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HOT ISSUE
1.23: More
work got done than you might think
(Week of June 11, 2002)
JUNE 7, 2002 - - Subscribers can take a
look at a special section in this issue to find a comprehensive
listing of all of the statewide bills ratified by the General Assembly.
Virtually all of them became law, with some veto exceptions as noted.
What you may find surprising is the enormity of
the work done by lawmakers this year. As one long-time senator said,
"There are a lot of technical bills that do substantial things
that don't get picked up in the mainstream media."
One of those bills, for example, is the elimination
of a requirement for propane tank owners to install a different
kind of valve - or buy a new tank. Removing the requirement will
keep consumers from shelling out a lot of money to comply with a
new system when the old one still works, lawmakers said.
Without going into full explanations of all of
the accomplishments of the session, key bills that became law included
crafting a budget in an extremely tight financial year(lawmakers
even finished early, remarkably), including dealing with increasing
Medicaid costs and spending more money on education because of a
plan to distribute lottery revenues.
Lawmakers also approved a homeland security bill,
authorized a new Conservation Bank to help protect state lands,
developed a structure to help attract more big industries, compromised
on a plan to expand the Port of Charleston, reformed the guardian
ad litem system for contested child custody battles, authorized
new rules to stave beach erosion, and revamped the state's charter
school law.
Finally if you're keeping score, the Legislature
also named the Carolina Tartan as the state's official tartan. Lawmakers
also approved special license plates for the Penn Center, South
Carolina nurses, "Share the Road," Morris Island, the
Heritage Classic Foundation, "In God We Trust," "United
We Stand," and "God Bless America."
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