Journal of the House of Representatives
of the Second Session of the 110th General Assembly
of the State of South Carolina
being the Regular Session Beginning Tuesday, January 11, 1994
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Printed Page 460 . . . . . Wednesday, January 19,
1994
Rep. HODGES moved that the House recede until 6:45 P.M.
Rep. A. YOUNG demanded the yeas and nays, which were taken resulting as
follows:
Yeas 73; Nays 42
Those who voted in the affirmative are:
Alexander, M.O. Alexander, T.C. Anderson
Askins Bailey, G. Bailey, J.
Barber Baxley Beatty
Boan Breeland Brown, G.
Byrd Carnell Cobb-Hunter
Davenport Delleney Farr
Felder Fulmer Gamble
Graham Hallman Harrelson
Harris, J. Harris, P. Harvin
Harwell Hines Hodges
Holt Houck Inabinett
Jennings Kennedy Keyserling
Kinon Kirsh Marchbanks
Mattos McAbee McCraw
McElveen McKay McMahand
McTeer Moody-Lawrence Neal
Phillips Rhoad Rogers
Rudnick Scott Sharpe
Sheheen Smith, R. Snow
Spearman Stille Stoddard
Stuart Townsend Tucker
Waites Waldrop Whipper
White Wilder, D. Wilder, J.
Wilkes Witherspoon Worley
Young, R.
Total--73
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1994
Those who voted in the negative are:
Allison Baker Brown, H.
Cato Chamblee Clyborne
Cooper Corning Cromer
Fair Gonzales Harrell
Haskins Huff Hutson
Jaskwhich Keegan Kelley
Klauber Koon Lanford
Law Littlejohn Meacham
Neilson Quinn Richardson
Riser Robinson Simrill
Smith, D. Stone Sturkie
Thomas Trotter Vaughn
Walker Wells Wilkins
Wofford Wright Young, A.
Total--42
So, the motion to recede until 6:45 P.M. was agreed to.
THE HOUSE RESUMES
At 6:45 P.M. the House resumed, the SPEAKER in the Chair.
HOUSE STANDS AT EASE
The House stood at ease subject to the call of Chair.
JOINT ASSEMBLY
At 7:00 P.M. the Senate appeared in the Hall of the House.
The President of the Senate called the Joint Assembly to order and announced
that it had convened under the terms of a Concurrent Resolution adopted by both
Houses.
H. 4415 -- Rep. Sheheen: A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION INVITING HIS EXCELLENCY,
CARROLL A. CAMPBELL, JR., GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, TO ADDRESS
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN JOINT SESSION AT 7:00 P.M. ON WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19,
1994.
Governor Carroll A. Campbell and distinguished party were escorted to the
rostrum by Senators Glover, Leventis, Wilson and Waldrep and Representatives
ALLISON, A. YOUNG, WAITES and COBB-HUNTER.
Printed Page 462 . . . . . Wednesday, January 19,
1994
The President of the Senate introduced Governor Campbell who then addressed
the Joint Assembly as follows:
ADDRESS BY GOVERNOR CARROLL A. CAMPBELL
"Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the
110th General Assembly, Constitutional Officers, Cabinet appointees, my fellow
South Carolinians... First, let me say that I could not be here and the Governor
of this State without the support of my wife, Iris, and our family and I would
like for you to know that they are here with us tonight and I would ask them to
stand please. After putting up for me for 33 years, she deserves an applause.
