PUBLIC MARKS with tags state & john

Proposals include income tax cuts, land conservation, more police Gov. Mark Sanford today will unveil his $6.5 billion state spending plan, which if adopted by the Legislature, would cut income taxes, put more officers on the street and set aside money for paying health care costs and preserving land. Sanford has already proposed boosting tourism -- the state’s largest industry -- by increasing money for local tourism and commerce groups to advertise their cities. Sanford has also proposed conserving more land and bringing broadband Internet to rural areas.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote in the landmark case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) that “if there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.” His words were a ringing affirmation of the freedoms of conscience and expression that are central to American liberty.