Locally Speaking

S.C. Levies Tax On Services

Service providers oppose policy

North Charleston business owner BJ Rodgers doesn't usually sell plants. She waters them.

To brighten up otherwise drab corners of hotels, office buildings and health care facilities, she and her staff of 16 workers tend to neatly manicured pots of tropical plants through her company, Greenery Gallery Inc.

But five years after lawmakers tweaked South Carolina's sales tax policy, state revenue collectors now say that service providers - people who repair equipment, fix cars and maintain boats, for example - should levy a sales tax on their services.-Read more at Sun News

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Smoking Foes Step Up In Myrtle Beach Area

Grants support push for smoke-free Horry

Smoke-free ordinances could be coming soon to a council meeting near you.

Horry County community groups have received $2.3 million from a federal grant to try to make the county smoke-free, and a large part of the success of that effort will depend on how convincing a team of smoke-free champions is to area city and county officials.

Horry County was one of 44 communities across the United States to be awarded money in March to help tackle obesity and tobacco use, two of the leading preventable causes of premature death and disability.

Some $373 million was given to those communities through the Department of Health and Human Services' Communities Putting Prevention to Work program, overseen by the Centers for Disease Control. The program ends in March 2012.

Smoke Free Horry, the main organization, along with the BREATHE coalition and other groups, will work to reduce smoking in the county and encourage advocates for a smoke-free Horry County in the community.

The kickoff for the 18-month-long campaign was held Tuesday in Surfside Beach. The town is the only community in Horry County to have passed a smoking ban. –Read more at Sun News

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SC Town To Vote On Workers' Citizenship Checks

A South Carolina town council is set to vote on a law to require employers to check the citizenship of their workers.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Summerville Town Council will vote on Wednesday night on whether to require employers to check the immigration status of workers.

The original proposal also would have required landlords to check the citizenship of renters, but the council rejected that part of the measure last month.

The council had tentatively endorsed requiring businesses to check workers' status at the September meeting.

There are questions about whether the town action is needed. But some council members say they need to take a stand on immigration because federal authorities have not done so. –Sun News