Laws and the New Year

By Cindy Landrum  

JANUARY 5, 2012 2:14 p.m. (0)

Drivers would be prohibited from text messaging or talking on cell phones under multiple bills filed in advance of the 2012 South Carolina legislative session.

State Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, wants to require applicants for unemployment benefits to pass a drug test before collecting any money and take away benefits for anybody who works part-time.

Sen. Glenn Reese, D-Spartanburg, has proposed “Caylee’s Law,” legislation that would make it a felony to fail to report to law enforcement that a child has gone missing.

The proposed law is named after Caylee Anthony, the 2-year-old daughter Casey Anthony did not report missing for 31 days.

And no agency in South Carolina would be required to use the telephone greeting, “It’s a great day in South Carolina” unless unemployment falls below 5 percent and all state residents have health insurance.

Another legislator wants to make Veteran’s Day a holiday for schools, while others want to pass a law requiring the University of South Carolina and Clemson University football teams to play each other every year.

Those are among the proposals awaiting state legislators when the new legislative session begins in January.

Legislators prefiled 170 bills, ranging from those that would deny bail for those who are charged with a violent crime while already out on bail to those that would expand the list of people required to report suspected child abuse or neglect to those that would require public officials to keep electronic communications for five years and would require school districts to redirect money they pay in membership dues to educational organization to the classroom.

Some of the bills are repeats that didn’t pass last year.

Others are brand new.

Some have no real chance of passing, while others are sure to spark big debates.

Rep. Bakari Sellers, D-Denmark, wants to reduce South Carolina’s gas tax from 16 cents a gallon to 14.4 cents a gallon.

South Carolina already has one of the nation’s lowest gas taxes and it hasn’t changed since 1987.

Sellers called the gas tax regressive that hits the poor the hardest.

The proposal comes at a time when the state Department of Transportation is already having trouble maintaining state roads and bridges.

Proposals to raise the state’s gas tax have been made in recent years and all have failed.

Another lawmaker, Rep. Mia Butler Garrick, D-Columbia, wants to eliminate all of the state’s sales tax exemptions and use the additional money to fund education.

Among items South Carolina residents would have to start paying sales tax on if the bill passes would be groceries, gasoline, electric bills, water bills, prescriptions and hair cuts.

The South Carolina Supreme Court heard arguments last month in a case that contends the sales tax exemptions are unconstitutional. It is not known when the court will rule in the case.

State Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, has prefiled a bill that would prohibit public officials from deleting electronic communications such as email.

Under the bill, the S.C. Department of Archives and History would be responsible for reviewing and preserving those emails that constitute public records.

Gov. Nikki Haley has been criticized recently for the governor’s office policy of routinely deleting internal staff emails and saving only external correspondence.

A bill sponsored by state Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, would require a person convicted of a felony that has two or more prior felony convictions to serve an extra sentence of between 10 years and 30 years.

The bill allows no portion of the 10-year minimum to be suspended.

Bright has also filed a bill that would require the state Department of Transportation to reimburse for damages or injuries caused by “improper road conditions, design or maintenance.”

People can now file claims against the DOT for damage, but reimbursement is not a given if the bad road hasn’t been previously reported.

One bill would prohibit school districts from issuing general obligation bonds for general operating expenses.

Another bill, this one filed by Sen. Ralph Anderson, D-Greenville, would allow people who are wrongly convicted and imprisoned for a crime to recover monetary damages.

He also wants to require each middle and high school in the state teach three hours of instruction on criminal conduct commonly committed or involving school-age children that could result in imprisonment.

The instruction would have to come in the beginning of the school year.

One pre-filed bill would require telephone solicitors to include accurate caller identification information.

Reps. Wendell Gilliard of Charleston and John King of Rock Hill introduced legislation that would not require state agencies to use “It’s a great day in South Carolina” as their telephone greeting as long as the state’s unemployment rate equals or exceeds 5 percent, all citizens do not have health insurance, state school funding is “not sufficient to ensure that all students are prepared for the 21st century or infrastructure is not adequate to allow rural areas to compete for new business and industry on an equal basis with urban areas.”

State employees were directed by Haley to use the greeting.