On Wednesday, the House voted 99-14 to concur with
the Senate amendment to S.36.
The bill was sent to Governor Haley’s desk for signature; however, Governor
Haley has said publicly that she will allow the bill to become law without her
signature.
The Senate compromise requires Amazon to notify
customers that they're responsible for paying sales tax that the company
doesn't collect, as state law already requires, though only a fraction of
online shoppers ever report their online purchases. The company would begin
collecting the tax in January 2016.
Amazon officials have said that the total number of
jobs created will be over 2000. They had already announced plans to put a
distribution facility in Lexington. There has also been speculation over the
past couple of weeks that an additional 800+ jobs and a similar facility maybe
located in Spartanburg County.
Budget
House changes to the budget on
Thursday mean a conference committee will work out differences between the
House and Senate versions of the budget. The House announced their conferees
yesterday and the Upstate is well represented – outgoing House Ways and Means
Chairman Dan Cooper (Anderson) and incoming Chairman Brian White (Anderson)
will both sit on the conference committee.
Medical School Expansion
The expansion of the USC School of Medicine to the
Upstate and Greenville Hospital System continues to move forward. This week,
USC officials held information sessions for interested House and Senate
members.
Redistricting
The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to meet
on Monday, June 6th at 10:00am in Columbia to discuss the House
proposals. The first link below contains the proposed House District maps. The
second link contains the proposed Congressional District maps.
The Senate released their proposed plans on
Thursday of this week. To view the submitted plans, please click here.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a public hearing on Tuesday, June
7th at 5:00pm in Columbia.
Sine Die
By law, the Legislature had to adjourn the regular
legislative session by 5:00pm yesterday (June 2nd). Immediately upon
adjournment, Governor Haley held a 5:15pm press conference to tell lawmakers,
specifically the Senate, to return to Columbia next Tuesday (6/10) to finish
work on a government restructuring bill.
June 14th
The House and Senate had both signed separate “Sine Die Resolutions” to return
to Columbia on June 14th. During this “Sine Die” session, the House
and Senate planned to work primarily on the budget, redistricting and any
remaining conference reports.
Tort Reform
H. 3375 passed the
House in February by a bipartisan vote of 100-7. That bill was amended by the
Senate Judiciary Committee and then spent months on the Senate calendar without
action.
Over the last week,
Senators Larry Martin (Pickens) and Brad Hutto (Orangeburg) worked closely to
forge a compromise between the business community and plaintiff lawyers. This
week, the Senate passed the compromise legislation by a vote of 39-0. The House
concurred by a vote of 99-16.
The legislation now
heads to Governor Nikki Haley’s desk for her signature. As part of her
legislative agenda, Governor Haley was instrumental in getting this legislation
passed.
The bill includes a
cap on punitive damages modeled after the state of Florida's cap. The
legislation caps punitive damages that are greater than $500k or three times
the compensatory damages awarded. If it is found that the defendant is
motivated primarily by financial gain, or the defendant's actions rise to the
level of felony charges, then the award can be increased to the greater of $2
million or four times compensatory damages. If it is proven the defendant
intended to harm the claimant, was convicted of a felony arising out of the
same act or acted under the influence of drugs or alcohol, there is no cap for
punitive damages.
In addition, the
legislation includes an appeals bond cap, revisions to the statute of repose
for construction cases and requires the attorney general to approve civil
actions by circuit court solicitors.
Unemployment Insurance (UI)
This week, both the
House and Senate voted to support H.3762,
which will provide significant unemployment
insurance (UI) tax relief for employers across the state. The legislation,
which now heads to Governor Nikki Haley’s desk for her signature, reduces state
benefit weeks from 26 to 20 weeks and allows employers the option of
restricting seasonal benefits.
With the passage of
this bill, the Senate allocated $100 million of surplus revenue in the budget
to assist in paying down the $933 million debt South Carolina owes the federal
government. This week, the House provided $146 million for federal loan
repayments in its version of the state budget. The budget now heads to a
conference committee where conferees will negotiate how much state revenue will
be used to pay down the federal debt.
If the entire $146
million makes it through the budget conference committee process, that money
combined with reforms in H. 3762 would provide up to 25 percent in unemployment
insurance tax relief for all employers in tiers 2-20 this year.
