NEWS BRIEFS: Floodwater commission has first meeting

Congressman-elect Joe Cunningham, D-Charleston, shakes hands with lawyer Tom Mullikin, who chairs the new commission. Gov. Henry McMaster, who appointed the body, looks on.By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent  |  The S.C. Floodwater Commission has begun organizing its 57-member team, tasked with addressing floods in the state.

The commission met this week for the first time after it was created after hurricanes Florence and Matthew by Gov. Henry McMaster. From the commission’s gubernatorial-based website:

“South Carolina faces an environmental challenge of the utmost urgency. Frequent flooding from rains, storms, hurricanes and tides threatens our people, our property and our way of life. To identify a comprehensive solution, and better facilitate a coordinated and collaborative mitigation effort, Governor McMaster has by Executive Order established the South Carolina Floodwater Commission.”

This week, the commission released a draft of 10 task forces to tackle top flooding issues in the state. Those task forces include:

• Artificial reef systems;
• Living shoreline;
• Infrastructure and shoreline armoring;
• Smart river and dam security;
• Grid security;
• Landscape beautification and protection;
• National security;
• Stakeholder engagement;
• Federal funding; and
• Economic development.
• See the recommended members for the task forces and each task force’s mission here.

The commission next meets Feb. 8 in Charleston.

In other recent news:

DHEC gets new head. McMaster announced this week that Richard Toomey will lead the sprawling S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. The agency has been without a director for 17 months. McMaster said Toomey, a former DHEC board member, has “extensive experience” in health care and “proven success” in leading large organizations. Read Toomey’s resume here.

Southerners surveyed by Winthrop. Winthrop released a poll of 969 Southerners this week. Respondents hailed from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The poll touched on a variety of topics. Here are a few interesting tidbits from it:

• Half of Southern residents either agree or strongly agree that America was founded as an explicitly Christian nation;
• While 80 percent of Republican or Republican-leaning Southerners approve of President Donald Trump, only 4 percent of Democratic Southerners approve of the president;
• Trump has a 44 percent approval rating among all respondents and a 48 percent disapproval rating, which is slightly higher than his national approval ratings.
• Forty-two percent of Southerners want to leave Confederate memorials alone, while 28 percent said to add a plaque for context and historical interpretation. Nearly a quarter of respondents wanted to move the statutes to a museum. That’s 56 percent of Southerners who want to do something regarding Confederate monuments and statues.
• Concerning the Confederate flag, 46 percent of Southern residents viewed it as somewhat or very unfavorable. Only one in five Southerners viewed it as very favorable. More than two-thirds of black respondents viewed the flag as a symbol of racial conflict.
• About 20 percent of Southerners said the Civil War was over states’ rights and not slavery.
• Forty percent of all respondents said race relations are poor in this country, and another 38 percent called them only fair. Two percent of white respondents and 1 percent of black respondents called race relations excellent.
• More than half of Southerners said our country is headed in the wrong direction, but 77 percent of respondents said our country’s economy as a whole is very good or fairly good and a majority said it is getting better.
• The most important problem facing our country, according to those surveyed, is immigration, followed by politicians/government, racism, lack of healthcare and the economy.
• Read the results here.

Baker to continue to lead at DHHS. Gov. Henry McMaster said this week that Josh Baker will continue as director of the S.C. Department of Health and Human Resources, which oversees about one-third of the entire state budget. Baker was first appointed to the position in 2017. McMaster said the Medicaid office head has been “a responsible steward” of taxpayer dollars and has demonstrated “genuine compassion” in the role. The press release said that under Baker’s tenure, there was an 8 percent drop in the infant mortality rate in 2017, and an increase in children served by BabyNet by 10.4 percent.

Santee Cooper program saves customers money. Reduce The Use programs have save state-owned utility Santee Cooper customers more than $250 million since 2008. That means customers are saving 209 gigawatt hours a year, an energy savings goal the utility reached two years ahead of its 2020 target. In other Santee Cooper news …

Attorney general questions Santee Cooper’s legal fees.  The state-owned utility has spent nearly $850,000 for attorneys for its executives and Attorney General Alan Wilson asked this week for the utility to stop those payments, citing constitutional concerns. Read more.

Looking ahead

Click below for other items coming up in the Statehouse:

• House calendar
• Senate calendar
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