Tonight for the eighth time I report on the State of our State. To make this
assessment, let's consider recent history, take stock of today, and look ahead
to the promise of the future. To prepare our State for tomorrow, we focused on
the families of South Carolina. And, like many of those families, we have had
our disagreements. But we've set them aside and gotten the job done, especially
on pocketbook issues. Together, we cut the personal income tax and indexed the
brackets to inflation. We cut the corporate tax from six to five percent,
stimulating an era of unprecedented growth. We cut the capital gains tax and
increased the retirement exclusion. We cut license tag fees by $5. Even with a
modest gas tax increase to fund economic development and strategic road
building, we have cut general taxes more than $240 million. And if you want to
include fee increases that most people don't pay, such as nuclear waste
disposal, bingo and coin-operated machines, we still have a net tax reduction of
$138 million! We allowed companies making large investments to negotiate a flat
fee for property taxes, saving them nearly $23 million. In return, we got more
than $2 billion in capital investments. We passed a good law and it works. Have
we lost money with these cuts? No. Our corporate revenues are up by 40 percent
for the first half of this fiscal year. And tonight, I am proud to announce the
latest figures from our Commerce Department which show new capital investments
in 1993 of $2.5 billion. Last year, investment was generated in every county of
our State, creating quality jobs that will pay $5,000 more than the state
average for all industries. Ladies and gentlemen, we have forged the best
economic package in the nation. In the last seven years new and existing
companies have invested a record $19.5 billion in South Carolina. The effects
of tax cuts, job-tax credits, industrial enterprise zones and other initiatives
are dramatic: our seven year total is greater than the total capital investment
in South Carolina for the previous 15 years. Our pro-growth approach helped us
to weather downturns in the national and global economies, come through
Printed Page 463 . . . . . Wednesday, January 19,
1994
Hugo and pay off a $31 million debt, reach an agreement with federal retirees,
and I want to thank Speaker Sheheen for the fine job he did representing us in
this negotiation. Not only that, we put $167 million back into the rainy day
reserve funds that had been drained just a year ago, come to terms with the
Catawba Indians and open new vistas for economic development south of Charlotte,
maintain two triple-A credit ratings -- we've never had more than two -- and our
goal should be to have three, without raising taxes, end the last fiscal year
with a $100 million surplus and our general fund revenue collections through
December are growing at a rate of 10.3 percent and, best of all, even in the
face of tremendous cutbacks at the Savannah River site and base closures at
Myrtle Beach and Charleston, we have 230,000 more South Carolinians working
today than in 1987. That's nearly a quarter million more individuals working at
higher wages and, most important, supporting their families. Most families go
through the day without thinking much about government. But those of us in
government shouldn't go a day without thinking about families. Families are the
foundation of our society and they need support today more than ever. Many are
in trouble. And the children suffer most. We see it in children prepped for
street life instead of school life. Police and judges talk of a new type of
juvenile: hardened, heartless and cruel beyond their years. In his book, High
Risk, psychologist Ken Majid says `children who do not form a deep emotional
attachment to a parent in the early years fail to develop a sense of right and
wrong.' It is a mistake to consider drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, dropouts
and juvenile crime as diseases. They are symptoms of a disease having spiritual
and moral dimensions. The disease is the destruction of the family. Too often
government itself undermines families and drains their resources. So tonight I
ask that we refocus this government: we should bolster family finances, help
educate children, improve public safety, and support those in need just enough
so they won't always need that support. Pocketbook pressure is a major stress
on families, and government doesn't help matters with big programs and
bureaucracies. I've already told you how tax relief can stimulate growth.
Let's use some tax relief to strengthen families. Over the years, we've indexed
retirement and other programs to inflation. If state and federal government had
done the same 20 years ago to the deduction parents take for their children,
that tax break would be close to $7,000 today. Instead, it's still $2,350 while
the cost of raising young children has skyrocketed. I am asking you to double
the tax exemption to $4,700 for children under six. When fully phased in over
four years, this would mean a $329 tax cut for families with two children.
That's a rent payment, several weeks groceries, or a
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1994
month or more of daycare. I'd like to do more, but this is a start. And let's
send a message to Congress and the Administration to do the same for the
families of America. It is time we quit taking the money into government and
starting programs and leave the money with family so they can stay together.
That has to be our goal. Families can spend their money better than government
can. Therefore, we should reject any attempt to raise taxes on our hardworking
citizens. South Carolina's corporations have shown us how to create more jobs by
reinvesting the money we let them keep through lower taxes. And we shouldn't
raise taxes on our job creators, either. When a South Carolina family spends the
money it saves in taxes, when a South Carolina corporation expands or a small
business opens its doors, we reap the benefits of a growing economy. I say we
should use that growth. Representative Boan has made a proposal to eliminate
residential property taxes for education. It must be paid for, but without
raising other taxes. Together, we phased in other tax cuts, including personal
income and capital gains. So, let's phase in property tax relief. First, freeze
homeowners' property taxes for education at present levels. Then we can reduce
this tax by 25 percent each year, using revenue growth to make up the
difference, until residential property owners no longer bear an unfair share of
education costs. We must not forget that every dollar we spend in government
comes from the hardworking taxpayers of this State. That's why we passed what I
consider the most significant legislation of South Carolina's modern history,
the government restructuring act. In just six months, we are seeing benefits.
