Briefs
by John Temple Ligon
Port expansion Sen. Robert Ford and Senate Pro Tem Glenn McConnell are sending Gov. Mark Sanford a letter requesting a two- day summit among environmental groups and the shipping industry rerpresentatives. The main issue for the summit is the ongoing litigation over expanding the port of the former Charleston Naval Base. The Coastal Conservation League has filed suit complaining about the effects of traffic and emissions likely to result from port expansion.

USC expansion With the addition of 300 new students admitted to the freshman class for the spring semester, USC's first- year student enrollment has hit an all- time high.

Moore School ranking and expansion Moving from last year's ranking of 72nd to 55th, USC's Moore School of Business has gained in international

rankings, as determined by The Financial Times of

London. There are 100 international schools in the rankings. The Moore School is expected to announce the location of its new building, probably next to the Colonial Center in the Innovista. Its existing building is about to be leased by an unnamed federal agency for enough money to fund the Moore School's new $100 million building.

SCANA expansion The Midlands' shareholder- owned utility is moving its headquarters into a campus of at least 10 buildings along I- 77 in Cayce. The value of the new compound is expected to reach at least $235 million. Had SCANA built in Columbia instead, and had SCANA not cut a fee- in- lieu-of- taxes deal, SCANA's property taxes at the utility/industrial assessment rate of 10.5 percent and the combined collections from both Richland County and the City of Columbia would have come to about $10 million per year or $200 million over the next 20 years. SCANA plans to pay fees of $48.3 million over 20 years to Cayce and Lexington County in lieu of property taxes. In 2002, when SCANA negotiated its way out of its bus service obligation confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the early 1930s, the City of Columbia granted a 30- year extension to SCANA's monopoly franchise to sell the city's people electric power and natural gas. The City of Columbia did not secure SCANA's headquarters inside the city boundaries in exchange for the 30- year extension to its utility monopoly privilege.

Gecko Gecko Energy Technologies, a New Jersey- based company, is expected to locate three employees in the USC Incubator on Laurel Street. In another three years, the company hopes to employ 100 people in new space in one of USC's Horizon buildings in the Innovista. The company will test and manufacture a portable hydrogen fuel cell device, something like a battery. The Columbia Division of Emergency Operations will be the first customer and test 25 of the devices in the first year. By the end of 2009, Gecko is expected to roll out 10,000 devices.

State revenue flat State economists predict little growth in the state economy for the coming year. The state's revenues should gain an additional $230 million over last year. Education costs are expected to expand by $90 million, and health care, $40 million.

Richland Mall connection Real estate developer Neil O'Rourke pleaded guilty to fraud charges and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. O'Rourke was a principal in Peerless Real Estate Services, a former owner of Richland Mall.

Centers of Economic Excellence The $30 million- per- year endowed chairs research program at the state's three research universities has received $180 million since its beginning in 2002. The legislation creating the program set a limit of $200 million by 2010, but the success of the program is part of the incentives behind new legislation to remove the financial and time constraints. Championing the legislation to expand the CEE are House Speaker Bobby Harrell of Charleston and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison of Columbia.