This is Columbia Mayor Bob Coble’s contract year.

Coble’s first chance to impress will be Thursday, when he delivers his annual State of the City address at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

For 18 years, Coble has led Columbia with little political opposition. This time next year, he will begin negotiating with voters about extending his contract four more years.

But with crime up 7 percent in 2008 and reports that the city now has an $11 million deficit in its general fund, some voters are frustrated.

This year’s cut would come on top of last year’s reductions. Those cuts, totaling 17.7 percent, were the largest drop in state support for higher education in the nation, according to the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University.

For S.C. students and their families, the budget cuts could mean tuition increases.

Those increases could result in fewer South Carolinians attending college. That could lower their earning potential and hurt the economy of South Carolina.

School officials say they fear that more budget cuts could force them to make additional reductions to programs and staff.

And today, the man overseeing this venerable city of 7,000 is South Carolina’s youngest mayor.

Jeffrey Graham, elected in November at age 26, looks every inch the boy mayor — slim, driving a macho Silverado pickup with a huge tool chest, sporting a haircut that manages to project The Beatles as well as business, and a face unlined with the cares life is sure to throw his way.

Appearances deceive.

“Many people underestimate Jeffrey because he looks so young,” says Camden City Councilman Walter Long.

Why?

The down economy is cutting into contributions to political candidates.

Political fundraisers say they are working harder than ever, using new techniques to raise money, and still many regular contributors are declining to give.

Individuals have less money to give, as do businesses and political action committees.

Twitter users post short updates to their accounts, letting those “following” know what’s on their mind or what they are up to.

A handful of S.C. pioneers have taken it a step further, pulling together all those updates in one place: SCTweets.com. (A “tweet” is Twitterese for an update). The site now has about two dozen elected officials and more than four dozen consultants, media, spouses and other politicos in its network.

Readers of SCTweets can learn:

• What state Rep. Nathan Ballentine, R-Richland, thinks of the current House bill up for debate

For years, Lowcountry hunters have been allowed to put out corn to attract deer. But the practice, referred to as baiting, was outlawed in the Upstate. The difference hearkened back to the middle of the last century, when deer were especially rare in the Upstate. Now, deer roam the entire state in large numbers.

The current regulations create “a huge fairness issue that needs to be addressed,” said Chip Sharp, a former officer with the Department of Natural Resources who lives in Columbia.

But Bob Bailey, president of the S.C. Sportsmen’s Coalition, spoke against the proposed changes, saying baiting is against his ethical compass and rewards poor hunting skills.

“We have two generations of our hunters in the Lowcountry who don’t know how to hunt deer without guarding a corn pile,” Bailey said.