COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO)- Members of the House of Representatives voted to stick with their version of the roads bill sending it to a conference committee. Members voted 107 to 7 not to concur with the Senate’s version of the roads bill.
Later, the Senate insisted on keeping their version of the bill and selected three senators to serve on the committee with three representatives. Senator Vincent Sheheen and Representative Gary Simrill were selected as co-chairs.
Sheheen says he is confident the group will reach an agreement. “Knowing the people on the conference committee from the House and Senate, I think we can get a rational and reasonable legislation that will help improve our roads in South Carolina,” said Sheheen.
The Kershaw senator says one aspect of the Senate’s bill that may take a while for the conference to agree on is tax reformation. “Now the question is what some of my Republican colleagues insist on and that is that there has to be some kind of tax rebates to the citizens of South Carolina. What those look like will really be the issues that we face,” said Sheheen.
Representative Simrill says the two bills have many similarities but he looks forward to working through the differences. “The fortunate thing in the way the Senate drafted the proposal, it allows us really to cherry pick different aspects of what would be in their bill versus having to choose something so at this point, I don’t think we would need free conference on anything. Never say never, but it looks cut and dry. It’s just a matter of which version we take,” said Simrill.
The committee is meeting again this morning.