THEIR VIEWS

There is a catch

As we prepare to vote on a proposal to borrow nearly $163 million to build new schools and fix and expand old ones, state lawmakers are working on a bill that would allow local governments to create special tax districts to help pay for new schools.

Good news, right? As with most things in life, there is a catch _ or two or three. The biggest catch is that property owners would have to agree to the new tax, which would appear on property tax bills in subsequent years. ...

This proposal puts another negotiating arrow in the quiver of developers who want something from a town or county when it comes time to rezone property or negotiate a development agreement. It does relatively little for local governments. It is highly unlikely that a developer would agree to being included in such a district without getting something in return. Otherwise, why put themselves at a potential competitive disadvantage? ...

If this bill, approved by the House and now in a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, is signed into law as written, we can say goodbye to the idea of true school impact fees - fees paid on all new construction. Lawmakers aren't likely to revisit it.

At the very least, lawmakers should drop requiring property owner approval and allow towns and counties to draw the boundaries for these districts. Allowing owners to opt out does us little good, and our own state lawmakers should not pretend otherwise.

The (Hilton Head) Island Packet

It should die a quick death

If the devil is in the details, South Carolina House members discovered recently that the fine print of a bill approving an automatic pension increase for themselves also can cause a stir.

According to The Associated Press, the pension increase was included in a cost-ofliving adjustment for all state retirees that guaranteed a 2 percent annual increase. State employees regularly receive pay increases, according to Dan Cooper, House Ways and Means Committee chairman, but legislators haven't had a base increase since 1995.

Never mind that this was a pension increase and not a base-pay hike. Everyone should have such a fine pension plan. ...

Pay and benefits for lawmakers should be considered from time to time, as it should be for officials at the county and municipal level. Taxpayers shouldn't expect them to work for nothing. But taxpayers should expect that state legislators would obtain them the same way that officials at the local level do. Pay increases go through several readings of an ordinance, endure public comments and require a recorded public vote.

That shouldn't be too much to ask of the people who are supposed to act like statesmen.

The House plan has been returned to committee, where it should die a quick death.

The Beaufort Gazette

Not a complicated matter

Senate leaders insisted that they could not use the $16 million in their "Competitive Grants" slush fund to balance the budget - as our editorial board, Gov. Mark Sanford and others have urged - without passing a separate law. The same apparently is the case with the $21 million waiting to be used once lawmakers stop squabbling over where and how to build a network of farmers markets.

Fine. So pass the separate bills. ...

This is not a complicated matter that needs studying. ....

In a year when lawmakers can't find enough money to replace two-decade-old school buses, can't maintain their commitment to the endowed chairs program that is transforming our economy, can't pay for the tourism advertising that is keeping our economy afloat until it is transformed, when they're closing down prisons (but not releasing any prisoners, or even slowing the flow of nonviolent offenders into the prisons), it's inconceivable that they would fail to tap these pots of money.

And there is absolutely no reason they cannot do so.

The (Columbia) State