COLUMBIA – After the South Carolina Senate voted on Feb. 28 on a bill to allow the Board of Trustees of the Fairfield County School District to receive a monthly stipend and to let the Board set the amount of the stipend its members would receive, the bill was sent to the House where it was again approved.
The Bill, R-6, S. 457, was put forward by Sen. Mike Fanning who represents Fairfield County.
On Monday, however, Gov. Henry McMaster vetoed the bill.
“At present there is a patchwork of authorities governing South Carolina’s school districts. Consequently, school districts have varying degrees of fiscal autonomy, and there is no uniform method of compensating school board members,” McMaster wrote in a letter to Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant who forwarded the letter to all House and Senate members on Tuesday.
“I submit that the General Assembly should enact statewide legislation that provides uniform authority and autonomy to the state’s school districts instead of the current piecemeal and inconsistent local legislation,” McMaster wrote.
Fairfield County School Superintendent Dr. J. R. Green and Sen. Mike Fanning could not be reached for comment before press time.
I remember several years ago the Herald Independent submitted a FOI request for what Fairfield School Board members were receiving in monthly mileage reimbursement as well as the amount of their monthly cell phone bills paid by taxpayers. The amounts, particularly one board member’s, were astounding! I wonder if this is still the case.