Harvey Peeler

A state lawmaker has filed legislation he hopes will help the more than two dozen injured in a children’s train ride crash in Spartanburg.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler says the bill he filed Wednesday would exclude medical expenses from the current liability cap that protects the government from paying unlimited damages.

That cap is currently set at $600,000 per occurrence, regardless of the number of government entities involved.

The Gaffney Republican says the bill would need to be retroactive to help people hurt in the March 19 crash at Spartanburg’s Cleveland Park. Twenty-seven people were injured. Six-year-old Benji Easler was killed.

If passed, Peeler’s bill would allow people to recover all medical costs and lost earnings but would lower the limit on other damages like pain and suffering.

Courtesy of The Associated Press

Patriots Point must figure out in the next two years how to repay the state $9.2 million, or powerful lawmakers may look to collect the debt by selling valuable waterfront property surrounding the naval and maritime museum.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, said Wednesday the state has been patient enough, that Patriots Point exemplifies what is wrong with South Carolina government and that it’s time to “fold this project. If history proves correct, we’re not going to get the money back,” Peeler told his fellow lawmakers on the Joint Bond Review Committee.

Despite Peeler’s concerns, the committee agreed to give Patriots Point a two-year extension on the loan, which was due to be repaid in December. The agreement came with the promise that the museum would pay $500,000 now.

Patriots Point will be charged interest as its new management and restructured board develop a plan to shore up finances. The loan agreement is pending final approval by the state Budget and Control Board in coming weeks.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said Patriots Point officials understand the extension is not a bailout.

He said the museum needs to create a master plan, pinpoint places to make money and get a handle on the maintenance of the vessels in its care, especially with regard to corrosion.

“It is the last chance to save Patriots Point,” McConnell said.

Patriots Point accepted the state loan for emergency repairs to the destroyer Laffey in the summer of 2009, after the World War II ship sprang some 100 leaks and seemed poised to sink into Charleston Harbor in the event of a major storm. The ship, now restored, remains docked at the Macalloy property, a 135-acre private industrial site in the Neck Area.

Patriots Point paid $125,000 for a mooring structure and continues to foot a $11,250-rent bill per month to Shipyard Creek Associates to house the ship.

The agency must assess the costs, estimated at more than $2 million for work that includes moorings and dredging, to bring the Laffey home.

At the same time, it faces $80 million to $100 million for maintenance and repair work on its main attraction, the aircraft carrier Yorktown. The agency continues its discussions of redeveloping its prime real estate to generate an income stream that would support its mission.

Patriots Point Chairman Ray Chandler said after Wednesday’s meeting the board wants South Carolinians to know that Patriots Point is a valuable asset when it is managed correctly.

“It is a responsibility that we take very seriously,” Chandler said.

Chandler and executive director Mac Burdette said Patriots Point draws around 270,000 visitors a year and generates more than $3 million a year in sales tax for the state but does not receive any annual state appropriations. The museum’s financial woes come from maintenance work that’s been pushed off over the years. To make more money in the future, officials are considering running a day camp and expanding the gift shop, among other ideas.

Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, said he has no question in his mind that the state will get its money back. Patriots Point either repays the loan, or the state ends up with valuable waterfront property, he said.

The Patriots Point Development Authority Board oversees more than 350 acres of property on Charleston Harbor, much of which is under lease for a golf course, hotel, and a collegiate athletic complex.

Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, resisted any mention of the state selling the property. The land should be preserved, maintained and protected, not developed, he said.

“I want to give the new leadership at Patriots Point the opportunity to work through the myriad of financial problems that they’ve inherited,” Limehouse said.

Courtesy of The Sun News

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler filed a bill Wednesday that could help the victims of the recent Cleveland Park tragedy in Spartanburg — or, at least, better reimburse people who find themselves in similar situations in the future.

Peeler, a Gaffney Republican, wants to exclude medical expenses from the current liability cap in state law that protects the government from paying unlimited damages in court. That cap — established in 1986 and raised only once since — is currently set at $300,000 per individual or $600,000 per occurrence, regardless of the number of government entities involved.

