Rejection of retail tax incentives doesn't bode well for Sembler, foes say

Changes to tax incentives designed to bring Bass Pro Shops to Greenville County were rejected in a roll call vote Thursday in the South Carolina House of Representatives.

The 46-37 vote comes as lawmakers are battling over another bill that would grant incentives to retail developers such as the Sembler Co., which plans to build Okatie Crossings, a 280-acre shopping center and luxury outlet mall in Beaufort and Jasper counties.

That bill could come to the Senate floor as soon as Tuesday.

Opponents said Thursday's vote indicates lawmakers areincreasingly wary of incentives for retail projects.

However, one of its sponsors, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Ridgeland, said substantial support for retail incentives remains. He pointed to both the Senate Finance Committee's vote to approve the bill and the full Senate's vote to move to it to a priority position on the calendar.

Pinckney has said the bill -- co-sponsored by Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Hartsville -- would create much-needed jobs in a relatively poor, rural region.

"There is still an interest in hearing about and voting for retail incentives," Pinckney said. "In this bad economy, a job is a job is a job."

Pinckney also said developers would have to do more to earn incentives under his bill than under the one for Bass Pro Shops.

Thursday's vote might not have killed the Bass Pro Shops bill, however. Rep. Karl Allen, D-Greenville, has moved to reconsider the vote, House records show.

'GROWING AWARENESS'

State Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, a leading critic of Pinckney's bill, said the intense, ongoing debate about Okatie Crossings has made his colleagues consider how such incentives would affect other retailers.

"I think (Thursday's vote) reflects a growing awareness that public subsidies for private retail operations is a waste of the taxpayers' money," Davis said in a text message. "The more lawmakers think about this, the more they realize it makes no sense and that it is unfair to competition."

Davis and others argue such incentives would shift sales and jobs rather than creating new ones.

Incentives for retail projects also differ from those for industrial ones, opponents argue, because industrial projects can be located in more places than their retail counterparts and usually don't have nearby competitors.

Rep. Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, voted against the Bass Pro Shop bill, according to a House official.

She agreed lawmakers' concerns about the economic consequences of the bills for Sembler and Bass Pro might be spreading.

"Potentially more people (are) becoming more aware of how dire the budget is and wary of special projects," Erickson said in a text message. "It's a world of wants vs. needs up here."

Reps. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton and Richard Chalk, R-Hilton Head Island, did not vote, according to the House official.

In a text message late Thursday, Herbkersman said he does not think the Bass Pro Shops vote would have any bearing on the Sembler vote outcome.

Chalk did not respond to a text message seeking comment on the issue.

ON-THE-RECORD VOTE

Pinckney's bill was approved Feb. 3 by the Senate Finance Committee.

The Bass Pro Shops bill passed the House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 17, according to the Charleston Regional Business Journal. The bill did not specify a business, but two sources confirmed to the journal that the intended recipient was Bass Pro Shops.

Similar incentives passed a few years ago to bring another outdoor retailer, Cabela's, to North Charleston, according to the journal.

Gov. Mark Sanford opposed that legislation; his veto was overridden, but Cabela's never moved to the area.

Rep. Rex Rice, R-Easley, moved for the roll call vote on the Bass Pro Shops bill Thursday.

Rice said he raised questions about the bill and voted against it in committee.

He said he doesn't have a problem with "reasonable" incentives but found the bill "way outside of what we ought to do."

He said he pushed for a roll call because such votes make lawmakers more accountable to their constituents.

"When it's on the record, you've got to make sure you tell the people back home how you really feel," he said.

Rep. Nikki Haley, R-Lexington, a gubernatorial hopeful, supported Rice's motion and voted against the Bass Pro Shops bill.

Haley, who has pushed for more roll call votes, said the bill would likely have passed on a voice vote if Rice hadn't forced his colleagues to "have to hit a red or green button."

"Everybody needed to see exactly who was for it," Haley said. "It was the vote on the record that made this fail."