This
legislative week was shortened to two days, as both the House and Senate were
not in session on Tuesday (5/10) in observance of Confederate Memorial Day.
Amazon
In late April by a vote of 47-71, the House defeated
legislation that would have given Amazon a special tax exemption so that they
would not be required to collect and remit sales taxes in South Carolina.
Immediately following this vote, Amazon officials announced that they would no
longer continue with plans for a S.C. distribution center.
As early as next week, special legislation may be
reintroduced in an effort to keep Amazon from moving its proposed distribution
center and 1200+ new jobs from Lexington County.
Budget Debate Continues
For
the 3rd consecutive week, the Senate debated the FY 2011-12 $5.8 billion state
budget. The Senate will begin its 4th consecutive week of budget
debate next week. They will reconvene beginning at 10:00am on Tuesday, May 17th.
Labor Issues
This week, U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham, Jim DeMint and
Lamar Alexander (Tennessee), introduced the Job Protection Act (S. 964),
a bill to preserve federal law’s existing protections of state right-to-work
laws.
On April 20, the acting general counsel of the National
Labor Relations Board moved to stop Boeing from building airplanes at a
nonunion plant in South Carolina, suggesting that unionized American company
cannot expand its operations into one of the 22 states with right-to-work laws,
which protect a worker’s right to join or not join a union.
This bill
would clarify that the NLRB would not be able to order an employer to relocate
jobs from one location to another. It would guarantee an employer the right to
decide where to do business within the United States. The legislation would
also protect an employer’s free
speech regarding the costs associated with having a unionized workforce without
fear of such communication being used as evidence in an anti-union
discrimination claim.
Redistricting
As
this legislative year comes to an end, the issue of redistricting will soon
become a main topic of discussion. To take a closer look at the new Census data
for South Carolina, please click here.
In addition, the SC House and Senate have set up websites to update the public
on the redistricting process. For more information visit http://redistricting.schouse.gov/
or http://redistricting.scsenate.gov/.
Sine Die
The last day of the legislative session is Thursday, June 2nd. However, last week the House adopted the
Sine Die Resolution, H.4195, that would allow them to return to Columbia
Tuesday June 14th, and continue in statewide session and adjourn no
later than 5:00 pm, Friday, July 1, 2011. The resolution specifies
consideration of gubernatorial vetoes, Sine Die adjournment, appointments,
sympathy and congratulatory resolutions, local legislation, concurrence in
amendments, conference committee appointments and reports, reapportionment,
ratification of acts, and toll regulations. They will also address state and
federal reapportionment.
Tort Reform
As
the Senate gets closer to a final vote on the budget, the statewide business
community continues to urge Senators to move forward with debate on tort
reform. The House passed, H. 3375,
a comprehensive tort reform bill in mid-February by a vote of 100-7. Even
though tort reform was set for Special Order in the Senate in March, the Senate
has only spent two days debating the legislation.
Unemployment Insurance
This week, the Senate adopted two different measures to
provide meaningful unemployment insurance (UI) tax relief for employers across
the state. The Senate gave second reading to the state budget, which provides
$100 million in state dollars to assist in paying down the $933 million debt
South Carolina owes to the federal government. The Senate also gave second
reading to H.3762,
an unemployment insurance bill that provides other cost-saving measures
including a reduction in state benefit weeks from 26 weeks to 20 weeks and
restriction of benefits for seasonal workers. These two measures combined will provide
approximately 18% relief for companies in tiers 2-20.