“I don’t want to create any kind of false optimism that I’ll be able to accomplish it,” Peeler said earlier this week. “To help the Cleveland Park people, it would have to be retroactive. Some of my legal scholars say we can do it, some say we can’t do it.”

Peeler’s bill states that it would be retroactive for one year upon the governor’s approval. Debate on that alone could be heavy.

Last month, 29 people — mostly children — were on the miniature train ride at Cleveland Park when it derailed near Asheville Highway. Six-year-old Benji Easler of Gaffney died in the crash, and many others were hospitalized. At least one remains in the hospital.

The train, which hadn’t been used since the county reacquired it in 2004, went on several test runs and was on its eighth public ride on March 19, an early opening day for the season, when the crash happened.

Under the Tort Claims Act, the people on board or otherwise affected by the crash are collectively limited to $600,000 in damages. Critics of the law have argued that a single person’s medical bills could reach or exceed that much.

Peeler’s measure would allow the government to pay for medical costs.

“It just shows the problems with tort legislation in South Carolina. With a government train, you have a $600,000 limit, but if it was a similar ride at Carowinds, the sky would be the limit. A private entity would be treated differently than a public entity,” he said. “To me, it’s a matter of fairness. We need to treat public entities the same as private. That’s what seems so unfair about the Cleveland Park situation.”

Peeler said he doesn’t want to jeopardize the larger tort reform bill being discussed in the Senate. He stressed that the families affected by the Cleveland Park crash would only benefit if the law could be retroactive.

Republican state Rep. Doug Brannon, an attorney from Landrum, said he would support efforts to make Cleveland Park victims’ families whole. But he expressed doubt that making Peeler’s amendment retroactive for them could be done without opening the state up to millions of dollars in liability from other avenues.

“I do not want to open the state up to a series of legal actions or other claims for damages,” he said.

Peeler’s bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee after its introduction. He introduced an identical amendment to the broader tort reform bill that is in line to be heard, possibly today or early next week.

Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, said the caps were a mistake in the first place.

“Now that we have identified the people who were hurt, and it was a terrible accident, (Peeler) seems to think these specific people need help and others do not,” Leventis said. “It struck me that wanting to move it because 28 people into $600,000 was not adequate, that he would realize the original bill was a mistake — that these artificial caps don’t match the reality of when tragedy strikes, like up in Spartanburg.”

Peeler’s bill, if passed, would allow people to recover all actual “economic damages.” Economic damages, according to the bill, include medical costs and care, rehabilitation services, burial costs, loss of employment and the loss of earnings, earning capacity and income, among other things.

The bill also would lower the limit on “non-economic damages” — pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement or inconvenience, among other things — from $300,000 per person to $50,000 per person.

Courtesy: GoUpstate.com

Gov. Nikki Haley won final approval Thursday for more recorded voting in the Legislature, sparking cheers from Tea Party organizers as she delivered on a central campaign theme.

“It’s about dang time,” Columbia Tea Party organizer Allen Olson said after a 110-0 vote as the House went along with Senate changes to the recorded voting legislation. After routine ratification next week, Haley will have her signature campaign issue on her desk to sign.

In a statement, Haley called it a huge win for the people of South Carolina. “But most of all I appreciate the people of this great state who stood with me and demanded accountability from their government these last three years. Now, by force of law, the people will have it,” Haley said.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler said it’s a big win for Haley a little over two months after taking office.

“That was her signature issue, and she was very successful with it,” said Peeler, a Gaffney Republican. “She came with a mandate to get it passed and did it.”

The Legislature takes plenty of recorded votes already, but Haley argued voters are entitled to more. The bill heading her way means roll call votes will be taken on every bill on second reading, each section of the state budget as well as when the House and Senate approve compromise versions of legislation approved by House and Senate negotiators.

The House and Senate already included those changes in their operating rules. But Haley argued state law needed to be changed, too, to make sure legislators are held accountable to more than internal procedures.

