Tag: Luke Rankin

Ethics Reform – Not So Fast

S.C. Senate Effectively Kills Ethics Reform

Ethics reform took a big hit in the S.C. Senate last week when senators voted to essentially keep ethics investigations in-house.

A bill (S.1) that would have allowed investigations of ethics complaints against members of the S.C. General Assembly to be investigated by a reconstituted S.C. Ethics Commission failed to get enough support to move forward.

Sen. Luke Rankin, Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, offered an amendment that would have established a panel consisting of a majority of legislators and a few members of the public (for window dressing) instead of the independent panel advocated in the bill’s original language.

After a long debate, senators voted down the ethics reform bill authored by Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens. In a touch of irony, Martin voted against his much changed bill in the final vote.

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Sheheen Pushing Ethics Reform

Sen. Vincent Sheheen got in the middle of the ethics reform debate in South Carolina with a letter to Sen. Luke Rankin, chairman of the S.C. Senate Ethics Committee.

In his letter, Sheheen, a Democrat who is expected to oppose Gov. Nikki Haley next fall in a rematch of the 2010 gubernatorial election, advocates stopping “constant abuses in order to clean up our state government.”

Specifically Sheheen advocates barring the use of the state airplane, state cars or any other state vehicles from being for political purposes including carrying political staff to events or for conducting fundraising activities.

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Flow Control Debate to Senate Committee

The debate on whether the Horry County Solid Waste Authority should be allowed to continue a flow control monopoly over garbage generated in the county will move to the S.C. Senate Medical Affairs Committee March 21st.

Legislation called the ‘Business Freedom to Choose Act’ has already passed the S.C. House in this new legislative session. It is now up to the Senate to see if it will join the House in making a government established monopoly illegal.

The SWA will have Executive Director Danny Knight and Government Affairs Director Mike Bessant in attendance at the committee meeting to speak for maintaining the monopoly.

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Hembree, Rankin, Williams and Flow Control

Three state senators trying to block legislation that would make monopoly flow control of solid waste disposal illegal throughout South Carolina stated their case recently in an opinion piece to local media.

Greg Hembree (R-28), Luke Rankin (R-33) and Kent Williams (D-30) authored bi-partisan opposition to the Business Freedom to Choose Act that has already passed the S.C. House and is under consideration in the S.C. Senate.

Prior to the bill (H3290) being filed for the current legislative session, it was known that it would face opposition from these three senators and, quite possibly, only from these three senators.

Their stated reasons for opposition are a combination of obfuscation, bogeymen and cherry picking of facts to attempt to form a reasoned argument.

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SC House Passes Flow Control Ban

The S.C. House ended the month of January by passing third reading on the Business Freedom to Choose Act (H3290), which would make Horry County’s solid waste flow control ordinance illegal.

The fate of the county’s monopoly on solid waste disposal for all solid waste generated in the county now rests with the S.C. Senate.

According to information we are hearing, Sen. Luke Rankin and Sen. Greg Hembree will fight passage of the bill in the Senate, which would act to the detriment of the citizens they represent.

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S.C. Election Filing Mess Gets Deeper

The Horry County June 12th primary election ballots could have many blank spaces instead of candidates’ names if the South Carolina Supreme Court determines strict adherence with state law is required by all candidates.

After the state Supreme Court agreed last week to hear two cases regarding challenges to candidate filings from the recent election filing period, Grand Strand Daily conducted further investigation into filing dates of candidate Statement of Economic Interests.

Our investigation of filing information listed on the S.C. Ethics Commission website included both incumbent office holders as well as challengers. The results are that many candidates, it could even be said most, did not strictly comply with state law when filing for office in the current election cycle.

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County Council Curse?

Former Speaker of the House Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill learned his famous political maxim “all politics is local” in his first campaign (and only loss) for elective office.

The concept is that politicians are successful when they concentrate on the everyday concerns of their local voters and that most people who vote are focused on local concerns.

The validity of O’Neill’s maxim seems to be playing itself out, at least in a negative sense, in the contest for the Republican nomination for the new 7th Congressional District seat.

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