Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1922-02-28
LxomLAr1vE NOTES.

L - APPokCA SACAC 40 httAC sASA
for the house of representatives
Ito do at the present. session fur
ther than to pass q few relatively
nnimportant Statewide enclosures.
igive its asseDt to a number Of
county supply bills and devote
Fthe necessary attention to confer
ence reports on bills which have
been amended in the senate.
There is the promise of two more
weeks of the session, which al
ready has run one week over the
constitutional 4O-day limit. When
the session opened on January IL
many members, of both houses ex-
pressed the hope that its work
would be finished in five. weeks
at most, but instead we see the
session lasting longer than any
session of recent years, and this,
too, in the face of the faet that
this year, more than ever, there
was reason for relieving the TAX
payers of every item of expense
not absolutely necessary. Few
perhaps know that the daily ses-
sions of the Legislature cost more
than $1,000. but it is. a fact never
theless, and with the session run
ming 20 days overtime it is ii SIM
ple matter of multiplication to
ascertain that the people will be
required TO put up more than
SAC, 900 extra this year to meet
the expense of the body for its
sittings beyond the time the. con
stitution- makers thought neces.
sary. Legislation was hurried
along in the house this year at IA
clip that made for, early adjourn
ment, but when the revenue bills
and other important measures
was consumed there in consider
ing them that all thought of end
ing the session OH time went into
the discard. Another reason for
the prolonged session is found i'll
the time devoted to hearings. The
general appropriation bill, for i'll
stance, was passed by the house
and forwarded to the senate on
February Is. Since then the bill
has been in the finance committee
of the senate, which meanwhile
has devoted the principal part OF
each Legislative day to listening
to the heads of the departments
and institutions pleading for APP
preparations just as they already
had done before the ways and
. cans committee of the house
The budget commission law pro-
vides that the hearings of these
committees on the appropriation
bill shall be held jointly; but the
budget commission law Is pee,
Tot legislation honored more in the
breach than i'll the observance,
md ii il is not repealed within
the next year or two number of
members of both the house and
senate will have missed their
guess.
The resignation last week Of
Senator Christensen of Beaufort
county from the chairmanship of
the senate finance committee, on
the ground that in the upper
body business had won over agri.
culture when agriculture was in
desperate straits, seems to have
had the effect of gaining new
lease OH life for one or two of the
revenue bills which that body had
disposed of unfavorably. One Of
these measures was the proposed
tax on hydro electric plants, pass
ed by the house early i'll the ses-
sion and which was expected to
produce several hundred thous-
and dollars annually for the State
treasury. Last week the bill was
reintroduced in the house and
this week the senate will be given
another opportunity to put it to
sleep. Friends of the bill claim
that it is one of the fairest meas
ures proposed ins years to raise
revenue and that it's opponents
will have a hard time convincing
their constituents to the contrary
The luxuries tax bill, another i'm
portant measure, from which its
supporters say that more than a
million dollars a year would flow
into the treasury to lower to that
extent the levy OH real estate, has
met with the disfavor of the SEN
ate finance committee, but cit may
get into the statutes after all as
a result of the shaking up that
body experienced last week. None
OF the new revenue measures: it
might be said, was conceived by
any member of either house, but
all were proposed by Governor
Cooper.
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