House Speaker Bobby Harrell, a Charleston Republican, said the change was needed.

“A state law putting every important vote on the record will give our citizens a powerful and permanent tool to hold government officials accountable for the decisions they make,” Harrell said in a statement. “A well informed public will produce a more restrained and responsible government.”

Olson said Haley and activists forced legislators to act.

“They’re now forced to vote the way their constituents want them to, and they can’t hide their votes,” Olson said. “We can keep track and hold them accountable.”

Article courtesy of The State

A top South Carolina Senate Republican won approval Tuesday for a bill that gives employers tax breaks to spur hiring of the state’s unemployed.

The Senate Finance Committee unanimously sent a bill to the Senate floor that would give employers tax credits of $1,200 a year for hiring someone drawing unemployment benefits.

South Carolina’s 10.2 percent unemployment rate in February tied with Mississippi and Oregon as the nation’s sixth highest. The proposal would cost the state $94 million in tax collections during the next two fiscal years. Employers would be able to take the $100-per-month credit for two years.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler said the costs would be offset by the formerly unemployed paying income taxes and coming off the state’s unemployment rolls. “And the intangible thing is people having a job and accomplishing something. I think it makes good common sense taking people off the unemployment rolls and putting them on payrolls,” said Peeler, a Gaffney Republican.

Sen. Phil Leventis, a Sumter Democrat, said the legislation didn’t provide incentives for hiring people who aren’t drawing unemployment benefits and reducing tax collections while the state still has financial problems.

Regardless of that, Sen. Billy O’Dell, a Ware Shoals Republican, said legislators need to spur hiring.

“We certainly need to get these unemployed people working if it’s at all possible,” O’Dell said.

Peeler first proposed the bill in 2009 but it died in the House as legislators worried about costs as the state revenues fell in the midst of a slow recovery from the recession.

“I hope this time they’ll look on it favorably,” Peeler said. “I think there’ll be more than enough support in the Senate to get it through the Senate again.”

Courtesy of The Associated Press

A bill called the “jump-start plan” has been jump-started in the Senate this session. Senator Harvey Peeler reintroduced a measure that died in the House in the past session after it passed in the Senate. The measure sets up a tax break for businesses who hire people who are on unemployment:

AUDIO: Peeler explains the tax payout (:27)

The bill passed the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday and the senator from Cherokee says it is one way to help boost the economy. Opponents say it has a high economic impact up front by granting a tax break. Peeler says the measure will pay off in many ways:

AUDIO: Peeler says what he is calling the jumpstart bill can become one part of the state’s recovery (:21)

The key, says Peeler, “is getting people off the unemployment rolls and onto payrolls.”

Courtesy of the South Carolina Radio Network

Dwayne Goins said he thinks his chances of finding work in this bad economy only get better if the state starts kicking drug users off the unemployment benefit rolls.

If employers have to spend less money on unemployment benefit taxes, Goins of Walterboro reasons that they will have more money to hire people like him.

He’s been out of work for four months and is desperate to earn a paycheck to support his wife and 6-month-old daughter. Goins said he will take a drug test any day, any time.

South Carolina is one of more than 20 states where lawmakers are trying this year to make drug testing a condition for receiving public assistance, including unemployment benefits, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Bills have been introduced in Georgia and North Carolina to conduct random drug testing for certain public assistance programs. Meanwhile, similar legislation filed this year in other states such as Kentucky already has been defeated.

The question is whether such legislation is constitutional.

S.C. Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler drafted a bill that calls on companies to alert the state when an individual fails a drug test as part of the hiring process. As the bill is drafted now, individuals who fail a drug test or refuse to take one would lose their benefits.

Peeler said he thinks his plan gets around the constitutional concerns.

“If they’re not eligible to work, how can they be eligible to draw unemployment benefits? I think it’s goes hand-in-hand. If it’s illegal, it’s illegal,” said Peeler, R-Gaffney.