Agencies which had rarely worked together are cooperating in areas ranging from
juvenile justice to public safety. We're consolidating the process of business
permitting without compromising our environmental standards. We put nearly 200
more troopers on our highways during the 78-hour New Year's holiday. Drunk
driving arrests were down and not one person died on South Carolina's roads.
I've sent a list of 10 names to the Senate for consideration as the first
confirmed Governor's cabinet in South Carolina history. I have faith in their
ability and respect for their dedication. I urge swift confirmation of these
agency heads. And I would like for you to have a look at them tonight. They are
seated in the balcony and I would like for them to stand. And for all state
employees who are working hard for our citizens, I ask you to grant an average
3.6 percent pay raise.You took a major reform step two years ago in passing one
of the strongest ethics bills in the country, but we can do more to increase
accountability. You have before you a bill to limit the terms of elected
officials. Send me a reasonable bill that is not retroactive and I will sign
it. I urge you to look for other areas where reorganization will
Printed Page 465 . . . . . Wednesday, January 19,
1994
spawn greater efficiency. And I suggest that you look to higher education. I
have been involved in South Carolina government for 24 years. I've watched
lobbyists from individual schools fighting each other and with the Commission on
Higher Education for program dollars and operating capital. Then the
universities end up spending millions on remedial courses which our
nationally-recognized technical colleges already provide at a lower cost. I
suggest that you restructure the governance of higher education and involve the
colleges and universities. They must have a seat at the table. We must insist
on communication among all components of higher education, including our
technical colleges. That will end duplication. And we can save the $5.5
million our universities have been spending to comply with another level of
bureaucracy. Of course, we have much to be proud of at every level of our
education system. In 1988 we passed the Cutting Edge legislation to address
higher education admission standards, increase research dollars, and measure
program effectiveness. This year I am proposing a three million dollar
expansion for Cutting Edge. South Carolina ranks eighth in the nation in advance
placement exams administered to 11th and 12th graders for college credit. Black
enrollment in our universities hit an all-time high in 1992. Our Governor's
School for Math and Science is ranked among the top 15 high schools in America
after just five years of operation. We have had more winners in the Texaco Star
National Academic Championships than any other state, and in 1992 had four of
the top five teams. Our young people can compete with anyone in the nation! Our
work force development programs have won national recognition and serve as
models for programs in other states. We will soon provide high-quality teacher
training at 13 centers throughout the State under a plan developed by my Math
and Science Advisory Board. I've included $1.8 million in my budget to match a
$10 million grant for this from the National Science Foundation. This must be
funded.We passed Target 2000 legislation, and enhanced it last year with the
Early Childhood and Academic Assistance Act, reallocating almost $100 million to
the front end of the learning process.We are putting greater emphasis on student
achievement. And we are retooling our curriculum through Tech Prep to prepare
our young people, whether they're interested in a high tech job or higher
education. This year I propose a pay raise of 3.6 percent for our teachers,
which will help us meet the projected southeastern average for fiscal year
94-95. I join Education Superintendent Nielsen in her call for an administrative
spending cap in every school district. And we need to review the justification
for having 91 school districts, when a minimum student population per district
would help us direct education resources more
Printed Page 466 . . . . . Wednesday, January 19,
1994
toward the students. We can't throw money into bureaucracy when we face a
crisis in transporting our children to school. By 1995, 77 percent of our fleet
statewide will have traveled more than 100,000 miles or will have been in
service more than ten years. So I have asked you to budget $26 million for 500
new buses. Our Education Department needs books and instructional materials in
16 subject areas. I am asking for $11 million to address this need. South
Carolina is one of three lead states in implementing the readiness portion of
the National Education Goals I co-authored. The best way to get our children
ready for life and ready to learn is to get parents back into the process as the
child's first teacher. Teach your children right from wrong today and chances
are they won't be seen in a detention hall, much less a detention center. If we
are going to keep putting nearly half of our budget into education, we need to
make sure our children and our teachers have a safe learning environment. In
1990 I signed the Safe Schools Act, targeting drug dealers and increasing
penalties for bringing weapons to school. We need to do more. I call on you to
join me in putting every student on notice: when you show up for school, it's
to learn. The only thing you'd better be packing is a book bag. Tonight, I ask
you to require an immediate 60 days in our new juvenile boot camp program for
any student carrying a weapon onto school grounds. It is illegal for a South
Carolinian under 21 to buy a handgun. It is illegal for anyone without a permit
to carry a concealed handgun. A teenager who threatens someone with a gun has
broken laws for having it, concealing it and using it in a crime. Tonight I
call on our judicial system to enforce all three laws to their fullest extent.
