Tag: campaign funds

Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

The Devious SC General Assembly

The disconnect between the SC General Assembly and local political sub-divisions is highlighted by excess state budget appropriations.

House bill H 4320 amends the FY 2016 budget bill, H 3701, to appropriate excess state revenues certified by the SC Board of Economic Advisors.

Dealing with just three sections of H 4320 demonstrates how devious the SC General Assembly remains in limiting the ability of local governments to fund their services while taking care of its members.

According to H 4320, the SC Board of Economic Advisors has certified recurring general fund revenue for FY 2016 of $150 million (Section 1). This is additional recurring money that was not anticipated at the beginning of the legislative year.

In addition, the board certified $150.2 million in excess revenue collected during the current fiscal year (Section 3).

Those two excess revenues total slightly over $300 million.

But, that isn’t enough for the SC General Assembly. In Section 5 of the bill, state legislators reduced the state contribution to the Local Government Fund by $20.425 million.

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Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

SC General Assembly Ongoing Road Problems

The effort to find funding to fix the state’s roads will be the elephant in the room when the SC General Assembly convenes in January 2016.

With several road bills already in the legislative process, how to mix a possible gas tax increase with other proposals in an election year will cause big problems for legislators.

An astute political observer I have known for a long time predicts no road maintenance bill will be passed next year because of the elections.

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Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

The Do-Nothing SC General Assembly

The SC General Assembly is moving quickly to another do-nothing year with respect to legislation that may actually be positive for the state.

Ethics reform went down in February because the Senate would not allow independent oversight of its members.

Legislation to raise money for road repairs is on the Senate’s contested calendar making it highly unlikely it will be up for a vote in the few weeks remaining in this legislative year.

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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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Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

S.C. General Assembly Up to Old Tricks

With pressing needs on infrastructure, education and ethics, the S.C. General Assembly is instead focusing on how to negatively affect local governments.

H3374, which was passed favorably out of a House Ways and Means subcommittee last week, would further shift the costs of providing state services onto the backs of local government. It is expected to be considered in the full House Ways and Means Committee as early as this week.

The bill effectively makes additional cuts to the local government fund, the fund which transfers money from the state to local governments to cover the cost state services at the county levels.

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Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

S.C. House Road Plan Will Accomplish Nothing

A plan being discussed in the S.C. House to transfer state roads to counties will accomplish nothing in the way of improved maintenance.

Put forward by Rep. Gary Simrill who is chairing the House Transportation, Infrastructure, and Management Ad Hoc Committee, the plan would transfer approximately 50 percent of currently state maintained (or unmaintained as the case may be) roads to county responsibility.

Simrill’s proposal has some talk about fully funding the local government fund and increasing “C” funds, which are a small percentage of state gas tax revenues given back to the counties through County Transportation Committees.

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Ethics Reform – Not So Fast

S.C. Legislators Campaign Funds for Foreign Trips

At least in the use of campaign funds, there seems to be bi-partisan support among S.C. legislators for trips abroad.

According to a recent article in The State newspaper, 11 representatives (8 Republicans and 3 Democrats) and a lone Republican senator made use of their campaign funds to pay for a trip to Israel.

According to the article, the legislators who made the trip were: Sen. Ray Cleary, R-Georgetown and Reps. Alan Clemmons, R-Horry, Heather Crawford, R-Horry, Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown, Garry Smith, R-Greenville, Raye Felder, R-York, Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, Mike Forrester, R-Spartanburg, Mike Gambrell, R-Anderson, David Weeks, D-Sumter, Todd Rutherford, D-Richland and MaryGail Douglas, D-Fairfield.

Clemmons said in the article that the legislators used their campaign funds to cover the cost of the trip.

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Ethics Reform – Not So Fast

Ethics Reform Obstacles in S.C. House

It looks like ethics reform during the upcoming session of the S.C. General Assembly will go down the same black hole as the last couple of years’ efforts.

The main reason being South Carolina legislators really don’t want to reform themselves.

During a meeting of the House Ethics and Freedom of Information Study Committee last week, the mentality of what seems to be the majority of legislators came to the fore.

What seemed a ‘no brainer’ provision of possible ethics reform, eliminating the use of campaign funds for legal defense funds against ethics complaints, appears to run counter to a majority of the committee’s wishes.

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Bobby Harrell “Blindsided”

SC House Speaker Bobby Harrell held a press conference yesterday in Columbia in what appeared to be an attempt to regain control of the message on the ongoing ethics investigation into his use of campaign funds.

Speaking approximately one hour before the House was gaveled into its opening 2014 session, Harrell appeared to believe he could, somehow, stop the ethics investigation against him from going to the Grand Jury.

Harrell said he was “shocked and blindsided” by the news the investigation was being referred to the Grand Jury. He said both the attorney general’s office and SLED continuously told Harrell and his attorneys that they found, in the course of the investigation, “nothing that concerned them”.

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