The Post and Courier

Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed the Legislature's effort to open the northern end of the former Navy base to railroad lines, while more than 300 North Charleston residents met in solidarity to say they won't accept their city being re-industrialized.

The S.C. House on Wednesday upheld Sanford's veto.

"We will fight to the very end," Mayor Keith Summey told sign-waving residents stuffed into a Park Circle meeting room Tuesday evening. "We've got some very powerful people in the state of South Carolina trying to run roughshod over us."

Summey had predicted lawmakers would override Sanford the action by lawmakers pushing to bring rail lines closer to a new port terminal being built at the base's south end. He cited value in the vote as a way of putting lawmakers on the record.

Sanford's veto struck down a proviso to the state budget that would have required that all railroad tracks, structures and equipment on the old base be transferred to the Division of Public Railways, a part of the Department of Commerce.

Lawmakers who support the proviso say it is needed because it would boost access to the new terminal being built at the base's southern end for both of the region's major rail carriers, CSX and Norfolk Southern.

(The proposal is similar to one made by Orangeburg County development officials anxious to see rail service expanded to serve Jafza International's plan for a major logistics and distribution center in the county. In a letter to U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn, Orangeburg County Development Commission Executive Director Gregg Robinson requested $278 million to help implement a rail plan that would include construction of an intermodal facility on the former Navy base and running trains through the base's north end.

(Summey this past week sent a letter to Robinson protesting the county's request that the federal government provide the money, saying any proposal should be made in cooperation with North Charleston and not without the knowledge of the city's leaders.)

North Charleston officials say the rail lines would gut years of redevelopment in neighborhoods around the former Navy shipyard.

Sanford vetoed the measure, saying it undermined a seven-year-old memorandum of understanding linking the State Ports Authority and North Charleston in an agreement that there would be no railroad access on the northern end.

"The principle here is a simple one: Your word is your bond, and this proviso would break with the words given that facilitated the SPA move from Daniel Island to North Charleston," he said.

"Were it not for that agreement, the port would likely have never come to this site in the first place. It isn't right to some years later try and change the deal that got you where you are," he said.

Sanford went on to call the agreement "sloppily arranged" from a legal standpoint, contending that the SPA had no legal authority to bind the Department of Commerce, the Division of Public Railways or other areas of state government.

But he added that a sloppy arrangement "does not change the spirit of the agreement," particularly since lawmakers who were present during the memorandum debate years ago are party to the proviso to change it. He specifically named Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman and Senate leader Glenn F. McConnell, R-Charleston.

Sanford's veto message also included a suggestion that all the players continue to negotiate a good faith rail-access solution, saying rail line through the northern part of the base would best suit both state taxpayers and business interests.

"From a business perspective, northern access probably makes the most sense and is, therefore, important for the way it could enhance the new port terminal and lower the cost of doing business in the port," he said.

North Charleston officials contest that point.

"From a taxpayer standpoint, we also think it makes the most sense to use what we have in the old Navy Base to create a world-class port operation," Sanford added.

Another factor in his veto, Sanford said, is that he doubted the Division of Public Railways could enter into a "public-private" partnership for operating an intermodal facility on property obtained through condemnation, as the proviso potentially directs.

Meanwhile, there were signs even before the lawmakers voted to sustain Sanford's veto that the rail effort was beginning to slow down. Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau, said he plans to scale back wording on the rail issue inserted in a separate pending piece of legislation to restructure the SPA.

Originally, the legislation called for the transfer of ownership of rail lines and a right of way at the north end of the base. The language in the bill mimicked the provision in the budget. Now, Grooms said he wants the bill to simply refuse any transfers of rail ownership without the approval of the Budget and Control Board.

Grooms said the ownership and access issue already is at the heart of a pending court case over land on the Navy base, and it is best to step back and let the suit play out.

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