While my budget includes $5 million to improve the Department of Juvenile
Justice, I also ask you to ensure that status offenders are no longer locked up
with violent juveniles, where they learn all of the tricks of the crime
trade.The law prevents first time status offenders from entering the general
population, but it doesn't stop a judge from placing probation violators with
violent offenders. So I ask you to expand the Wil Lou Gray Opportunity School in
Lexington County and the John de la Howe School in McCormick County to provide
an alternative for non-violent offenders. The cost can be covered in part by
having the money follow the student from their home school district for the
duration of the stay. The balance will come from savings incurred by keeping
the child out of our juvenile justice system. There's a good chance the child
we keep on the outside of juvenile justice facilities will become an adult who
won't see the inside of our prison facilities. As Representative Rogers has
noted, similar logic should be applied to non-violent offenders in our adult
prison system.My budget calls for $2 million to put 600 non-violent offenders in
Community
Printed Page 467 . . . . . Wednesday, January 19,
1994
Control Centers and $1 million to expand electronic monitoring. Also, I have
included money to open prisons at Turbeville and Trenton, and to re-open
additions to the Dutchman and Coastal prisons. This will serve notice that we
will not put violent criminals on the street because some judge says inmates are
suffering from overcrowding. The essential duty of government is ensuring public
safety. We can't protect people if career criminals are running through a
revolving door at the court house. We need truth in sentencing!Our message
should be clear: if a South Carolina judge gives you six years in 1994, say
good-bye until the next century! And career criminals can say good-bye for
life! Government can and must fight crime, but the family continues to be our
best hope for rebuilding the character of our State and our nation. While we
have a $100,000 Kellogg Foundation grant to help reform our adoption and foster
care systems, our efforts must emphasize the influence of loving parents. We are
joined this evening by a man whose mission in life is to help the child who
knows no parents. As an orphan who has risen to great success, he's the
nation's leading proponent of adoption. Please join me in welcoming the founder
of Wendy's, Dave Thomas. His leadership on this issue and his friendship to me
and all South Carolinians led to this proposal. I ask you to help build
families in our State through a new adoption incentive. My plan will help pay
direct costs of up to $5,000 for state employees who adopt, or up to $10,000 for
those adopting a child with special needs. In addition to benefits we already
provide, this incentive gives substantial aid for state employees who have long
wanted to adopt. And I urge South Carolina businesses to encourage adoption by
extending similar financial support to their employees. Every child deserves a
family and a chance to develop to his or her greatest potential in a loving
atmosphere. Few children who are fortunate enough to be invited into a loving
home return to the social services system as adults, except to give a helping
hand to another child. Dave Thomas is an example of that. He was an orphan.
He made it, but he didn't forget where he came from and he is trying to help
others. We can do no less. In spite of our best efforts to keep families
together, federal regulations break them apart. Consider the irony. The
program called `Aid to Families with Dependent Children' denies benefits if that
family has a mother and a father living under the same roof.I have directed the
state Department of Social Services to ask for a waiver allowing both parents to
live in the household. I am saying to federal bureaucrats that we believe in
keeping families together. People need help from time to time and government has
a role. But welfare is no longer a pathway to personal responsibility because
we make it more attractive than going to work. But too often welfare recipients
are penalized for trying to
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1994
improve their lives. For example, transportation gets people to schools and
jobs that will help them one day move off the welfare rolls and onto a payroll.
