Tag: SC General Assembly

S.C. Ethics Reform? – Don’t Bet On It

The South Carolina Commission on Ethics Reform, appointed by Gov. Nikki Haley late last year, released its recommendations to tighten state ethics laws Monday.

Some of the recommendations should be considered no-brainers, such as: (1) Disclosing all private sources of income, and identifying all “fiduciary” positions, or positions of trust, held, whether compensated or uncompensated; (2) banning leadership PAC’s; (3) expanding the definition of lobbyists and lobbyists principals and increasing their annual fee and (4) strengthening public corruption laws.

It would seem that number (1) with regard to sources of income would be the most important. From outside interests of lawmakers and other public officials corruption generally rises. However, don’t hold your breath waiting for that provision to become law.

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South Carolina’s Transportation Infrastructure Problems

The battle to save South Carolina’s transportation infrastructure, especially roads and bridges, seems to be joined in the state government this year.

A bill to do away with the State Infrastructure Bank and roll its responsibilities into the Department of Transportation appears to have a chance of success as does one that would require prioritizing road projects with maintenance and repair of existing roads as the top priority.

In her State of the State address, Gov. Nikki Haley urged state lawmakers to fix crumbling roads and bridges.

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Flow Control – ‘Don’t Tread on Me’

Horry County is preparing to sue the State of South Carolina if the General Assembly passes into law legislation currently before the General Assembly that would eliminate the Horry County Solid Waste Authority’s flow control monopoly of the county’s solid waste stream.

In a far reaching debate last week on flow control, home rule and revenue streams, the county Administration Committee passed a motion to put a resolution before full council directing the county administrator and attorney to begin searching for a law firm to represent the county. The catch phrase is “The Don’t Tread on Me” resolution.

As usual in Horry County when the debate is on the SWA and/or flow control, the committee and council are framing the debate wrong.

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Hidden Woods Special Tax Bonds

Third and final reading of an ordinance approving the sale of $850,000 in bonds for the Hidden Woods Special Tax District should sail through county council tonight.

Third reading approval is included on the consent agenda of council, meaning it will not be discussed and will receive approval as part of the overall consent agenda unless a council member pulls it off for individual consideration.

The property owners in the Hidden Woods tax district received a shock when their property tax bills arrived in the mail. This was the first year that the special tax for road improvements was included and many homeowners saw their property taxes more than double. This extra assessment is scheduled to run 15 years.

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Term Limits Proposed for State Legislators

Several prefiled bills for the upcoming legislative session in the S.C. General Assembly propose to establish term limits for legislators serving in the two houses of the body.

The most popular limits, prefiled in both Houses, are six terms for representatives and four terms for senators. The proposed limits in both Houses would be sufficient to allow legislators to be fully vested for retirement and health benefits.

A bill calling for shorter limits of four terms in the House and two terms in the Senate has also been prefiled. In a state where over 90 percent of incumbents who run for re-election are returned each election cycle, this may be the only way of guaranteeing significant changes in the General Assembly makeup.

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Ethics Reform Commission Actions

Gov. Nikki Haley’s Ethics Reform Commission continued its work yesterday with another public hearing soliciting comments on how to reform and strengthen ethics laws in South Carolina.

The commission is scheduled to summarize comments and testimony January 8, 2013 and draft recommendations. On January 22nd it will discuss final recommendations and written report with January 28th being the date the report will be presented to the governor, the General Assembly and the public.

This all sounds great, but it probably isn’t going anywhere. It will take legislative action by the General Assembly and we don’t see that happening beyond some minor, face-saving measures being passed.

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Bobby Harrell’s Travel Reimbursements

South Carolina House Speaker Bobby Harrell’s problems with travel reimbursements continued last week when The Nerve reported problems with travel reimbursement records since 2008.

House mileage reimbursements for legislators are generally restricted to one round trip per week while the legislature is in session.

The Nerve reported Harrell was reimbursed for nine weekly round trips for use of his airplane and 21 weekly round trips by car in 2008. However, the House was only in session for 23 weeks that year.

Similarly, in 2012 the House spent 20 weeks in session while Harrell was reimbursed for 18 round trips by car and five round trips by air.

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Palmetto Liberty PAC Legislative Scorecard

The Palmetto Liberty PAC released its legislative scorecards for the 2012 S.C. General Assembly session completed in June.

In a state that likes to consider itself one of the most conservative in the nation, the scorecards from Palmetto Liberty PAC, a Tea Party based organization, tell a different story.

A total of 15 votes in the House and 17 votes in the Senate were tracked on the scorecards. Included were the state budget, a proposed rebate to taxpayers, government reorganization and other fiscal issues.

In a year when the state experienced an excess of more than $1 billion in expected revenue, it would have been supposed that state legislators would have put that money to good use.

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House Candidate Releases Ethics Reform Plan

House Candidate Releases Ethics Reform Plan

House District 78 candidate Beth Bernstein released a seven-point ethics reform plan for state legislators yesterday.

Bernstein’s plan hits at the root causes of many of the ethics problems we find at the state level. Placing ethics investigations into the hands of an independent agency, rather than by peer panels, and term limits for all legislators would go a long way to improving ethics in the General Assembly.

When Operation Lost Trust erupted 20 years ago, putting both lobbyists and lawmakers in jail, changes were made to state ethics laws. Normally these types of changes are made to tighten laws to eliminate illegal actions.

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Time to Rethink Government Cheese in South Carolina

Time to Rethink Government in S.C.

The vote last week by the state Budget and Control Board to slightly increase out of pocket contributions for health insurance premiums of local and state public agency employees has raised interesting questions about government in South Carolina.

The General Assembly included $20.5 million in the FY 2013 state budget to pay for health insurance premium increases for the 234,363 state and local public agency employees covered by the state health insurance plan.

The B&CB voted to have the employees covered by the plan participate in the premium increases to the tune of a $7.25 per month. Now some state legislators are crying foul on the B&CB saying the agency acted illegally.

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