FULL ISSUE: March 2, 2018

Ethics reform may be dead this year, despite public support

By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | Ethics reform came in like a lion as lawmakers reconvened in January, but it could depart the session like a lamb – tamed as lawmakers pivoted to other issues such as utility reforms.

“Anything that has controversy to it is dead at this point if it’s not in the other body,” S.C. House Ethics Chair Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, said. That due to two items. First is the coming House floor debate on the state’s 2018-19 budget, which is set to start March 12. And second is the looming April 10 crossover date, the unofficial deadline for passing anything controversial and sending to the other chamber.

Even sponsors of ethics bills are leery they will get much further beyond committee.

“There’s a good reason why a lot of things aren’t getting a lot of traction this year and it’s SCANA, SCANA, SCANA,” S.C. Rep. Gary Clary, R-Pickens, told Statehouse Report, referring to the corporation’s utility South Carolina Electric and Gas and its majority stake in a $9 billion nuclear expansion albatross that was canceled last year. The canceled project has led to lawmakers considering and passing legislation aimed at reforming how utilities and their government watchdog operate in the state. “It’s taking up most of the oxygen in the room.”

According to a Winthrop poll this week, 84 percent of S.C. respondents said they would support requiring members of the state legislature to disclose the source of their income. Current ethic laws in South Carolina require members of the S.C. Legislature to only report their income.

“Hopefully there is going to be a little different appetite for it in the future because the public is really demanding it,” Clary said. Clary has a bill in the House Judiciary Committee that would require lawmakers to report their income sources. The bill has not been scheduled for a hearing since it was filed last year.

Hard to get anything moving on ethics

“It has been incredibly hard to get anything going this session other than utilities,” said Lynn Teague of the League of Women Voters of South Carolina. “Everybody understood at the time that (ethics reforms in 2016) were very partial … It badly needs to be addressed.”

In 2016, lawmakers passed a bill that allowed independent investigation of income disclosures.

For this session, the League has been vocal about passing bipartisan bill, H. 3514, which would end undisclosed election campaign money – also known as dark money – and other legislation that would require lawmakers to disclose sources of income. There are other bills that would also require limiting campaign donors from holding office.

Teague said the ongoing Statehouse corruption probe and the lack of a trial in a case against former Lexington County Rep. Rick Quinn were illustrations that reform in the state “badly needs to be addressed.”

But some lawmakers say there’s no need to hurry and pass further ethics reforms beyond the 2016 reform.

“It would not be prudent to pass further legislation when what we got in place is still not fully implemented,” Pitts said. He added that he would also like to see the new head of the State Ethics Commission get more of a handle on what the agency needs in the future. Meghan Walker, an assistant solicitor in Richland and Kershaw counties, was named director of the watchdog agency last month.

S.C. Senate Ethics Committee Chair Paul Campbell, R-Berkeley, agreed with Pitts and Clary that ethics reform is likely dead for the session. He added that utility reform could have broader impact on citizens and that meanwhile, more attention should be paid to enforcing current ethics requirements.

Clary was undeterred about the loss of momentum.

“It’s a marathon rather than a sprint,” Clary said. He added that last time the state passed ethics reform – the 2015-2016 session – it took several sessions to finally get it through. “If I’m fortunate enough to come back next year, it’s something I’ll file again.”

Have a comment? Send it to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

ANALYSIS: New poll shows drilling, climate shift greener

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher, March 1, 2018 | A new Winthrop Poll may give state conservationists some hope that the tide (ahem) is turning in their direction on two big issues: opposition to drilling for oil or gas off the South Carolina coast and the increasing need to deal with climate change.

In 2015, a Harris Poll found 68 percent of South Carolinians supported offshore drilling for oil and natural gas. But in the months since, environmentalists and local governments along the coast have mounted a vocal public effort denouncing exploration for oil and gas as dangerous, particularly to tourism and coastal health.