But we don't allow those on public assistance to own dependable
transportation.We should never lose sight of the fact that the best welfare
program is a job! The House Welfare Reform Task Force has made many good
recommendations to help those who need help and to target those who abuse the
system. I wonder, though, how many billions of dollars we've spent in America
helping those who might have been self-sufficient if one parent hadn't abandoned
the family. Or, how many families might not have been on welfare if the
exemption for children under six had been allowed to grow. My budget includes
money to create a computer link between DSS and every family court in the State.
When a judge orders child support to be paid, DSS will know immediately .97
percent of all adult recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children are
female. I believe we can help these women get the help they need. Ten years
ago, I was a sponsor of the first federal law requiring parents to support their
children. I propose tonight that we require every woman going to the hospital
delivery room to name the father, or the likely father of that child. It is time
she quit bearing the burden by herself and the father pay a price. A young man
at age 15 or 16 may not be able to support a child today. But, someday, when
he's 23 or 24 years old and has a job, that child will be nearly ten and will
need his help. That young man should be made to pay support. Too many children
are having children. One of the most important messages parents can convey is
that abstinence is the only sure way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and disease.
And every woman on welfare should be on some type of birth control. They should
have that opportunity. They want it and we have not been able to offer it.
But, we got a waiver to allow us to do it for two years now. We should help.
Government isn't supposed to raise children. But we can provide support through
school nurse screenings and immunization programs. And next week, I will
announce a new initiative to make sure our youngest South Carolinians have the
healthiest start in life. As the national debate on health care continues, we
recognize some problems with delivery of care and with cost and coverage. But
we still have the best medical care in the world and I caution Congress and the
Administration not to operate on the healthy parts of the system. One of our
most valuable health care tools is education. We can control costs by educating
people. The emergency room can do no more than a family doctor to relieve a sore
throat or a cold. But emergency room charges for minor problems are busting our
budgets through cost shifting. That's how the price of an aspirin on a hospital
bill rises to $20! Every family should
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1994
have a primary health care provider, whether it is a doctor at an urban clinic
or a nurse practitioner in a rural area. One of the best places to begin getting
costs under control is Medicaid. When I took office, the state's Medicaid costs
were $120 million. Today, partly because of federal mandates, costs have risen
to $341 million. I am asking the federal government for a Medicaid waiver to
create a managed care system, so recipients will have a place to go other than
the emergency room for routine care. As part of the waiver, I want to stop
spending $24 million a year to determine Medicaid eligibility. South
Carolinians at or below the poverty level should be eligible for coverage. Once
we begin to realize savings through managed care and a change in
disproportionate share distribution, we will start bringing the working poor
into the system. To reduce pressure on employers' health care costs, I urge you
to allow small businesses to form insurance-purchasing groups. We also need a
defined minimum policy, medical malpractice reform, and coverage that can be
transferred from job to job.Health care, jobs, taxes, education -- all of these
are issues today's families care about as they plan for the future.Over the
course of seven years, you and I have done our best to follow the guideposts our
forefathers left for us. They had no guarantees of success, only opportunities.
Today, we can be proud that we ventured toward opportunity even as we struggled
through and overcame crisis.And sometimes when our family disagreed, we
benefitted anyway. For example, I said no-fault, and some of you said no way.
But there have been some reductions because we forced examination of the
automobile insurance system.Good drivers are paying less than half the bad
driver subsidy they paid in 1987, and the subsidy will drop more with the new
bidding process on the Reinsurance Facility. The Insurance Commission tells me
60 percent of the state's drivers are getting a rate cut this year. And Henry
Brown's choice-no fault bill is on the calendar for debate. Don't say no way
this year! It's been said that wisdom of ten consists of knowing what to do
next. We were wise in the last seven years to set aside more than 160,000 acres
of forests and wetlands as protected preserves, a living legacy for our
children. We were wise to keep Barnwell open a little longer because North
Carolina is now on schedule for a new facility and we're getting out of the
low-level waste disposal business. As a State and as a people, we have won
great victories and we have been wise to prepare ourselves to win more. At my
Inauguration in 1987, I shared with you my vision of South Carolina: a place
where people have the opportunity to live and work and raise their families in
an environment that is clean and safe; where every child can grow up with the
opportunity to get a good education and a decent job. A South
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