South Carolina Statehouse Blog

Rep. Anton Gunn
SC House District #79

Dear Friends,

It has been several weeks since my last update to you. The House of Representatives has been inundated with legislation over the last few weeks. This has kept me very busy doing research and analysis. The high number of bills on the calendar clearly demonstrates that the end of the legislative session is rapidly approaching. Members and committees are doing their best to get their bills passed before session is over in early June. Many of these bills are very important and at the end of this update, I will highlight a few bills that have come through the legislature over the last several weeks, and I will give you my thoughts on three issues that have spurred considerable political debate recently as they have come before the House.

Cigarette Tax: On Wednesday afternoon my colleagues and I overrode Gov. Mark Sanford’s veto of increasing the cigarette tax to 57 cents with a 90-29 vote. For nearly the last ten years the General Assembly has debated raising the tax but failed to do so, while nearly every other state in the country has raised their cigarette tax. During this same time period the state of South Carolina has remained dead last in this the amount of revenue we collect on cigarette taxes, boasting just a measly 7-cent cigarette tax. The national cigarette tax average is a $1.27 more than this. Well finally, today, the Senate followed suit and overrode Governor Sanford’s veto to raise our cigarette tax by 50 cents and to invest those dollars into health care, smoking prevention and cancer research. The measure will generate a $125 million in much needed dollars to fund healthcare programs, $5 million to fund cancer research at the Medical University of South Carolina and $5 million to provide smoking-deterrent programs that would both help smokers stop quit and prevent our state’s youth from starting the unhealthy habit.

After working on this issue for eight years, the “Will of The People” has been successful in getting the General Assembly to support an increase in the cigarette tax. I started working on this issue in 2002, six years before I was elected to public office, and to be able to cast a vote for this piece of smart public policy was overwhelmingly worth the wait. I am proud of all of us that worked together in a bi-partisan (inside and outside the legislature) manner to get this done. This is a good thing for our state.

Warrantless Searches: Another issue that brought considerable debate on the House floor was S.191, a bill that would grant all law enforcement officers (only probabtion agents had the power before) the power to search without a warrant. The bill is supposed to only apply to probationers and parolees, but it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference between someone that is on parole and someone who is not on parole. This bill could create an environment in which innocent, law-abiding citizens could have their Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure violated. I have even talked to retired and current law enforcement officers who said, “If we are doing our jobs correctly we don’t need to pass this bill”, yet the overwhelming majority of my colleagues thought that warrantless searches are a good idea. Governor Sanford, however, agreed with my position and vetoed this bill called the “South Carolina Reduction of Recidivism Act of 2010.” This ominous sounding title makes it sound like we are trying to reduce crime and be tough on criminals, but it is also encroaching on your freedom and right to privacy. I supported the Governor’s veto position on this issue. There are some serious constitutional flaws inherent in the bill and I am always very concerned when we start enacting laws limiting our personal freedoms in an effort to “protect us” from crime.

After much debate and oratory from people on both sides, the House overrode Governor Sanford’s Veto by a vote of 74 to 37 (I voted to sustain with Governor Sanford). The proponents of the bill obtained the two-thirds necessary by one single vote. I was sad to see this happen for several reasons. I believe that it is imperative that we look at our laws as a state and ensure that folks are guaranteed the rights that they are promised in our Constitution. We should always think twice about any legislation that could impact any of those rights. We should also make sure that those that are sworn to protect our rights in this state are entrusted to keep us safe and make sure that we are never victims. However, it is never okay to impede on other’s rights to not be made victims of unwarranted searches and inexcusable seizures for some unforeseen reason. This is exactly what I believe we are doing with the passing of this law; we are taking the rights away from citizens and telling them that the longstanding phrase ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is no longer applicable in South Carolina.

Voter ID: The third major bill that received considerable debate was H. 3418, which is the “South Carolina Election Reform Act,” a bill that would require photographic identification to vote, among other changes to the voting law. In addition to provisions for free photo IDs, the bill allows for provisional ballots in the event that photo ID cannot be produced at the time of voting, an exception for religious objection to being photographed, sixteen days of early voting, and the provision of free state-issued identification cards at the DMV upon request. To be clear, these new issued photo identification cards will cost the state more than a quarter-million dollars to issue the free id cards. Not to mention the amount of money will have to be spent to educate the public that your current voter registration card is not valid and a picture id is required.

