Immigration reform, passing a cigarette tax increase and working within a limited budget are among the top priorities for state lawmakers in the 2008 legislative session.
While the top Republicans in the House and Senate say immigration will be the big issue this election-year session, state Sen. Brad Hutto believes placing the issue at the top of the agenda is ludicrous when the state needs to address issues such as health care, education and jobs.
"It's a federal issue. We can't solve it on a state basis," Hutto said.
Among immigration reforms being considered is a bill that would require all businesses with state contracts to prove they have legally documented workers.
House Minority Leader Harry Ott thinks the bill must clearly define what businesses knowingly hire illegal immigrants. He wants to work with some sort of federal clearinghouse to ensure all workers are here legally.
"I don't want to make legitimate businesses criminals by mistakenly hiring illegal workers," Ott said.
The main point of contention over increasing the cigarette tax is where the extra revenue will end up.
Members of the local delegation all believe the money should go into health care, where the state will receive a three-to-one match in funding from the federal government. Gov. Mark Sanford wants the revenue to reduce the state's income tax.
Lawmakers have proposed anywhere from a 30-cent to 60-cent a pack increase on cigarettes. Currently, South Carolina has the lowest cigarette tax in the nation at 7 cents per pack.
State Sen. John Matthews says that 500,000 South Carolinians are uninsured and the potential revenue from a cigarette tax increase is best served providing more coverage.
"It will give people better access to health care," he said.
The General Assembly will need access to more money to fund an array of spending increases on everything from education to the 2008 general election.
Right now, the legislature is looking to fund more than $400 million in proposed spending increases with slightly less than $92 million available.
Les Boles, director of the Office of State Budget, says at some point the legislature will either have to cut the budget, not fund some of the increases or raise revenue.
"Don't get stars in your eyes about what we can expand," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence.
The following is a look at bills, issues and agendas the local legislative delegation believes are important:
* Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, wants to continue her focus on improving health care in the state.
She sees two avenues toward that path: The first is increasing the cigarette tax to cover uninsured South Carolinians. The other is a bill she introduced last year to require insurance companies to cover colon cancer screenings.
Cobb-Hunter anticipates a tough battle with the governor over where potential cigarette tax revenue will go.
"I expect him to wage the fight. I don't expect him to win the battle," she said.
Cobb-Hunter is also co-sponsoring a bill with state Rep. Roland Smith, R-Aiken, to improve school infrastructure in poor districts.
Last year, the General Assembly approved a 4-year-old kindergarten pilot program for at-risk students. She believes that is really missing the point because research shows children's formative years are between the ages of 0-3.
"We are missing an opportunity to make an impact on children's learning in a more meaningful way," Cobb-Hunter said.
* Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, said his focus this session will be on higher education reform.
He has submitted three bills regarding the way the state's university board system is set up. One bill would allow out-of-state residents to serve on the boards of the state's colleges and universities. Govan said this would require a constitutional amendment and would have to be approved by voters to become law. He believes it will help universities with a smaller alumni base have more choices in regard to trustees.
The second bill would prohibit a university trustee from receiving a job at that university until he has been out of that office for at least four years.
"It's basic common sense and accountability," Govan said of the bill.
The last bill specifically addresses South Carolina State University's board. It calls for a new board of trustees starting on July 1, but would allow trustees serving on the current board to be re-elected. If passed, six members of the SCSU board would be selected by the General Assembly, with six being selected by members of the SCSU National Alumni Association. The governor would also appoint a trustee.
Some have suggested Govan's bill is a retaliatory measure in response to the ouster of former SCSU President Dr. Andrew Hugine Jr. last month. Govan insists this is not the case, saying the bill serves to give alumni and the university's stakeholders more say in the board selection process.
Govan said the bill already has tremendous support in the House, saying one-third of the body has expressed interest in the bill.
"It's gotten a real positive response," Govan said.
Cobb-Hunter said she will not support the bill.
"What happens when the next board comes in and does something that lawmakers don't like?" she said.
Govan also has a bill on the table that will raise the mandatory compulsory school attendance age from 17 to 18.
* Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, says his main priority is passing an all-terrain vehicle safety bill that has already been vetoed by the governor twice. The bill would require safety training for children between the ages of 6 and 15 in hopes of curbing fatalities and accidents on ATVs.
Hutto said that a 6-year-old girl in Lancaster died from an ATV accident since the bill was vetoed last session.
"Hopefully the governor will change his mind or we'll get enough votes to override the veto," Hutto said. Sanford said he vetoed the bill because it violates property rights and diminishes parental responsibility.
Hutto is also hoping to help Denmark Technical College enter into a private-public partnership to build more buildings on campus, including dorms.
"It will save the taxpayers money if we can get the private entity to build the dorms," Hutto said.
Also on the Hutto agenda is a plan to add more Highway Patrol officers to lower the number of highway deaths and accidents. Hutto admits with the tight budget forecast, the prospects don't look great.
He also would like to see a toll on Interstate 95 to provide the money needed to widen roads on the state's interstate system. He supports giving local citizens an annual pass through the toll, saying that many of the people who use I-95 are out-of-state travelers.
* Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman, wants to modify the formula for funding public schools. Matthews says the current system is disproportional in distributing funds and hurts poor school districts.
"We've got to give them some assistance," Matthews said.
He said a number of options are being explored, including putting a poverty factor in the state's education funding formula.
Matthews said his subcommittee on education is also looking for ways to address the teacher shortage in the state. He said the current system is only producing about 40 percent of the teachers the state needs, leaving many districts to look out of state or even to foreign countries to make up the difference.
Matthews also wants to encourage more minorities to become teachers by creating special incentives. One bill he proposes will put the best-performing teachers in underperforming school districts.
He also supports the creation of a "digital wireless cloud" over the state to provide student access to the Internet.
* Rep. Harry Ott, D-St. Matthews, wants to take any excess revenue generated from the additional penny added to the state sales tax and place it into a restricted savings fund.
The extra penny is used to fund the school operating component eliminated from property tax bills as part of the property tax relief law. Ott is concerned that the penny tax will eventually not be enough to fulfill obligations to the schools. Creating a savings account for excess penny tax revenue would safeguard against the state dipping into the budget's general fund for school funding, he said.
Ott also wants to address illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the state. Currently, illegal immigrants are sent back to the streets after they serve their prison term, he said.
"We need to way that if illegals break the law, we find a way to send them back to their country of origin," Ott said.
Ott wants to continue to fund the 4-K pilot program in the state, saying it will serve to reduce the dropout rate and produce more students that stay in school.
He also wants to search for ways to help working-class citizens that don't have access to affordable health care. Ott says that preventive health care is essential to stop life-threatening ailments before they start. He says that the more serious the condition, the more expensive it is to treat, and the cost is sometimes shifted to the state and hospitals.
"It's win-win for everybody," he said.
* Rep. Bakari Sellers, D-Denmark, has a bill that would take soda and snack machines out of public schools. He believes this could help curb obesity and heart disease, conditions which he says have run rampant in poor communities.
"If we can't curb it now, we'll pay for it later," he said.
Sellers also wants to expand the 21st Century Scholar Act for need-based scholarships. He would give children who remain drug and crime free in their school career the opportunity to attend a college or university in the state.
Sellers said he will also work with the Bamberg and Barnwell legislative delegations to boost economic development in those areas. He is also seeking money for rural roads.
Another top priority is providing equity in education funding, he said.
T&D Staff Writer Lee Tant can be reached by e-mail at ltant@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-534-1060. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.