<p>Thibault</p>

Thibault

<p>Cromer</p>

Cromer

NEWBERRY COUNTY — On Nov. 3, voters will have a decision to make in the S.C. Senate District 18 election. Incumbent Ronnie Cromer (Republican), of Prosperity, faces challenger Christopher Thibault (Democrat), of Lexington.

The following questions were submitted to each candidate via email. Answers have been minimally edited for spelling, grammar and punctuation.

What do you feel are the major issues that need to be addressed during the next legislative session?

Cromer: “We need to get back to the discussion and hopefully a solution as to what needs to be done with Santee Cooper. The 2020 session did not allow us any time to properly address Santee Cooper because of the amount of time spent on how to handle the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. We will have to continue to address all of the same issues caused by the pandemic since it will be ongoing for some time. Those issues are continuing concerns with school schedules, concerns over decreased revenue streams, and addressing lawsuits on businesses stemming from COVID-19 infections.”

Thibault: “Some of the top items that I would like to address include:

1. Passing legislation that ensures the safety of all South Carolinians in the face of COVID-19. This legislation should include:

• Statewide contact tracing using the Apple/Google API.

• Increase emergency funding for state relief agencies.

• Addressing preparations that need to be made for the upcoming vaccine, notably the high probability of needing to bolster cryogenic distribution infrastructure for the Pfizer vaccine.

• Protections for S.C. workers who need to quarantine or take time off for testing.

2. Passing comprehensive privacy protections for South Carolinians online including:

• Protecting website and/or online service users by making the users the default and non-assignable co-owners of any intellectual property derived from their interactions with said website and/or online service.

• Require websites and/or online services to conspicuously disclose their usage of user’s data and third party’s usage of user’s data.

• Allow South Carolinians to opt-out of third party tracking or data sales.

3. Passing legislation that encourages the development of more regional ISPs who will provide broadband services and improve existing networks, this includes:

• Updated the definition of broadband to be fast enough for a family of five to work and attend school from home. This is defined as 200 Mbps of 95th percentile upload and download speeds and less than 40ms of 99th percentile latency on the “last mile” networks.

• Disallow any regional non-compete agreements between ISPs.

• Open up all public easements and rights of way to any new or existing ISP that can meet codes.

• Provide tax incentives for municipalities who want to build out public ISPs.

• Disallow any data-caps for non-wireless ISPs.

4. Passing legislation that addresses the current imbalance in teachers pay and benefits.

5. Passing legislation that creates a regulated and taxed market in S.C. for medical and recreational marijuana use.

There are more issues that I would like to address, but do not have the space to address in this reply. I am committed to aggressively supporting a legislative agenda that makes South Carolina safer, provides more opportunities for South Carolinians, and keeps South Carolina’s unique charm open and inviting for new and existing businesses.”

How would you, or have you, addressed the state’s infrastructure issues?

Cromer: “We have done a pretty fair job on infrastructure issues after having increased the state motor fuel user fee to increase maintenance on our public road system. However, in 2020, we have seen collections drop 40-50 percent due to most of our people staying home and not so much fuel being purchased. As for water and sewer infrastructure, we had already established a rural infrastructure bank to help rural counties and cities obtain grants for those upgrades.”

Thibault: “Most of South Carolina’s infrastructure is in need of more funding. Given the diversity of infrastructure projects – 53 public airports, 9,341 bridges, 3,343 dams, 26 sites on the national Superfund Priority list, 480 inland waterways, 18 miles of levees, 77,364 miles of public roads, 2,278 miles of rail, hundreds of public parks (source American Society of Civil Engineers) – there is no single solution to making sure all maintenance and expansions needs are fully funded. I would prioritize funding critical items, such as bridges and levees that are assessed as in critical need, then prioritize adding capacity to the overtaxed roads surrounding and linking the communities on or near Lake Murray, especially where new school openings may be greatly increasing traffic in the coming years.”

Has the COVID-19 Pandemic shown any shortfalls within the state (policy or otherwise) that need to be addressed in the Senate? If yes, how should they be addressed?

Cromer: “The COVID-19 Pandemic has demonstrated a problem with how emergency declarations from the Governor’s office are handled. The Emergency Declaration orders by the Governor was originally set up to be used in Natural Disaster situations and only for a two week period. The Pandemic showed us that we need to do a great deal of work on how to go from a two week order that morphs into a six month order.

As far as the economic situation goes, we had already developed a large enough General Fund Reserve Account to offset a downturn of the economy.”

Thibault: “While I believe that more can be done to best address the COVID-19 Pandemic and have outlined some of the steps above, I believe that our public servants have done a great job with the information they were given to keep South Carolinians safe. This includes, but is not limited to, SCDHEC, first responders, and medical professionals. I would like to thank them for what they have done and their continued efforts every day!”

Final Statement: What is one thing voters should know about why you are running for office?

Cromer: “I am offering myself as a candidate for re-election because I enjoy helping constituents who are in need and have run into roadblocks on the state or county level. Not always, but the majority of the time, I am able to obtain help from State Agencies to take care of the constituent’s problem. I also bring a conservative voice to the Senate to make sure we stay within our budgeted revenues to continue to provide quality services to all of our state residents.”

Thibault: “I would like to thank everyone who is reading this for educating themselves on the candidates. I highly encourage everyone to vote in this upcoming election, and vote early if possible! All the information on voting in S.C. can be found at: https://www.scvotes.gov/ and if you need any help with voting please visit: https://scdp.org/scdp-voter-protection-unit/.

District lines are redrawn every 10 years following completion of the United States census. 2021 is a redirecting year, so you are choosing who will represent you in redrawing district lines this election.

My email is chris@thibault.vote and my website is https://thibault.vote – please feel free to email me or join my weekly online community chat. I am looking forward to the great years ahead!”

Reach Andrew Wigger @ 803-768-3122 or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.