Brack: McMaster should veto bill keeping college payments secret

Gov. Henry McMaster needs to veto rushed legislation that seeks to keep public payments to college athletes secret.

To do otherwise would tarnish his career of supporting transparency as embodied in the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

If you haven’t been paying attention to this month’s controversy, you probably know college athletes now are able to get paid big money while they’re still in college. It makes a lot of sense because it allows them to receive something for putting their bodies through all sorts of strain and pain. In the event they have a terrible injury and can’t later turn pro, at least they’ve earned something. For colleges, it’s a good deal because it allows them to keep athletes in colleges to play, instead of leaving quickly for the bucks. So it is good for colleges and it’s good for athletes.

But at issue is whether public universities like Clemson and the University of South Carolina should be able to shield public payments to key players from disclosure as required by the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

The key phrase here is “public dollars.” Because once a college absorbs a gift or fee from an outside source and puts it in a foundation or in its general fund, that money is public, not private. And state law currently requires its disclosure.

But colleges want to keep these payments quiet. Which is why the state House rushed a measure to keep the money private by a 111-2 floor vote outside of the normal deliberative process. The bill didn’t even get a committee or subcommittee vote before it hit the floor, thus chilling debate and showing all of the symptoms of a runaway legislative train.

The bill then went to the Senate, where it zoomed along without a subcommittee hearing. It left the Senate Education Committee on Feb. 11 and passed 30-13 on the second of three readings in the Senate. The third reading generally is pro forma. But some good reporting by The Post and Courier gave lawmakers pause with questions about how some of the millions of dollars of private payments that went to Clemson University that became public money was remarkably similar to state tax money that was appropriated to Clemson.

So the Senate hauled in athletic officials for another hearing to wipe some of the egg off of their faces and to be assured that appropriated tax money wasn’t being used to pay college athletes.

You can probably read the writing on the wall, right? Of course, college officials said appropriated money wasn’t being used. But senators didn’t ask whether “public money” was being used, according to one attorney. And that’s the key question, because millions from TV rights, ticket sales and donations become public money once accepted by the university. Besides, as the Post and Courier reported, appropriated money that is roughly equal to the amount being paid to student athletes ended up in the same athletic department accounts that were paying the students, making it impossible to tell which dollars were paying for what.

So despite this shell game and after the Senate’s political theater, senators said OK to the bill and merrily sent it along on Feb. 26 to the governor.

Now McMaster has three choices – sign it, veto it or let it become law without his signature. We urge him to veto the legislation to protect his long record of standing up for government transparency.

In 2017 when he signed a law to strengthen the FOIA, McMaster said “Government has to be accountable to the people it serves, and its citizens should have unimpeded access to public information that speaks to whether or not their best interests are being served.”

He also has long shared a four-word mantra to keep the public’s trust in government and about its right to know: “When in doubt – disclose.”

Not only should the governor use this to veto this bad legislation. But members of the General Assembly should use it to sustain his veto.

Whenever colleges are paying millions to have star athletes on their rosters using public money, the amount being paid needs to see the light of day, not be stashed in dark corners under sweaty lockers.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com