The effort may be having an effect on public opinion. The February Winthrop Poll showed 51 percent of South Carolinians – 71 percent of Democrats and 30 percent of Republicans – opposed offshore drilling. In coastal counties, the opposition was slightly larger at 54 percent. In support of drilling were 24 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Republicans of the 976 state residents 18 and older who were surveyed.

Mirroring national trends, three out of four South Carolinians also said they thought there was an increase in climate change, the notion that the world’s average temperature is rising which is creating changes in the environment. The poll results show a majority in both parties – 93 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans – thought climate change was happening. While only 6 percent of Democrats surveyed said they didn’t think climate change was occurring, 39 percent of Republicans said it was not happening.

The Winthrop Poll offered several other February snapshots of what’s going on in the minds of South Carolinians:

Approval ratings mixed

• President. Some 42 percent of those surveyed approved of the job being done by President Donald Trump, but 50 percent disapproved, a 3 percent increase compared to last spring. The results were split dramatically by party with 89 percent of Democrats disapproving, compared to 12 percent of Republicans.
• Governor. Gov. Henry McMaster had a 47 percent approval rating and a 25 percent disapproval rating among all respondents. Perhaps most interesting was the answer that another 25 percent gave – that they weren’t sure whether they approved or disapproved. “Having one quarter of respondents not feeling they can evaluate his performance means he must get out in front of the average resident and put his stamp on the office,” said Winthrop Poll Director Scott Huffman.
• S.C. General Assembly. State lawmakers got a 42 percent approval rating, while 35 percent disapproved of the job they are doing.
• Congress. Federal legislators got a much worse approval rating in general with only 11 percent of all respondents approving. Some 20 percent of GOP respondents approved, while 69 percent disapproved. Democrats were more widely split with 88 percent disapproving and 7 percent approving.
• U.S. senators. The 53 percent approval rating for GOP U.S. Sen. Tim Scott far outweighed his colleague, GOP U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who scored approval of 38 percent of respondents. Some 51 percent of Republicans disapproved of Graham, compared to 47 percent of Democrats.

Other results

• Economy. Three out of five respondents said the country was headed in the wrong direction, but only two in five (39 percent) said the state was headed in the wrong direction. Half of South Carolinians thought the state was on the right track. Two in three of those surveyed said they thought the state’s economy was in fairly good condition.
• Key issues. The poll, taken just after the Parkland school shooting in Florida, found gun control was listed as the most important national problem according to 9.7 percent of S.C. respondents. Other top issues: Politicians/government (9.2 percent); moral values (6.8 percent); racism (6.4 percent); and immigration (5.7 percent). In considering state issues, respondents pointed to roads, bridges and infrastructure as the most important issue (13.9 percent), followed by education (12.7 percent).
• Redistricting. Some 68 percent of those surveyed supported a bipartisan independent commission to redraw state House, Senate and congressional district lines during reapportionment after the 2020 Census.
• Ethics. A whopping 84 percent of respondents said they supported amending state ethics laws to require members of the General Assembly to disclose sources of income.
• Death penalty. Three in five South Carolinians said they supported the death penalty.
• To see full and more results, click here.
• Have a comment? Send it to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

CALENDAR: Budget to hit House members’ desks in coming days

By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | In the week ahead, House members will have an opportunity to put their hands on the printed budget passed by the House Ways and Means Committee last week. The 2018-2019 budget was printed this week and could be placed on members’ desks as soon as Monday.

Here are other items coming up:

• Redistricting. A House bill that seeks to create an independent panel to draw legislative lines after the 2020 census could get a subcommittee hearing in the Judiciary Committee soon, according to the League of Women Voters of South Carolina’s Lynn Teague.
• Pension, part two. The Senate will look toward solving the second phase of pension reform possibly as soon as next week. The second phase will look at how the state will deal with new employees and how they are compensated in retirement.
• Tax conformity. The House will likely begin work on federal tax conformity next week. Early efforts in the Senate appear to have dropped in favor of seeking a solution stemming from the House. One possibility could come in discussions about flattening the state’s income tax.
• More school safety focus. S.C. Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, said he’s about to drop a bill that would mandate all S.C. schools to look and behave like prisons, aimed at stopping would-be gunmen.
• Death penalty. How to kill the state’s condemned prisoners has made the Senate floor for debate. There are two bills: one would shield drugmakers from public scrutiny for providing lethal injection drugs, and the other would allow the state to use the electric chair should lethal injection drugs be unavailable.

