ROBERT J. BAKER / TIMESCircuit Court Judge Robert E. Hood said Joseph Tindal’s plea to voluntary manslaughter Friday showed “the content of (his) character.” Hood told Tindal that he had very real issues of law that he could’ve brought forward in trial, but that the defendant instead decided to provide the victim’s family with some closure.
We have now come to the end of the 121st session of the South Carolina General Assembly.
We will return June 16 for one or two weeks to deal with Gov. Nikki Haley's budget vetoes and to tie up some loose ends.
The following bills were read for the third time and sent to the state House of Representatives: the Small Business Regulatory Review Committee; the Murrells Inlet-Garden City Fire District; Bamberg-Ehrhardt School District 1; Denmark-Olar School District 2; Charter schools; Elementary school food service meal requirements; Florence County School District 3; Florence County School District 5; Savings promotion contests; and the Insurers' Rehabilitation and Liquidation Act.
Gov. Haley has also signed the Criminal Domestic Violence Bill, and I was happy to work on and support that bill.
Although these and all bills are important, I remain highly disappointed that some of the more important pieces of legislation were not passed. Chief among these is the fact that we did not pass a roads funding bill. Providing funding to repair our highway infrastructure should have been the No. 1 priority of the General Assembly.
Sen. Tom Davis' three-week filibuster, along with the governor's and the Senate Republicans' insistence that Department of Transportation reform and income tax reduction be a part of the bill actually muddied the water and caused it to be dead on arrival.
It is my hope that, when we reconvene in January 2016, we will get a chance to debate a clean roads funding bill without any other measures attached to it. Any desire for income tax rate deduction or DOT reform should be separate proposals from the roads funding bill.
Please remember to visit www.scsenate.gov to see the bills that I have sponsored and co-sponsored as well as to receive more information about the aforementioned bills.
Although we will not be back in legislative session until January 2016, please feel free to contact me at any time that I may be of service.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve.
