South Carolina Code 1-23-110. Procedures for publication of notice of proposed promulgation of regulations; public participation; contest of regulation for procedural defects
(1) give notice of a drafting period by publication of a notice in the State Register. The notice must include:
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 1-23-110
- Agency: means an authority, board, branch, commission, committee, department, division, or other instrumentality of the executive department of state government, including administrative bodies and bodies corporate and politic established as an instrumentality of the State. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
- Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
- Office: means the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office. See South Carolina Code 1-23-10
- Person: means :
(a) an individual, labor union and organization, joint apprenticeship committee, partnership, association, corporation, legal representative, mutual company, joint-stock company, trust, unincorporated organization, trustee, trustee in bankruptcy, receiver, or other legal or commercial entity located in part or in whole in the State or doing business in the State;
(b) the State and any agency or local subdivision of an agency; or
(c) a political subdivision. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10 - Promulgation: means final agency action to enact a regulation after compliance with procedures prescribed in this article. See South Carolina Code 1-23-10
- regulation: includes general licensing criteria and conditions and the amendment or repeal of a prior regulation, but does not include descriptions of agency procedures applicable only to agency personnel; opinions of the Attorney General; decisions or orders in rate making, price fixing, or licensing matters; awards of money to individuals; policy statements or rules of local school boards; regulations of the National Guard; decisions, orders, or rules of the Board of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services; orders of the supervisory or administrative agency of a penal, mental, or medical institution, in respect to the institutional supervision, custody, control, care, or treatment of inmates, prisoners, or patients; decisions of the governing board of a university, college, technical college, school, or other educational institution with regard to curriculum, qualifications for admission, dismissal and readmission, fees and charges for students, conferring degrees and diplomas, employment tenure and promotion of faculty and disciplinary proceedings; decisions of the Human Affairs Commission relating to firms or individuals; advisory opinions of agencies; and other agency actions relating only to specified individuals. See South Carolina Code 1-23-10
- Substantial economic impact: means a financial impact upon:
(a) commercial enterprises;
(b) retail businesses;
(c) service businesses;
(d) industry;
(e) consumers of a product or service;
(f) taxpayers; or
(g) small businesses as defined in § 1-23-270. See South Carolina Code 1-23-10
(a) the address to which interested persons may submit written comments during the initial drafting period before the regulations are submitted as proposed;
(b) a synopsis of what the agency plans to draft;
(c) the agency’s statutory authority for promulgating the regulation;
(2) submit to the office, no later than the date the notice required in item (3) is published in the State Register, a preliminary assessment report prepared in accordance with § 1-23-115 on regulations having a substantial economic impact;
(3) give notice of a public hearing at which the agency will receive data, views, or arguments, orally and in writing, from interested persons on proposed regulations by publication of a notice in the State Register if requested by twenty-five persons, by a governmental subdivision or agency, or by an association having not less than twenty-five members. The notice must include:
(a) the address to which written comments must be sent and the time period of not less than thirty days for submitting these comments;
(b) the date, time, and place of the public hearing which must not be held sooner than thirty days from the date the notice is published in the State Register;
(c) a narrative preamble and the text of the proposed regulation. The preamble shall include a section-by-section discussion of the proposed regulation and a justification for any provision not required to maintain compliance with federal law including, but not limited to, grant programs;
(d) the statutory authority for its promulgation;
(e) a preliminary fiscal impact statement prepared by the agency reflecting estimates of costs to be incurred by the State and its political subdivisions in complying with the proposed regulation. A preliminary fiscal impact statement is not required for those regulations which are not subject to General Assembly review under § 1-23-120;
(f) a summary of the preliminary assessment report submitted by the agency to the office and notice that copies of the preliminary report are available from the agency. The agency may charge a reasonable fee to cover the costs associated with this distribution requirement. A regulation that does not require an assessment report because it does not have a substantial economic impact, must include a statement to that effect. A regulation exempt from filing an assessment report pursuant to § 1-23-115(E) must include an explanation of the exemption;
(g) statement of the need and reasonableness of the regulation as determined by the agency based on an analysis of the factors listed in § 1-23-115(C)(1) through (11). At no time is an agency required to include items (4) through (8) in the reasonableness and need determination. However, comments related to items (4) through (8) received by the agency during the public comment periods must be made part of the official record of the proposed regulations.
(h) the location where a person may obtain from the agency a copy of the detailed statement of rationale as required by this item. For new regulations and significant amendments to existing regulations, an agency shall prepare and make available to the public upon request a detailed statement of rationale which shall state the basis for the regulation, including the scientific or technical basis, if any, and shall identify any studies, reports, policies, or statements of professional judgment or administrative need relied upon in developing the regulation. This subitem does not apply to regulations which are not subject to General Assembly review under § 1-23-120.
(B) Notices required by this section must be mailed by the promulgating agency to all persons who have made timely requests of the agency for advance notice of proposed promulgation of regulations.
(C)(1) The agency shall consider fully all written and oral submissions respecting the proposed regulation.
(2) Following the public hearing and consideration of all submissions, an agency must not submit a regulation to the General Assembly for review if the regulation contains a substantive change in the content of regulation as proposed pursuant to subsection (A)(3) and the substantive change was not raised, considered, or discussed by public comment received pursuant to this section. The agency shall refile such a regulation for publication in the State Register as a proposed regulation pursuant to subsection (A)(3).
(D) A proceeding to contest a regulation on the ground of noncompliance with the procedural requirements of this section must be commenced within one year from the effective date of the regulation.