News
Sanford, Rex respond to stimulus funding lawsuits
Published May 26, 2009
Staff Report
Two cases filed Friday with the S.C. Supreme Court seek to require Gov. Mark Sanford to accept federal stimulus money. Sanford's lawyers responded today by filing to remove a suit filed by the S.C. Association of School Administrators from the S.C. Supreme Court to federal court, where they said it belongs. The governor said he would not respond to the other suit, filed by a Chapin High School senior and a University of South Carolina law student. S.C. Education Superintendent Jim Rex responded today that he agrees with the key points of the school administrators' lawsuit.
Gov. Mark Sanford's lawyers today responded to one of the two suits filed Friday by asking for one to be removed from the S.C. Supreme Court to federal court. The governor said he would not respond to another suit.
Both lawsuits seek to require Sanford to accept $700 million in federal stimulus money over the next two years. The S.C. Supreme Court has started receiving arguments.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal gave defendants Sanford, S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster and state Education Secretary Jim Rex until noon today to file their briefs with the court.
The lawsuits filed Friday include one by Chapin High School student Casey Edwards and University of South Carolina Law School student Justin Williams. They allege that the governor must accept the money to help public schools and universities create budgets and provide an adequate education to its students, according to court documents.
Chapin had filed a similar suit in April, but the high court rejected it at the time, saying, "We find this action is not ripe and appropriate for judicial determination unless or until the General Assembly has taken, as it is authorized to do, measures to appropriate the funds at issue."
The second suit, filed by the S.C. Association of School Administrators, seeks to have the court rule that the governor must accept and use the money as outlined in the state budget, which this year would equate to about $185 million, court documents said.
In his response today, Rex agreed with the key points in the school administrators' lawsuit.
He agreed that the General Assembly's budget for next year is a valid law that the governor is required to follow. Rex also said his agency had completed the official application for the federal funds and that he had signed and delivered it to the governor for his signature.
Sanford filed a federal lawsuit last week against McMaster alleging that the Legislature was circumventing the language in the federal stimulus act that gives governors discretionary use of funds. Sanford said the lawsuit is "fundamentally about the balance of power and separation of powers in our state."
"Legislative dominance costs our state's citizens far too much for the way it breeds waste and duplication, and the last thing we need to be doing is exporting that dysfunctional system to other states, which is what will happen if our General Assembly is allowed to re-write federal law in this way," Sanford said.
The stimulus act sends about $8 billion to South Carolina, including $350 million in each of the next two years to go toward education, law enforcement and prisons.
All this legal action occurred after the House and Senate overrode Sanford's budget vetoes, which included the $5.7 billion appropriations as well as this year's $350 million federal stimulus money. Sanford also vetoed 47 other provisos in the budget.
Charleston Regional Business Journal