This is where many folks in the General Assembly disagreed on the merits of this bill. How could our State’s leaders be more willing to spend our money on identification cards than on teachers or our state’s struggling healthcare system? We must make sure that when our state is enduring tough economic times, as it is right now, that we are funding our priorities. At the end of the debate, the House sent the bill back to the Senate with amendments. It is my opinion that no matter what’s included in the final voter id bill, the U.S. Justice Department will strike it down as a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. South Carolina has such a long legacy of violating the rights of voters that we must get pre-clearance (permission) of the U.S. Justice Department before we make any changes to our election process. This bill (as-is) wouldn’t pass pre-clearance so I suspect if we pass something before the session is over, it will be nullified anyway.

Increasing Court Fees: There is a house bill, H. 3161, that was amended in the Senate to double the amount it would cost someone to file a civil complant in South Carolina. This means effectively if you want to express your constitutional right to have speedy due process in civil court, its going to cost you more. This bill has been bouncing back and forth between the House and the Senate with changes and amendments being added. There is also a lot of political arm-twisting to get people to support this increase in court fees. I don’t like nor do I support arm-twisting. I won’t every allow my arm to be twisted by ANYONE for ANY REASON. There is so much I want to say about this issue, but I would prefer that you hear it from me verbably. Stay tuned to www.RepresentativeGunn.com in the next week I will post a video of my floor speech on the issue of raising price to access our courts in South Carolina.

Other noteworthy legislation follows:

Working to Develop Small Business in South Carolina
The House passed a bill, H. 4352, to the Senate that would establish a study committee to make recommendations concerning the need to foster the development of micro-enterprises in South Carolina. The study committee will make its recommendations no later than January 20, 2011.

Empowering Rural Development
The Legislature ratified H. 4511, the “South Carolina Rural Infrastructure Act,” which is a bill that I cosponsored that establishes the SC Rural Infrastructure Authority, which will provide loans and other financial assistance to municipalities, counties, special purpose districts, or public service districts for the purpose of empowering rural development projects.

Protecting Public Health
The Legislature ratified H. 3871, which is an act that specifies reporting requirements for laboratories that test for infectious or other diseases required by DHEC to be reported and to provide civil monetary penalties for violations. Another bill, H.3778 was also ratified. This act further improves upon the “Hospital Infections Disclosure Act” to authorize the collection and databasing of public health reports, and penalties to health providers for non-reporting of data on infectious diseases.

Working to Develop Small Business in South Carolina
The House passed a bill, H. 4352, to the Senate that would establish a study committee to make recommendations concerning the need to foster the development of micro-enterprises in South Carolina. The study committee will make its recommendations no later than January 20, 2011.

Improving the Quality of In-home Care
The House passed a bill, H. 4413, to enact the “Licensure of In-home Care Provider Act,” which would require a business to be licensed to provide in-home care. The bill also requires criminal background checks for in-home care providers.

Using Medical Resources Wisely
The House passed a bill, H. 4559 that would enact the “Utilization of Unused Prescription Drugs Act.” This act provides for DHEC to develop a voluntary program whereby healthcare providers can donate the unused prescription drugs of patients to charitable clinics providing care for indigent persons.

Clarifying Campaign Disclosures
Democrats introduced two bills that would improve the clarity of campaign disclosures. The first was H. 4915, a bill that removes a distinction between campaign accounts and other accounts, and to require that all campaign expenditures be reported. The second was H. 4905, a bill that requires the disclosure of unpaid invoices and expenditures on behalf of the campaign for communications through television, radio, telephone, print publications, or electronic means.

Reforming the Tax Code for Education
One of my colleagues and actually my desk mate in the House of Representatives, Rep. Chris Hart (D-Richland Co.) introduced a bill, H. 4935 to reform real estate tax structure to better fund education, and to provide more flexibility in the allocation of those monies by reversing many of the changes made recently to that area of the tax code. The alterations in our state’s tax code that has been made since 2006 have severely handcuffed areas like North Charleston, Dillon, and our own Kershaw Counties. We have since struggled to adequately fund our most precious resource, our children and provide an education that will make them competitive with children in other states like North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

That’s it for this week. If you have a comment or opinion concerning the issues discussed in this update, or if I may be of assistance to you at any time, please feel free to call my legislative office in Columbia (803-212-6794); or send me a message by AntonGunn@schouse.gov, Facebook, Twitter or through www.RepresentativeGunn.com.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you in the House of Representatives.