It has been a privilege representing House District 94 in the House this first year of my first term as your Representative. As I reflect upon the work done in the General Assembly this year, I am reminded that many important pieces of legislation did not cross the finish line during the first year of the 118th legislative session. These key pieces of legislation will continue to be on the agenda for the coming year.  

Cigarette Tax H. 3584 – South Carolina got very close to passing a cigarette tax increase this session; however, the Senate and the House could not reach a compromise on how to appropriate the projected $147 Million annually to be raised by the 50 cent a pack increase. The House plan created a trust fund for credits to pay for a private health insurance while the Senate plan did not designate what the monies would be used for.  The Senate’s failure to designate how the monies would be spent was the deal-breaker. I expect this decade long effort to increase the cigarette tax in South Carolina to continue next year.

Government Restructuring – Numerous restructuring bills were introduced in both the House and the Senate this year but did not pass. These restructuring efforts included placing the Employment Security Commission under the Governor’s control and allowing voters to decide whether to amend the Constitution to allow the Governor to appoint Statewide Constitutional officers with the advice and consent of the Senate rather than having them elected by popular vote. I expect the issue of restructuring to continue to be debated next year.

Photo Voter Id. -- A bill requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls passed the House after contentious debate on the House floor but did not make it out of the Senate. The Senate version of the bill combined two weeks of early voting with the photo identification requirement. The bill will be headed back to the House next year for a vote on concurrence of the Senate amendments. I expect this to happen early in the session in order to allow the South Carolina Election Commission time to implement these changes in advance of the 2010 elections.

Point of Sale H. 3272 – This bill passed the House but did not make it out of the Senate this year.  The bill would suspend the increase in property tax valuation from occurring at the time a property transfers until the next county-wide reassessment. County reassessments are done once every five years. In Dorchester County, that process is on- going this year. The Bill has been set for “special order” in the Senate and will be given priority attention in the Senate early next year.

It is worth mentioning that the General Assembly established the South Carolina Taxation Realignment Commission (“TRAC”) to conduct a comprehensive study of the state’s tax system. TRAC is charged with developing criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the current tax system structure, as well as impact of any proposed changes affecting tax revenues, and reporting this criteria to the General Assembly. The commission must, no later than March 15, 2010, prepare and deliver a comprehensive report evaluating the state’s tax system structure.  Additionally, the commission shall study and make recommendations to the General Assembly of the advantages and drawbacks of a revenue neutral replacement of the state individual and corporate income tax, state imposed sales and use tax, estate tax, bank tax, savings and loan association tax, and taxes on beer, wine, and alcoholic beverages with a broadly based consumption tax modeled on the proposed federal Fair Tax as that form of tax would have to be adapted to apply on the state level.  In its study, the commission shall specifically consider how such a tax swap would affect job creation, savings and investment, and tax compliance costs for South Carolina taxpayers. In the current economic climate and considering that we are experiencing record high unemployment, the TRAC Study could be an important tool for the General Assembly to use in order to implement changes to South Carolina’s tax structure which will make her more competitive in a global market for attracting high-paying jobs for our citizens.
I will also be working in the coming months on issues such as education reform, protecting vulnerable adults, child protection, law enforcement, and creating jobs and growing our economy, just to name a few. I am currently working on legislation for filing when we return to Columbia in January. As always, I welcome your input and ideas as I prepare proposed legislation for  next year. Please e-mail me your ideas and thoughts on these or any other issues to JennyHorne@schouse.org or you may call me in Summerville at 873-1721. I look forward to working with you to improve the quality of life for the citizens in our community and the citizens of South Carolina.