NEWS BRIEFS: Lawmakers get grades on conservation

Staff reports  |  The Conservation Voters of South Carolina released its 2019-2020 Conservation Scorecard this week. Some lawmakers receive lower scores because they didn’t vote on either one or more of five bills in the House or vote on the one conservation bill in the Senate. 

CVSC Deputy Director Rebecca Haynes said: “If you miss one of those, it’s going to dramatically affect your score.” It likely hurt freshman lawmakers the most, she said. 

• See the scorecard here. 

In other news:

Special election on Tuesday.  Voters in the James Island-anchored House District 115 will determine Tuesday who will finish out the term of former Rep. Peter McCoy, who was plucked this year from the legislature to become U.S. Attorney. The term will only last a couple months before the general election. Republican Josh Stokes, Democratic candidate Spencer Wetmore and Green Party candidate Eugene Platt are competing for the seat. Read more. 

Terminal set for March opening.  The new Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal being built in North Charleston is on track to open in March 2021, the S.C. Ports Authority says.  “The Leatherman Terminal will enable S.C. Ports to handle more cargo and bigger ships,” S.C. Ports President and CEO Jim Newsome said last week in a statement.  “Businesses depend on us to efficiently move their cargo, and this flow of goods creates more jobs and investment in South Carolina.” Phase One of the facility will add the ability of the port to handle an extra 700,000 containers a year. When complete, it will be able to handle an extra 2.4 million.

Colleges face financial reckoning. South Carolina’s public colleges and universities, which have become more reliant on tuition and received fewer dollars in state funds over the past 20 years, may face a semester — and potentially a year — of financial challenges, though officials say no closures appear imminent as in other parts of the country.  The head of the  S.C. Commission on Higher Education said he’s watching as colleges face declines in revenue with the same bills to meet and increased expenses going into the fall semester.  “I’m not sure it’s a perfect storm but it’s a lot of things blowing together in one place (and) a likelihood of increased expenses and decreased revenues,” Rusty Monhollon said. “I don’t see (closures of institutions) in South Carolina, at least not in the short term.” Read the full story in Statehouse Report.

Statehouse Report’s Lindsay Street contributed to this section. Have a comment?  Send to:  editor@charlestoncurrents.com