LOOKING BACK: Taxes and constitution

The big stories this week include the House seeking to reform income tax to a single flat rate – without addressing sales tax reform – and a proposed change to the state’s constitution.

• Click here to read more about changes sought to the constitution.
• Children’s advocate stalls. A bill proposed by S.C. Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, has stalled in debates on the Senate floor. The bill aims to create a state children’s advocate aimed at providing an umbrella and watchdog over the state’s child services.
• School safety. Gov. Henry McMaster hosted a school safety summit this week and has proposed more focus on mental health and placing armed officers in public schools. On Tuesday, a school resource officer spoke to the House Education Committee on the problems he faces. Watch the video here.
• Chicken bill goes to governor. A bill (H. 3929) that will make it harder for neighbors to sue chicken house owners for the operation’s stench has passed the House and Senate.
• Abortion efforts. An abortion procedure has been targeted in legislation being taken up by the Senate. A ban on “dismemberment” abortion has hit the Senate floor, joining the “Personhood” bill which extends rights to fertilized eggs.
• House advances on removing solar caps. A House subcommittee has given a favorable vote to a bill that will remove the 2 percent cap limiting solar energy on grid-tied systems in the state.
• ‘Automatic stay’ heads to governor. The House voted in favor of a bill that limits how long groups could block new construction projects in South Carolina. Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to sign the bill into law. Read more here

TALLY SHEET: Clock is ticking for controversial bills to get votes

Staff reports | Despite a looming date that makes it tougher to get new bills passed, state lawmakers introduced more than 80 new measures over the last week.

Some background: April 10 is the date that effectively marks the death of any controversial legislation that has not already passed one of the chambers at the Statehouse. It’s known as the crossover date, and it’s the same for the Senate and House.

Under normal rules, bills need a simple majority to pass from one chamber to another. But after the crossover deadline, any bills that go to another chamber must approval by two-thirds of legislators to be sent to the other body for consideration. In other words, any bills passed and sent to the other chamber after April 10 tend to be non-controversial.

State senators introduced more than 30 new bills, while House members entered more than 50 into the hopper. Here are the few key bills introduced over the last week:

IN THE SENATE

• Education elections. S. 1055 (Peeler) sets April 11 as the date for legislators to elect people to various college and other state-backed education boards.
• Drills. S. 1056 (Bennett) seeks to change a law for monthly fire drills to monthly drills for “safety and security.” S. 1057 (McLeod) is similar but focuses on “active shooter” training too.
• Constitutional convention. S. 1069 (Timmons) seeks a joint resolution calling for a constitutional convention to change the state’s constitution, with several provisions. H. 5043 (Cogswell) is similar.

IN THE HOUSE

• Service animals. H. 5041 (Robinson-Simpson) seeks to make it illegal to intentionally misrepresent use of a service animal, with several provisions.
• Net metering. H. 5045 (Sandifer) would repeal the state’s distributed energy resource and net metering laws.
• Find any bill.

TOP FIVE: Roads, sharing tax savings, SNAP, property tax and schools

By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | Our weekly Top Five feature offers big stories or views from the past week or so with policy and legislative implications that you need to read because of how they could impact South Carolina. If you have stories to suggest to our readers, send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

1. S.C. ranks high for cost-saving on roads, but first on fatalities, Reason Foundation, Feb. 8, 2018.

South Carolina earned high marks from an annual report that looks at the performance of state highway systems – earning second place for total disbursements per mile, first place for capital and bridge disbursements per mile and sixth place for administrative disbursements per mile. But the state floundered when it came to safety measures: last in fatalities, 28th in narrow rural arterial lanes and 21st in deficient bridges.

