacred cows and many sacrificial lambs as we debate the budget in Columbia next week. We are having discussions for the first time in Columbia about zeroing out some agencies such as Archives and History and eliminating the Education Oversight Committee and other state agencies. One thing is for sure, the budget debate next week will be long and contentious. Last year, we worked on the budget until 3:30 one morning. It looks like next week we will have many more late night/early morning debates as we cobble together a $5.1 Billion House budget for 2010-2011.

As always, thank you for the privilege of serving you in Columbia.  If I can ever be of assistance to you, or if you have ideas on issues you want me to share with the rest of the General Assembly, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 873-1721 or jennyhorne@schouse.org.