SC legislative action for the week of Feb. 8
The Associated Press
The 4th week of the legislative session:
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OBESITY-HEALTH CARE: South Carolina's public employees may have to prove they're fit and not flabby to avoid a hike in their health insurance premiums under legislation being tweaked to gather support. A Senate Finance subcommittee delayed voting on a proposal to charge obese public workers an extra $25 monthly. Sen. Greg Ryberg of Aiken wanted to tie the surcharge to employees' body mass index, a weight and height measurement - applying it if the BMI exceeds 30, the threshold for obesity. Ryberg says he would be willing to rewrite the bill as an incentive rather than a punishment, by increasing everyone's premiums, then giving a discount for fit workers. Specifics on how that would work are unclear. After the meeting, he said fitness may still be tied to BMI or body fat. He hopes to have his bill back on the agenda within a month.
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FURLOUGHS: South Carolina agencies could take employees' pay into account when requiring unpaid leave under legislation approved by the House. The bill now heads to the Senate. State law now allows agencies to require furloughs of up to 10 days, but the requirement must be across-the-board. Officials complained the mandate disproportionately affects low-paid workers who can least afford to have money taken from their paychecks. The bill keeps the maximum furlough at 10 days, but it allows furloughs to be implemented by department or by pay scale. The bill does not apply to schools.
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PAYDAY LENDING: South Carolina legislators on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill aimed at preventing residents from being trapped in a cycle of debt through payday lending. Critics, however, contend the bill does not go far enough to stop the industry from preying on the poor. The proposal prevents consumers from taking out more than one loan at a time, with a maximum loan of $600. An online database would instantly report when a loan is made. Lenders would have to check it to ensure customers don't have outstanding loans elsewhere. Lenders could charge $15 for every $100 borrowed on a two-week loan. The bill requires the industry to let customers go into an extended payment plan if they can't meet that deadline, without incurring any extra fees. The bill now heads to the Senate, which approved restrictions last year that died in the House. Opponents hope the Senate will require that customers wait a week between loans.
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DRUNKEN DRIVING: Drunken drivers will start facing different penalties depending on whether they're tipsy or trashed. The new law that took effect Tuesday ties tougher sentences to the amount of alcohol in drivers' bodies. It also increases penalties for repeat drunken drivers and closes some legal loopholes that critics said allowed suspects to escape punishment. The law creates a tiered penalty system based on how many times drivers are convicted and how much alcohol they have in their system. The blood-alcohol limit is 0.08 percent. The new penalties get harsher at 0.10 percent and again at 0.16 percent.
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JUVENILE JUSTICE: Spending cuts at the Department of Juvenile Justice and further reductions expected as part of efforts to balance the state budget threaten both the safety of children in state custody and South Carolina's compliance with a 2003 settlement of a federal lawsuit, a consultant warned in a report. The agency charged with incarcerating and rehabilitating the state's young offenders has lost 20 percent of its budget, or about $23 million, since July. Director Bill Byars said he can't manage all of the cuts without jeopardizing safety and needs to run a $7 million deficit. If he can't, he said, he'll risk breaking the federal lawsuit settlement. Nonetheless, budget writers have told Byars to prepare for deeper budget cuts for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
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STATE BUDGET-HOSPICE: South Carolina's Medicaid agency has decided not to eliminate a hospice program as planned, enabling more than 100 poor patients to continue getting end-of-life care, the state health department said Wednesday. The cut, expected to save the state $1.5 million through June 30, would have affected about 125 hospice patients funded solely through Medicaid - dying patients too young to qualify for Medicare, Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Jeff Stensland said. The number represents about 6 percent of hospice patients statewide. The agency's planned Feb. 1 elimination of the program for Medicaid-only patients had been put on a 30-day hold. Agency officials decided to drop the cut, knowing legislators were demanding they keep the program running, and that federal stimulus money could help them do that. The agency also lifted a Dec. 31 freeze on accepting new patients in the program, Stensland said.
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UNEMPLOYMENT: A bill giving Gov. Mark Sanford control of the agency that handles jobless claims advanced with unanimous support Wednesday from a subcommittee amid questions from legislators on how the measure would help put workers back to work. Apart from renaming the Employment Security Commission as the Workforce Department and making it a part of the Sanford's cabinet, the bill's only other substantial aim is to eventually take unemployment benefit appeals out of the hands of the commission's three members and put them before administrative law judges. The bill sailed out of a Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry subcommittee, run by the bill's sponsor, Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken. Ryberg's committee members were skeptical the bill would do anything to solve the issues at the crux of current problems: the nation's third highest jobless rate and a trust fund for benefits that went broke and now operates mostly with the help of federal loans.
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MIXED MARTIAL ARTS: A bill allowing mixed martial arts contests in South Carolina won initial approval Tuesday. The increasingly popular sport combines elements of karate, judo, jujitsu and kickboxing. Proponents say mixed martial arts has evolved from its no-holds-barred past to a regulated sport broadcast on TV. The bill by Republican Rep. Jim Merrill of Daniel Island and co-sponsored by 24 other House members was sent to the full Labor Commerce and Industry Committee. The measure would repeal South Carolina's ban on such fighting events.
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DOCTORS-ELDERLY PATIENTS: Plans to attract a few more doctors to South Carolina to specialize in caring for elderly patients are falling prey to a state budget hemorrhage. South Carolina had became a national model by setting up a $145,000 program to repay the loans of doctors who take fellowships in the specialty as long as they commit to staying in the state and taking Medicaid and Medicare patients. The recession that has cut $1 billion from a $7 billion budget has also caused the loss of one of four $35,000 fellowships. Now, the remaining money is in doubt as House budget writers plan to cut $410 million from spending for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
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TEACHER-ASSAULT PROTECTION: A South Carolina proposal aimed at protecting teachers and other school employees from student attacks has advanced. Students who seriously injure a teacher on school grounds or at a school-sponsored event would be guilty of a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. The Senate unanimously approved the measure Tuesday and sent it to the House. The bill also allows assaulted teachers to sue a convicted student.