2. Not all S.C. employers doling out bonuses from federal tax cut, The Post and Courier, Feb. 25, 2018.

The Post and Courier surveyed the state’s largest publicly-traded companies for this story that examined the impact of a recent federal tax cut. The survey found that some weren’t changing their compensation packages; others said they are reinvesting in the company, and others – like Boeing Co. – said it would increase charitable giving. An excerpt:

“According to early estimates of the tax plan’s impact, the landscape across the Palmetto State isn’t all that unusual. Fewer than one-third of employers plan to use their savings on pay and benefits for employees, according to a survey conducted last month by the human resources consultancy Aon Hewitt. The rest expect to pay down debt, invest in new equipment and return more profits to their investors.”

3. SNAP doesn’t fully cover the cost of a meal in S.C., Urban Institute, Feb. 22, 2018.

In South Carolina, a federal food assistance program covers less than 45 percent of a meal’s cost, according to an analysis by Urban Institute. The analysis said the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides monthly food budget assistance to more than 42 million low-income people, covers $1.86 per meal at full benefits, but South Carolina’s meals cost at least $1.95 for a rural county like Laurens and $2.36 for an urban county like Richland. An excerpt:

“We arrive at a per meal maximum benefit of $1.86. This overstates the per meal amount available to SNAP participants who do not qualify for the maximum benefit. In 2015, the year of our analysis, about 40 percent of SNAP households received the maximum monthly allotment because they had zero net income.”

4. South Carolina property taxes earn top 10 designation for lowest in nation, WalletHub, Feb. 27, 2018.

South Carolina tied Colorado for sixth place in a ranking of lowest property taxes in the nation. According to the analysis, South Carolina’s effective real estate tax is 0.57 percent. The state with the lowest property taxes is Hawaii at 0.27 percent, and the state with the highest property taxes is New Jersey at 2.4 percent. An excerpt:

“The average American household spends $2,197 on property taxes for their homes each year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and residents of the 27 states with vehicle property taxes shell out another $436.”

5. York schools are safest in South Carolina, study says, Anderson Independent Mail, Feb. 26, 2018.

A Niche.com study of parent and student surveys, student expenses, student absenteeism, suspensions, expulsions and school-related arrests in school districts across the state has led to a ranking of safest school districts in South Carolina. An excerpt:

“The safest school in the state, according to the study, was York School District No. 1. Orangeburg Consolidated School District No. 5 ranked last at No. 54 on the list.”

Read more at Niche.com.

Bonus: It’s budget season at the Statehouse. Want to see what South Carolina government and local governments spend per person?

Check out this easy-to-use app from the Census Bureau.

Have a comment? Send it to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

BRACK: House lawmakers need to be bolder on tax reform

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The ghosts of tax reform are rising and slithering through the halls of the Statehouse as lawmakers have been seeking to change how sales, services and income are taxed.

Unfortunately, the backsliding already has begun. Last week, members of a special House tax policy committee announced with great fanfare that they were taking the bold steps of putting a lot of reform on the table, including a move to get rid of costly special sales tax exemptions that suck billions of dollars from state coffers.

By this week, the boldness was gone, a victim of institutional timidity. It’s not surprising because if the past is any reflection of the future, anything changing the tax status quo will be a long, tough slog. Two efforts since 2010 have failed. And even if reform does come, it’s could be two or three years off as proponents will have to spend months to flesh out details and educate recalcitrant lawmakers on what reforms mean.

First, let’s look at what’s still moving forward – income tax reform. Committee members want to change the state’s income tax from a tiered system with rates ranging from 3 percent to 7 percent to a flat rate of 4.85 percent. Making this change would reduce “progressivity” of the tax because everyone would pay the same rate, instead of richer people paying a higher rate. In our tax structure, the progressivity of income tax in theory balances out the “regressivity” of sales taxes (poorer people paying a larger percentage of income for basic goods).

