THE MOSS REPORT
REP. DENNIS MOSS

This review will look at some bills of interest that you may want to follow through the process. The category designated indicates the committee to which each piece of legislation was assigned for further consideration.

EDUCATION AND PUBLIC WORKS - H.4486 is a bill that would direct the Department of Motor Vehicles to only provide electronic and paper-testing forms in an English-only format unless otherwise required by federal law or regulation.

JUDICIARY - First reading was given to a bill, H.4474 that would give direction to electric and telephone cooperatives relating to disposal options in connection with the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act. This bill outlines alternative methods of disposition of patronage allocations and provides for these funds to be donated to an eleemosynary organization serving in the electric or telephone cooperative's service area; or to be used in support of education in the electric or telephone cooperative's service area; or to be used for economic development purposes in the electric or telephone cooperative's service area; or to be used for the benefit of the electric or telephone cooperative's members."

A bill was introduced that would require the Department of Public Safety to collect and analyze information that would be gathered at the time a law enforcement officer is issuing a uniform traffic ticket. H.4489 would require that the following information be captured: age, gender, and race of the person stopped, the violation or suspicious behavior that led to the stop, whether a search was conducted and whether the person consented to the search, the probable cause for the search, whether contraband was discovered in the course of the search and the type of contraband discovered, whether a warning or citation was issued as a result of the stop, if a warning or citation was issued, the violation charged or warning provided, whether an arrest was made as a result of either the stop or the search, if an arrest was made and the crime charged, and the location of the stop.

H.4491 is a bill that creates the offense of eluding a law enforcement officer after a lawful stop. The bill provides penalties, including suspension of the person's driver's license under certain circumstances.

H.4495 creates the office of the State Inspector General to address fraud, waste, abuse, and wrongdoing within the South Carolina executive government agencies. The Inspector General would be appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate for a term of six years.

H.4501 would make it unlawful for a person to operate a vehicle while using a cell phone, pager, personal digital assistant device, or another wireless communications device while the vehicle is in motion. This prohibition does not apply to a device that is equipped with and operated with a hands-free mechanism. Penalties are provided for violations.

H.4508 provides that it would be unlawful for a person to smoke or possess lighted smoking material in any form in a public outdoor gated athletic event or within 25 feet of any entrance to such an event.

WAYS AND MEANS - H.4465 is a bill that revises provisions for multi-term contracts under the South Carolina Consolidated Procurement Code, so as to limit a multiterm contract to a maximum of five years. H.4485 revises provisions relating to use of State Park facilities and campsites by senior citizens, the blind, or disabled, so as to provide that such persons may use these facilities at one half the prescribed fee. The legislation provides that disabled veterans may gain admission and use the campgrounds of state parks without charge.

H.4493 provides that the income tax liability of an individual taxpayer is the lesser of the amount determined by applying the existing rates and brackets to the taxpayer's South Carolina taxable income or applying a flat rate of 3.4 percent to the adjusted gross income reported as the taxpayer's federal income tax return. The legislation increases the existing license tax on cigarettes by 1.5 cents a cigarette and provides that the additional revenue of the tax must be credited to the general fund of the state to replace individual income taxes not collected as a result of the alternative flat tax method of calculating State individual income tax liability.

If you have a comment or opinion concerning the matters discussed in this report, or if I may be of assistance to you at any time, please feel free to call (803-734-3073), write Office 422A Blatt Building, Columbia, SC 29211; or send an e-mail to mossd@scstatehouse.net; or call my home in Gaffney (864-487-2121); or write 306 Silver Circle, Gaffney, SC 29340.