Legal experts say the U.S. Supreme Court has tossed a similar Georgia law because drug testing without suspicion of a law being broken violates constitutional rights. So, this being the case, why do they have all these mandatory drug test?
House plan would cut college spending
COLUMBIA --- College spending would be cut by about $10 million and state agencies would lose more than $61 million under final approval given Thursday by House budget writers to a spending plan for the next fiscal year.
Their proposed $7 billion budget is balanced mostly because it taps reserve, trust and surplus cash that agencies have been able to set aside over the past couple of years. The spending plan is to head to the House floor in two weeks.
Some of the cuts might reach pocketbooks, particularly those of parents and students paying tuition. The last round of state budget cuts beginning in 2000 led to sharp tuition increases.
Gov. Mark Sanford had called for deeper budget cuts out of worry that the economy is slowing. He wanted lawmakers to cut spending by $326 million, or 4.6 percent, compared with the current budget.
Mr. Sanford on Thursday had some praise for the House's budget, noting that the lawmakers went along with reductions in travel spending he's sought for years. He also lauded plans to fully fund the annual increase in per-student spending in public schools, eliminating a shortfall in the state's tuition prepayment program and putting more money into the state's economic development efforts.
But the governor criticized the Ways and Means Committee's plan to take $105 million in surplus from the Department of Health and Human Services. With an agency spending $5 billion in state and federal money yearly and an overhaul of its Medicaid programs getting under way, state programs for the poor, elderly and disabled need to have more cash on hand, Mr. Sanford said.
Proposal would allow vote on drug testing
COLUMBIA --- Voters are closer to deciding whether political and judicial candidates in South Carolina would have to pass drug tests.
The proposal, filed after state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel was indicted last year on a cocaine distribution charge, passed a Senate panel Thursday, its first step to landing on the ballot in November. It still must make it through the Senate Judiciary Committee and get a two-thirds votes in the Senate and House.
Even if voters approve, the proposal might not be legal. Legal experts say the U.S. Supreme Court has tossed a similar Georgia law because drug testing without suspicion of a law being broken violates constitutional rights.
Cockfighting would be felony crime under bill
COLUMBIA --- Cockfighting would become a felony under legislation passed Thursday by a Senate panel, bringing South Carolina in line with 35 states.
The bill would increase jail time and fines for fighting game birds, owning them for the purpose of fighting, or attending a cockfight. Currently, cockfighting is a misdemeanor with no minimum fine or sentence, and possession is not a crime.
Rauch Wise, an attorney for the state Game Fowl Breeders Association, said cockfighting is no worse than deer hunting with a bow and arrow, and making possession illegal would drive breeders underground, lessening the chances they'll vaccinate the birds and creating the potential for disease.
The legislation heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
-- Edited from wire reports
Comments
Legal experts say the U.S. Supreme Court has tossed a similar Georgia law because drug testing without suspicion of a law being broken violates constitutional rights. So, this being the case, why do they have all these mandatory drug test?
The increases will be felt by all of the middle class citizens that pay for college tuition...The poor and a lot of minorities don't pay anything, and the rich don't care it won't affect their lifestyle...
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