SSouth Carolina Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman said the state should divest from utility Santee Cooper in the absence of reform and leadership change.
In a memo to members of the Santee Cooper Review and Policy Subcommittee, Leatherman, R-Florence, on Monday asked the subcommittee to provide a recommendation on whether the state should retain ownership of Santee Cooper or sell it.
“In the absence of meaningful reform that includes a new board of directors and increased oversight, I see no choice but to divest from the state of what is increasingly a asset but an albatross,” Leatherman wrote.
Leatherman said it was “paramount” to resolve the issue during the next legislative session, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 12.
“Time is running out,” Leatherman wrote, noting that he had no intention of defending either outcome in the letter.
“The decision whether or not to sell Santee Cooper is clearly within the purview of the finance committee as it is a financial transaction with impacts on state government, local government and ratepayers,” Leatherman wrote. .
leather man has already called for Santee Cooper’s Chairman of the Board, Dan Ray, to step down. The Santee Cooper Oversight Committee of the South Carolina Legislature interviewed Santee Cooper executives Last week on recent utility decisions on debt refinancing.
