May 21, 2013 in Campaign News by admin

Toward a More Efficient Government

This week, the House Republicans ushered through sweeping government reforms that will truly make our governor a chief executive and make our government more accountable. This is the fifth time in six years that we have approved this legislation – which has never made it to the governor’s desk.
Last year, we came within a final-hour Senate filibuster with this legislation. After six years of debate, we’re here again.

At issue is the “Department of Administration.” Currently, South Carolina is the only state that operates with a “Budget and Control Board” – a strange hybrid of the legislative and executive branches that essentially controls most major functions of our state government.
This year, we have worked with the Senate to approve substantively similar versions of the legislation that moves human resources, information technology, and administration of the state’s physical plant and vehicles under the control of the governor. This plan moves nearly 90 percent of the old Budget and Control Board’s functions to the governor’s cabinet – where these basic administrative functions belong.

Last year’s version of our legislation included a large reduction in the number of state employees (mostly unfilled positions). That was not included in this year’s package because the House rolled those reductions into this year’s budget.

The House Republican Caucus has worked with both Governor Sanford and Governor Haley to consolidate our state’s administration. We believe this move will make government more accountable and make our Governor a true chief executive. Above all, no matter who lives at the governor’s mansion, it is the right thing to do.

We’ve taken additional steps to empower our chief executive over the past several years. Next year will be the final time our state elects a different lieutenant governor. Beginning in 2018, the voters have decided they will run on the same ticket. In addition, another constitutional amendment is in the Senate that would make our state’ Adjutant General – the commander of our National Guard – appointed by the governor. General Livingston, a Medal of Honor recipient and our current Adjutant General, is actively supporting this legislation (which is being held up by a few Democrats).

Our state government can be a cumbersome and unwieldy entity at times, with our governor overseeing a few things, the General Assembly overseeing others, and the Budget and Control Board overseeing even more. As conservatives, we are fundamentally for a smaller, more streamlined government. That desire is at the heart of this legislation.
One small vestige of the old Budget and Control Board will live on. The new State Contracts and Accountability Authority will continue to oversee the state auditor, bonding authority, insurance services, and annual retirement assumptions. We had to keep this separate because of concerns about how putting all of that under the control of the governor might threaten our state’s AAA credit rating.

It is an honor to serve you and your family in the General Assembly.  If you ever find yourself in need of assistance navigating state government, or if you have ideas on issues you want me to share with my colleagues in the House, don’t hesitate to contact me at tommy@tommypope.com.

May 3, 2013 in Campaign Blog, Campaign News by admin

A Record of Achievement and a Shorter Session

The House of Representatives adjourned for a week after finishing a successful “crossover week” and getting important House legislation moved to the Senate. We’ve nearly completed our agenda with more than a month left in the session.

Once again, the House Republican Caucus has worked hard to get important conservative legislation debated, approved, and moved so the Senate has plenty of time to consider it.

The House has approved election reform and ethics reform, new legislation protecting private data in the hands of the state, and fought Democrat attempts to radically expand Medicaid and force the state to accept Obamacare. In addition, we approved an infrastructure package for 2,000 new Boeing jobs, restructured some of our Constitutional officers, expanded pro-gun legislation, added mental health to our state’s firearms background checks, and passed legislation that will increase access to capital for small high-growth businesses.

But this gets me back to an issue that has been on Republican Caucus agendas since you gave us the House majority in 1994. This year, we also approved legislation that would shorten the session by nearly two months. That legislation is also in the Senate and we hope our colleagues will take swift action on it.

All of this was achieved by May 1 while still taking a month of furlough time.

Here are a couple of the major items we approved this week:

• Ethics Reform: I’ve written about this several times, but the House approved the biggest change to our ethics laws in a quarter of a century and sent the bill to the Senate. This legislation expands the requirements that lobbyists register at the local level, expands income disclosure for elected officials, and ends the practice of House members and Senators policing themselves.
• The “Boland” Bill: This bill expands restrictions to gun access for the mentally ill following the near-tragedy at the Ashley Hall school in Charleston. As Republicans, we stand solidly in support of our Second Amendment rights, but there are people who should not own guns. I’m proud the NRA supported us in this effort.
• Early Voting. We approved the state’s first early voting period, opening the polls to people for nine days (Sundays excluded) before an election.

The only major piece of legislation from the 2013 Caucus Agenda that has not passed is S. 22, the “Department of Administration” restructuring bill. The House began debate on it this week, but debate was postponed by procedural motions by the Democratic leadership. Since this is a Senate bill, it did not need to be approved before the May 1 “crossover” deadline.

The House of Representatives has a solid record of achievement through the first 14 weeks of session. The House proved this week: It’s time to shorten our legislative session.

May 2, 2013 in Campaign Blog by admin

April 29, 2013 in Campaign Blog by admin

Creating a Stronger Ethics Law

The House approved dozens of pieces of legislation this week in advance of the “crossover” deadline on May 1. The most important piece of legislation on our calendar was a major reform package to our two-decades old ethics laws.

First, a little background. The House Republican Caucus, the House Democratic Caucus, and the Governor’s Office each had study committees into the matter. All of the committees shared information and ideas over the past six months. The Republican Caucus and the Governor each submitted final reports of what each would like to see in the law. Dozens of meetings were held, public testimony was taken, and public input was encouraged.

Over the past two months, House Majority Leader Bruce Bannister, Caucus Ethics Study Committee Chairman Murrell Smith, and others took the best ideas and began discussing ethics with their counterparts across the aisle and in the Governor’s Office. The result is the legislation that we will consider on Tuesday.

The legislation:

There was a lot of misinformation spread about this bill from people who are truly opponents of ethics reform, but drape themselves in the banner of “Ethics Champions.”

Ultimately, this is a significant change in how the public will hold their public officials accountable. One major complaint from the public was that the House and Senate judge themselves on ethics, and even though most states and Congress operate in the same manner, it was time for our state to lead on ethics reform.

We have long touted our ethics laws as some of the strongest in the nation, and they were when they were originally written two decades ago. Since that time a lot has changed in politics. We have a proliferation of political action committees, but more importantly, we use tools today that weren’t widely used in the early 1990s – simple things like cell phones, ATM machines, and the Internet. Even six years ago, people rarely contributed to political campaigns online. We hardly give any of these things a second thought today, but our law doesn’t reflect those changes.

It is time to change. It is time for our conservative state to promote a conservative ethics reform plan that strengthens the law, streamlines the complaint process, and makes public officials more accountable.

It is an honor to serve you and your family in the General Assembly. If you ever find yourself in need of assistance navigating state government, or if you have ideas on issues you want me to share with my colleagues in the House, don’t hesitate to contact me at tommy@tommypope.com.