GOOD NEWS: Chamber offers six priority areas for state legislature

Staff reports  |  The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce recently unveiled its 2019 legislative agenda with six priority issue areas ranging from taxes and education to workforce housing and the state’s fiscal health.  Priority issues are:

Entrepreneurship: Reauthorize the Angel Investor Tax Credit program to maintain an important source of funding for South Carolina start-up enterprises.

Workforce housing:  Support legislation to facilitate development of workforce attainable housing by allowing builders to easily partner with non-profit organizations on tax exempt projects.

Talent, education and workforce:  Increase base teacher salaries to meet or exceed the southeastern states average by the 2021-22 school year.  Also:

♦ Support the Higher Education Finance Act to increase funding for state colleges and universities and relieve the tuition burden for South Carolina students.

♦ Secure $25.6 million to renovate Trident Technical College’s Berkeley Campus for advanced manufacturing and flexible classroom spaces.

Taxes and regulation:  To meet the needs of rapidly growing school districts, amend millage caps established in Act 388.

S.C. fiscal health:  Support reforms to the current South Carolina Retirement System that will eliminate the unfunded liability by closing the state pension system to new employees and moving to a defined contribution plan.

Military base retention and expansion:  Support the statewide military retention plan created by the South Carolina Military Base Task Force and fund its implementation. Also:

♦ Fully exempt military retirement benefits from state income tax.

♦ Ensure that development of offshore wind energy facilities do not threaten the mission, training or operation of state military installations.

♦ Change the Military Service, Education and Credentialing Act to make it more efficient for transitioning military families to earn professional licenses in South Carolina.

Also in Good News:

Happy birthday!  The Charleston Museum celebrated its 246th birthday on Saturday.  It was established Jan. 12, 1773 — and has been preserving ever since!

Port growth.  The South Carolina Ports Authority last week reported 6.4 percent year-over-year container volume growth, with a record 2.3 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) handled in 2018. Last year marked the third consecutive calendar year of record TEU volume. The port moved 199,701 TEUs in December alone, a 9.2 percent increase over December 2017 and the strongest December in SCPA history, according to a press release.

Bidding on Santee Cooper ends today.  The General Assembly is accepting bids through today from organization to manage, buy or buy parts of state-owned utility Santee Cooper, which is headquartered in Moncks Corner.  As Lindsay Street reports in our sister publication Statehouse Report, it’s still unclear what the state will do with the utility, mired for more than a year in a $9 billion debacle over a now-shuttered nuclear plant project.