Session Drags On
Dear Friend, the General Assembly continues its 2015 session, and I must say little has been accomplished. Now, on one hand that’s a good thing in that most things that come out of Columbia are bad for taxpayers, but on another hand it’s not good because we still have not dealt with the main issues facing South Carolina–our roads, the statutorily required full funding of our local government fund and the statutorily required full funding our K-12 education system (including our school buses). Legislation is moving through the Assembly that touches upon each, and I hope that we can be successful this year in funding these priorities without borrowing.

Tax Increase
Both houses of the General Assembly continue to promote a version of a gasoline tax increase. The proposals range from ten to twenty cents, with different phase-in periods and, for at least some, a corresponding decrease in another tax, such as the income tax. We are a long way from any sort of consensus, but the plan of the governor to raise the gas tax today in return for a possible income tax decrease on some tomorrow appears dead. Whatever her intentions, no one seems to believe future legislatures will uphold such a promise to lower your taxes at a later date. I’ve never seen a promise like that kept, and I will not allow us to fall victim to such falsehoods now. I’ll keep you posted on this issue, but I hope that this year we’ll finally decide to use the money we have on hand–there’s plenty of it, if enough of my colleagues will just make the decision to prioritize.

Ethics
I reported to you earlier this year that “ethics reform” is one of those things that newspaper editorial boards and about a dozen politicians believe is the most important thing—not roads, not schools, not your Constitutional freedoms—but passing a bill, that may or may not actually do anything, just so it can be signed in a photo opportunity for those who apparently need to convince someone that they are “tough on ethics.” The Senate bill of which I wrote last time died on the Senate floor when its proponents refused to have anything but their own way on every component of the bill. The greatest irony of their resistance to compromise was their insistence on the governor’s version of an “independent” ethics commission where she picked half of the members whose responsibility might one day include investigating her.

Anyway, the House of Representatives passed their omnibus Ethics bill and sent it to the Senate.  I am on the Senate Judiciary Committee and we took the bill up last week.  We were able to amend the bill to address my concerns of spouses and children being left alone if they wanted to work at Chick-fil-A or any other private company.  Also, we made the independent investigation committee a little better.  While I still have some 1st Amendment concerns about the bill, I voted for the bill (21-2 vote).  The chairman and a low country Senator are currently working on an amendment to fix these concerns.

The Budget
The House passed its version of the budget last week, and you all may have heard that quite a fight erupted over a once in and then out bond bill. The bond measure would have raised about $500 million for college buildings and other supposed capital needs. Governor Haley decried it as “running up the credit card,” and I agree with her. I just wish she had felt that way two years ago when she signed off an equal amount of debt for roads. I guess she was for it before she was against it. At any rate, the bond measure came out of the House budget, and we’ll see if senators try to revive it, but I am against borrowing more money when we have nearly $8 billion on hand. I am not on the Finance Committee, so I won’t see the budget until it hits the Senate floor, probably in May. I’ll make certain I keep you informed.