On Wednesday, a subcommittee sent the legislation to the full Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee for a vote next week.

Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, declined through a spokesman to take a position on the bill, but she said on the campaign trail that she liked the idea.

She said in October that people who apply for unemployment benefits in South Carolina should submit to a drug test as a way to make sure the system is more accountable to taxpayers and businesses.

Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, has successfully helped push back attempts for the state to pass similar legislation in past years.

“Is this like ‘Groundhog Day’? Don’t we have this conversation every year? It’s unconstitutional,” Hutto said.

First, Hutto said, the matter isn’t even an issue because people who are fired for using drugs can’t collect unemployment benefits. Second, he said, the concept of requiring those who receive benefits to take a drug test violates the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which guards against unreasonable searches.

Hutto said for that reason, passing such a bill will only result in the state getting sued.

“It’s just people playing politics when they ought to be focused on the real issues,” Hutto said.

Sen. Kevin Bryant, R- Anderson, said the No. 1 goal of the bill is to discourage drug use. He has led the debate on the legislation and has tried to navigate around the constitutional land mines.

Any action will be under particular scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Labor, given the trend across the country to limit access to benefits.

Lawmakers still must work out some issues with the bill. For instance, employers would be required to report to the state Department of Employment and Workforce when individuals fail drug tests, but lawmakers haven’t sorted out how to enforce the requirement.

Bryant noted that it would be in the best interest of employers to notify the state. That’s because not paying for drug users to draw down benefits will go toward lowering the premiums businesses must pay per worker toward the unemployment benefits trust fund.

The trust fund, which has been insolvent in recent years, pays out the benefits.

Neil Whitman, president Dunhill Staffing Systems of Charleston, said he wants the state to go as far as it can in denying benefits to drug users. That will help businesses that are struggling to cope with a dramatic increase this year in the taxes paid per worker for the benefits, he said.

The increase in taxes this year for his company jumped from $86.80 per worker to $602.20.

Fixing the system starts with providing benefits only to people are deserve it, and that does not include drug users, he said.

“I am sorry; we need to cut them off,” Whitman said.

Courtesy of The Post and Courier

South Carolina legislators say the state should spend up to $94 million during the next two years on tax credits encouraging businesses to hire people collecting unemployment checks.

The Senate Finance Committee Tuesday approved a bill that would give employers up to $1,200 a year in tax credits for making such hires.

South Carolina’s 10.2 percent unemployment rate in February tied with Mississippi and Oregon as the nation’s sixth highest.

Senate Republican Leader Harvey Peeler of Gaffney said his bill is a good start at creating jobs.

The legislation reduces state tax collections by $31 million in the fiscal year that begins in July and $63 million in the following fiscal year.

Peeler first proposed the bill in 2009 but it died in the House.

Courtesy of The Associated Press

Gov. Haley praises Peeler, Martin and their colleagues for listening to the people of South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Governor Nikki Haley today issued the following statement after South Carolina Senate passage of H. 3004 to put legislative votes on the record:

“This is an exciting day for South Carolina. We have long said rules protect legislators; laws protect the people. Senate passage of this bill was a huge step forward to change the face of how we conduct business in our state in the eyes of the country. By passing this bill, the House and Senate clarify that we believe the people, not elected officials, are in charge. I want to personally thank Sen. Harvey Peeler, Sen. Larry Martin, and the Senators who supported this bill for their courage, fight and humility.”

South Carolina legislators have postponed a meeting to consider giving businesses a tax break to hire unemployed workers.

The proposal would allow businesses to take a tax credit for hiring a South Carolina resident who’s been out of work for at least a month. Businesses could claim up to $2,400 per worker over two years. It would break down to a $100 per worker for each month the worker remains in the job, for up to 24 months.

The state’s jobless rate was 10.5 percent in January.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler’s bill was up for debate Tuesday by a Senate subcommittee, but the meeting was postponed as the full Senate continued debating roll call voting.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously last year and died in the House.

Courtesy of the Associated Press