Unfortunately, income tax has become such a mess that about half of filers in the state don’t pay any tax at all, which messes up the originally-envisioned progressivity. We’re told that going to a flat income tax rate wouldn’t tinker too much with dynamics of equity – as long as the sales tax rate goes down too.

But now that’s in question. Originally, the committee called for billions of dollars of sales tax exemptions to be removed and, in turn, to cut the state’s 6 cent sales tax rate in half. Currently, the state exempts more than 80 categories of goods from sales taxes, thanks to decades of successful lobbying by special interests. Right now, you don’t pay sales taxes for electricity, part of your phone bill, medical devices, most groceries, newspapers in stores, farm supplies and on and on.

As of a few years ago, the state exempted $3.1 billion of goods from sales taxes, while receiving $2.8 billion in revenue from sales taxes. A more recent analysis, thanks to economic growth and inflation, shows the state’s top 15 exemptions cause state coffers to lose $3.2 billion a year – from $305 million from a sales tax cap on vehicles and $269 million from fuel for power plants to $519 million for medical devices. There’s even a $34 million exemption every year for wrapping paper, twine, paper bags and containers.

It has been a system long fraught with loopholes, unfairness and inequity. It screams for reform. But state lawmakers now seem to believe they’ve bitten off more than they can chew. They’re recalculating and moving forward, for now, with only the income tax reform.

Reforming how we tax sales and services is vital for the system to work better. We’re losing billions of dollars that could cut the abysmal sales tax rate or invest revenues to better education, improve health care and reduce poverty.

Having one of the highest sales taxes around is an economic disaster. Not only are sales taxes volatile, but they’re subject to whims of the economy. When times get worse, people don’t spend as much and sales tax revenues go down. Doing more to broaden the sales tax base by removing special-interest tax breaks would reduce volatility and let policymakers use the money or cut tax rates or invest.

What House lawmakers offered last week was encouraging. And it would have been fairer to everyone. But now, real tax reform is looking like more of the same. Want to bet that nothing gets done to reform the sales tax system?

Have a comment? Send it to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

SPOTLIGHT: S.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. This week, we shine a light on the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. It was founded in 1994 to combat increasingly high rates of teen pregnancy in our state. It works with a variety of organizations – public, private, school and community based – in all regions of the state. Its mission is to improve the health and economic well-being of individuals, communities, and the state of South Carolina by preventing teen pregnancy.

• FACT: Teen pregnancy costs taxpayers in South Carolina over $166 million per year.
• FACT: One in four South Carolina girls will become pregnant before their 20th birthdays.
• FACT: 95 percent of South Carolinians rate teen pregnancy as a problem in their community.
• FACT: 85 percent of South Carolinians support comprehensive sex education in schools.
• FACT: South Carolina’s teen birth rate decreased 61 percent between 1991 and 2014, but the state still has the nation’s 13th highest teen birth rate.
• For more information, visit this website: http://www.teenpregnancysc.org

GUNN: Seven leadership lessons from Black Panther

By Anton Gunn, special to Statehouse Report | I don’t know about you, but I love the movies. I especially love Marvel Comics’ movies. If you haven’t heard by now, Marvel has released one of the most successful movies in the history of its movie franchise, Black Panther.

I saw Black Panther over the weekend (three times). There was so much to “marvel” about in this movie. The story, the action, the characters, the scenery and the leadership lessons were remarkable. Yes, the leadership lessons. I believe you can find leadership lessons in every experience, especially in the movies.

So even if you haven’t seen it, I want to offer a spoiler-free list of the top Seven Leadership Lessons I gained from the movie Black Panther.

1. To be a good person and a good leader requires you to train and study. Invest in your development.

2. You will always have struggles. It’s important to surround yourself with people you can trust.

3. All organizations are more successful when they have more women in leadership roles.

4. Wise leaders build bridges. Foolish leaders build barriers

5. Leaders should serve more than they lead. Use your tools and information for the greater good.

6. A leader who has not prepared his or her organization for his or her own departure has failed as a leader.

7. Just because something works doesn’t mean that it can’t be improved.

I hope these nuggets provide some value to you. I hope you get a chance to check out the movie for yourself. I hope it adds value to you, the way it added value to me.

