Written By: Rick Brundrett
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but when it’s done by South Carolina lawmakers, it can hit taxpayers in their wallets.
Less than a week after a group of Pee Dee and Lowcountry senators introduced a bill (S. 1323) that would create a new state agency called the “I-95 Corridor Authority,” Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, offered a bill (S. 1339) calling for the creation of the “I-85 Corridor Authority.”
The bills are similar in many respects. Each authority, for example, would be designated as a “public body, politic and corporate, and an agency of the state.” Under both bills, the authorities could “receive state funds as appropriated by the General Assembly,” and solicit federal funds and private donations.
The proposed agencies also could hire their own staffs, as well as buy, sell or lease land and other property. Each authority would be controlled by a board of directors appointed mainly by lawmakers in the corridor areas.
Peeler told The Nerve last week that he got the idea for his bill from the I-95 Corridor Authority bill, sponsored by Sen. John Matthews, D-Orangeburg.
“When the debate started about I-95, I said, ‘Bingo, I need something for I-85,’” Peeler said.
But Peeler said his bill, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Glenn Reese, D-Spartanburg, doesn’t have the same purpose as the other bill.
