June 10, 2009

THE ROTARY CLUB

OF

LAKE MURRAY-IRMO

MINUTES – JUNE 10, 2009

The meeting was called to order by President Eddie Robinson. John Adair provided the invocation. Lyman Whitehead entertained us with health and happiness and a story about grandma stop at a red light with a “Honk if you Love Jesus” bumper sticker.

Kelly Payne presented two scholarships to two Dutch Fork Interact students. President Eddie Robinson advised us that board had approved a donation to SisterCare. A representative of SisterCare was present to accept the donation and informed the members of the work of SisterCare in helping victims of domestic violence.

Jenny introduced our two guest speakers, Representatives Nathan Ballentine and Chip Huggins who gave a presentation and answered questions about the recent legislative session.

The questions ranged over a number of topics. There were several questions regarding the federal stimulus package. Nathan and Chip pointed out that the package was not just 350 million but was two payments over two years for a total of 700 million. Nathan stated that he had originally voted against accepting the package and had confirmed with our school district that it would not cost the loss of teachers if the money was not received. Chip stated he was originally for it but had reservations. He stated he voted to sustain the governor’s veto because he felt it was going to be decided by the Supreme Court and the Attorney General had given an opinion at that time that the governor could prevail in the suit. Both representatives indicated that they felt the problems regarding the stimulus could possibly have been resolved if the governor, speaker of the house, and president of the senate had simply met and tried to reach some agreement. On another matter they stated that the statute regarding the use of a photo ID for voting has passed the house but had been held up in the senate. The representatives were asked who they were supporting in the next elections for statewide office. Nahan’s desk mate in Nikke Haley who is running for governor. Chip’s desk mate is Ted Pitts who is running for Lt. Governor. While they both indicated they would support their desk mates, they said there would be a lot of candidates for statewide office. Chip and Nathan talked about a committee that was going to be conducting an evaluation of our tax structure. One of them felt it was flawed because it did not include property tax in the evaluation. Both representatives stayed after the meeting to take questions.

The meeting was adjourned by President Robinson.