Anton Gunn, a former S.C. state representative, is chief diversity officer at the Medical University of South Carolina Health System. A former senior official in the Obama administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, he is a nationally-recognized leadership development and health care reform expert.

• Have a comment? Send it to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

FEEDBACK: Letters on guns and “personhood”

Arming teachers might not work

To the editor:

I am not sure arming and training teachers will have the desired effect. The concept looks good on paper and will assure gun manufactures, funeral parlors, and news commentators of a market. Not to mention students who wish to arm and protect themselves from teachers who they know ain’t quite right.

The issue for me is, since it is possible for an armed, trained and experienced police officer to freeze when confronted with a dangerous school situation what will be the effect on a half or semi trained but well-intentioned teacher confronted by a crazed student or students who have put their guns out of sight and are now running out of the school with everyone else, who is dressed pretty much alike.

Who do you shoot? Is it the right person? Or is it someone who had nothing to do with the incident.

The proposal assumes an armed student is going to wait in the hall, keep shooting, pick out a target or two, and wait for an armed teacher or police officer to arrest or kill them. Is that realistic?

While the President assumes these persons and students are cowards, these kids are probably crazed or crazy, looking to take more out before they are shot, and will protect themselves by any means necessary, until their “mission” is complete.

Of course that is the experience of a teacher in public schools and colleges for about 30 years.

— William Heitsman, Darlington, S.C.

Lots of questions about what to do with guns

To the editor:

How do you reign in guns already out there? Parents pass away, next of kin get possession of the firearms and no registration happens. Grandkids get access, but there is no record.

How do you control kids on the fringe who might take action? Who do you call if you suspect? Is there a central phone number and what action is taken? In other words, if a troubled student tells someone else that they might get back at the school, who exactly does the student call, and can the authorities confiscate all household guns without legal recourse?

I see many times that felons are caught with firearms. But I see little to nothing done to prosecute the family member or girl/boyfriend who let got them the gun.

When someone dies and has a registered firearm, how do you track what happens to that weapon?

What do we do about the many people who have guns and mental issues who don’t seek mental help? They just spiral down and decide to take out others with them.

How about people who reach the end of their rope financially, lose their job and feel going postal for the first time is their answer?

Raising the age of gun ownership does nothing if relatives or friends have guns that the unstable person can access.

— George Graf, Palmyra, Va.

Personhood bill will have grave consequences

The personhood bill, which was voted out of Senate committee last week along party lines, will have grave consequences if it becomes law in South Carolina. Of especial concern to young heterosexual couples is its outlawing of most methods of birth control, which work by preventing the implantation of the fertilized egg in the uterine wall . Personhood is defined in the bill as beginning at the moment of fertilization).

The freedom of young couples to plan their families, which is enjoyed today, will be severely reduced by passage of this bill. Both Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant, who sponsored this bill as a state senator last year, and Gov. Henry McMaster, are pushing this bill through the state Senate. I recommend that you contact your elected representatives in both the state Senate and the state House of Representatives TODAY and let them know you are against passage of this bill.

— Philip Cheney, Fair Play, S.C.

NOTE: Cheney is an independent candidate for governor.

Have something to say? Send 200 words or less to feedback@statehousereport.com.

MYSTERY: Lots of bricks in this stately building

This stately building should look familiar to some people across South Carolina. Send your best guess – plus your name and hometown – to feedback@statehousereport.com. In the subject line, write: “Mystery Photo guess.”

Last week’s mystery

Last week’s ornate building wasn’t too tough for readers who live or used to live in Dillon County. The mystery showed the Dillon County Courthouse.

A hearty congratulations to all who sent in the correct answer: Don Clark of Hartsville; Faith Line of Anderson; Steve Willis of Lancaster; Jay Altman and Tom Elmore of Columbia; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Barry Wingard and Phil Purpura, both of Florence; Gwen George Strickland of Latta; Dale M. Rhodes of Richmond, Va.; and William L. Bethea Jr. of Hilton Head Island.

