South Carolina Statehouse Blog

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Representative Nathan Ballentine about his opinions on what has happened during the 2009 General Assembly. Many topics were covered ranging from the stimulus money to the multiple furlough weeks taken this session. The following is based off of this interview.

First topic discussed was the passage of the cigarette tax (H. 3584) by the House of Representatives. Compared to previous years, Ballentine said that the debate about this bill was not focused on whether or not it would pass, but where the money raised by this tax should be spent.

Ultimately, Rep. Ballentine and 97 of his fellow House members voted in favor of passage.

“You don’t raise a tax just to raise a tax,” Representative Ballentine said, “but there are plenty of places where they money can go.”

He explained that they money raised from this tax will go towards providing incentives for small businesses and helping provide health insurance for some people who don’t normally have any.

Though this bill raises a tax or, at the very least, increases a user fee, Representative Ballentine stands by his vote stating that his constituents asked for it and his voting record still attests to his strong fiscal conservative values.

Currently, this bill has stalled in the Senate and even if it passes, there is still a fairly good chance that Governor Sanford will veto it.

While the passage of the cigarette tax may be important, the debates regarding the budget and Federal stimulus money have arguably been the focal point of the session.

Rep. Ballentine pointed out that he was one of only eight to vote against accepting the stimulus funds for use in the house budget.

After he and the small group of those against the stimulus lost, they tried to get some reforms placed into the budget in order to protect the taxpayers. However, their efforts were mostly in vain.

“We fought to keep tuition caps down. That failed. We fought to try to remove taxpayers funding lobbyists. That failed. I mean it was just ridiculous.”

Since the stimulus money is such a contentious issue, Representative Ballentine explained why he is concerned with spending the federal money as spelled out by the House budget.

“My concern is that we are just taking a handout and by doing that, we are gambling that in two years the economy will be back where it was. If it isn’t, here is what is going to happen: We are going to have to either raise taxes, slash-and-burn [governmental and state agency spending] deeper than we had to do this year… or, in the worse case of all, we will be relying on the government to bail us out every two years.”

Overall, Ballentine blames much of the budget and stimulus woes on the egos of the Governor, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House each wanting to do it their own way.

When asked how this all will shape out over the next few weeks, Representative Ballentine had this to say:

“If (or when) the SC Supreme Court rules against the budget that passed with stimulus funds, our state will then be left with the ‘chaos budget’ instead of the alternative budget a few of us supported. The alternative budget funded base-student-cost, law enforcement and corrections much higher than the ‘chaos budget’ did and the alternative budget didn’t require a federal mandate/handout to do so. I hope I’m wrong but we’ll find out soon enough as this is sure to head to the courts.”

The next topic addressed was the unusually high number of furlough weeks taken during this session.

“The good side of [the furloughs] is that it saves taxpayers money,” Representative Ballentine said.

By getting these weeks off, the legislators and their staff receive salary cuts which save the state money.

Representative Ballentine took this opportunity to explain that he supports a shorter session but it should run straight through without the 6 or more weeks of furlough the House has seen this year. These furlough weeks, according to Ballentine, have created uncertainty and frustration among the legislators by interrupting the normal legislative flow of the session.

However, furloughs aren’t the only reason this session has been frustrating.

“This year has been a frustrating year,” Ballentine said, “I’m frustrated that we haven’t gotten much done and it’s been very partisan.”

He explained that a lot of debates have been strictly “R’s and D’s” and he hadn’t expected it to be like that.

“We can’t be as effective if we are just going to sit in our camps with R’s and D’s and not even be willing to listen, consider, or debate the issues.”

He continued by stating that the Republicans are safely in the majority so it is unnecessary to do things like cloturing debate (voting to end debate) when the Democrats want to debate.

Ballentine feels that part of the blame for the unusually high level of partisanship seen this year is due to the new administration and Congress in Washington, D.C.

“You got the Democrats in Washington trying to ram their way down everybody’s throats and the Republican Party here in the state is trying to do the same thing.”

One issue in particular that bothered Rep. Ballentine is the tax study commission passed by the House didn’t include any minority party seats on the 17 seat committee just because “they wouldn’t do that for the Republican Party if [the Democrats] were in the majority.”

Lastly, Ballentine addressed the question that many people are asking: what has been accomplished this session?

Rep. Ballentine pointed out that a few things have been passed by the House during this session like the cigarette tax, some election related bills, as well as a bill to create a tax study commission.

However, even with the passage of these few bills, many important issues have not been addressed such as helping to bring jobs to the state and helping to deal with the current unemployment numbers.

Because of the General Assembly’s failings to address these issues and others, Representative Ballentine sums up his feelings with this session as “disappointed.”

With less than a week left in session, a lot will have to be done in order to end on a high note instead of ending in frustration and disappointment expressed by Representative Ballentine.

Be sure to check out Representative Ballentine’s blog “Nathan’s News” for updates and news about South Carolina politics.