Graf, who correctly identifies just about every Mystery Photo (we can’t remember the last time he didn’t get it right), particularly enjoyed the architecture of the Dillon County Courthouse. He writes, “In my opinion, it is the most eye pleasing edifice that Statehouse Report has used in the mystery photo annals. Whoever was charged with contracting this facility to be built should be in the Dillon County Hall of Fame (if there is one).

According to dilloncounty.sc.gov, Completed in 1911, the building is one of the few remaining examples of Beaux Arts style and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

According to wikizero, Dillon prospered when the town’s founding fathers granted the railroad to have access through it. Little Rock, a smaller, neighboring town, was the original choice, but residents believed the railroad would do more harm than good.
Dillon was a prosperous town at one time, as seen by its large and ornate courthouse. The Dillon County Courthouse was designed by architect William Augustus Edwards. A federal grant in the early 2000s allowed for a significant renovation of the courthouse. Dillon’s economy was based on profitable tobacco and cotton production and sales industries, which has slowly shrunken over the years as production and transport systems for these commodities have become more efficient and less centralized. Now, outside of service industry and state jobs, gainful employment is scarce in Dillon. Dillon is home to the second largest yarn producing factory in the United States.

• Send us a mystery: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.

HISTORY: Newberry College

S.C. Encyclopedia | One of twenty-eight liberal arts colleges of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Newberry College was chartered in December 1856 by the South Carolina Lutheran Synod. Under the leadership of the Reverend John Bachman as chairman of the board of trustees, a building was erected in the town of Newberry, a president and several faculty secured, and classes begun in 1859. Almost immediately came the devastating impact of the Civil War, which resulted in the closing of the college. Its buildings were utilized in 1865 as a Confederate hospital and then occupied by federal troops, who inflicted much damage.

The college was removed to Walhalla in 1868 but returned to Newberry in 1877, using rented quarters at first. By its fiftieth anniversary in 1906 four buildings were in use, with two more soon under construction, and enrollment stood at 211 students. The modern campus consists of sixty acres with twenty-four buildings and athletic facilities. Originally an all-male school, in 1930 Newberry merged with Summerland College, a “Lutheran Female College” near Leesville. The merger introduced women resident students to Newberry as well as several women faculty.

The college maintains close relations with the Lutheran Church, relating to four synods of the ELCA: South Carolina, Southeastern, Florida-Bahamas, and Caribbean. Its mission statement asserts, “As a Lutheran college, Newberry College recognizes the value of academic freedom, intellectual dialogue, and diversity of viewpoint. The Lutheran tradition also celebrates the concept of vocation, leading students to prepare for meaningful life experiences, occupations, and service to the world as well as to the church.” Accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools occurred in 1936. Enrollment grew to 403 students in 1941, but World War II created severe problems with a loss in enrollment and serious financial difficulties. The college gradually overcame these challenges after the war. Under President A. D. G. Wiles, the 1960s saw significant campus development and enrollment grew to more than eight hundred. Though consistent in their financial support of the college, the four supporting synods have contributed a decreasing percentage of the college’s annual budget, and like other church colleges, Newberry has been compelled to depend on its own development efforts that reach well beyond its Lutheran constituency.

The college confers four degrees (bachelor of arts, bachelor of music, bachelor of music education, and bachelor of science) and offers thirty-six majors and thirty-one minors. Several programs are conducted in cooperation with Clemson University, Medical University of South Carolina, Duke University, and Palmetto Baptist Medical Center. Other academic features include independent study, an honors program, internships, and the Center for Service Learning and Community Action, which promotes the value of community service as part of a liberal education.

– Excerpted from an entry by Paul Jersildl. To read more about this or 2,000 other entries about South Carolina, check out The South Carolina Encyclopedia, published in 2006 by USC Press. (Information used by permission.)