Three state senators and three state representatives met Thursday in public and in private to discuss and ultimately approve S. 22, a bill that could subtly change how state government conducts its business.

The bill will now be debated on the floors of the House and Senate beginning Tuesday, before likely being sent later to Gov. Nikki Haley, a big restructuring supporter, for signing or vetoing. 

A new department and a new agency

The bill would create a new Department of Administration, which would place the day-to-day business of the state firmly and squarely under the auspices of Haley and the executive branch.

While the bill would do away with the current Budget and Control Board, a political target of many elected Republicans since Mark Sanford was governor, it would create a very similar organization, the State Fiscal Accountability Authority.

That authority, just like the board, would be comprised of the governor, treasurer, comptroller general, and the chairmen of the House Ways and Means and the Senate Finance committees.

The authority would be charged with spending big chunks of money, buying bonds, and the like, referred ubiquitously as “procurement.”

Going forward, House Speaker Pro Tempore Jay Lucas (R-Hartsville) said the issue of procurement would be the biggest issue to be debated in the days ahead.

Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman (R-Florence) had dug in his heels last year, refusing in committee meetings to hand over procurement to the governor.  The thinking was that procurement offered too much power to leave in the hands of a single elected official, and doing so had proved too tempting for governors in other states now doing hard time for some form of embezzlement convictions.

Others in both chambers, who favored the creation of the authority, took the stance that to hand procurement powers to a governor would violate the state constitutional division of powers.  That division allows for the legislature to be in charge of raising money and designating expenditures, and limits the governor to only carrying out the legislature’s decisions.

Where’s Haley? There’s Sheheen

A request for comment from Haley’s office went unanswered by press time for this article. But Haley has been quoted around the state as having previously been for the Department of Administration bill. Today, however, there is no word as to whether the bill stands up to her criteria of restructuring or if she was in favor of the authority and potential limiting of her office’s fiscal powers.

One of the biggest supporters of the bill will once again run against Haley in the upcoming gubernatorial election next year, state Sen. Vincent Sheheen (D-Camden).

Sheheen, the primary author who has shepherded the bill since its inception, argued Thursday that the biggest change that the restructuring measure would provide is in the structure and oversight of state government.

The bill, according to Sheheen, would give legislative oversight over all state agencies to the General Assembly in much the same way Congress oversees federal agencies. That way, he said, state government would become more “transparent and accountable,” borrowing two of Haley’s mantras.

Sheheen pointed to a series of crises and scandals in Haley’s cabinet agencies that, he said, demanded better management practices and oversight that the legislature could provide.

“Pretty much all the problems we in the legislature have seen in state agencies, have come from her cabinet,” said Sheheen, referencing solvency issues at the Department of Employment and Workforce, a historic hacking incident at the Department Revenue and deficits at several agencies.

The bill would force agencies to come to the legislature, and not the governor, if they faced a looming deficit, which Sheheen said would force agency heads to create more realistic budgets.

Crystal ball: Tea party-aligned members in the House and Senate are going to hate this bill, as it not only creates a new agency, but it will be seen as merely changing the board’s title and not its most important duties. Haley’s support may change, as it becomes more clear how little true restructuring the bill provides, as it keeps her out of the money, but gives her more responsibility. The bill will likely pass both chambers, but can it survive a higher vote requirement if Haley vetoes it? Tough to say.

Bill Davis is senior editor at Statehouse Report.  He can be reached at:  billdavis@statehousereport.com.

RECENT NEWS STORIES

• 1/10: K-12 education may get more attention
  
• 1/3: 51,422 more South Carolinians
  
• 12/27:  What a year it was: 2013 in review
• 12/20: State policy decisions and new money
  
• MORE NEWS: Archives

The bright green trim around this deteriorating cottage just inside Ehrhardt on U.S. Highway 601 is about all that’s left that doesn’t look worn. The town of about 600 people is in rural Bamberg County where 27 percent of people live below the federal poverty level. Photo by Avery Brack.

If an investigation into House Speaker Bobby Harrell’s (R-Charleston) results in him losing his seat atop that chamber, it will complete a fairly full swing in the pendulum of power in the Palmetto State.

Prior to Gov. Nikki Haley’s ascension, almost all of the big statewide positions were held by politicians from the Lowcountry:

• Gov. Mark Sanford (R) – grew up in Dale, near Beaufort.
• Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer (R) – lived in Charleston.
• Treasurer Thomas Ravenel (R) – from Charleston.
• Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell (R-Charleston).
• And Harrell.

Now, the governor is from Lexington. The lieutenant governor is McConnell, who has announced he is not seeking reelection. The treasurer hails from the Columbia area. And McConnell was replaced by Sen. John Courson (R-Columbia).

That could mean if Harrell had to give up his position this year, the scorecard might read: Columbia, 4, Lowcountry, 0.  But the Lowcountry wouldn’t be alone at the bottom, as none of those are from Greenville, the state’s third metropolitan center.

Lourie, pictured at left, has complained that the agency is more focused on limiting costs and shrinking government than it is on its mission.

Before former Senate Minority Leader John Land left the Senate in 2012, the Manning Democrat said more families would come forward in the next few years to force the legislature to increase funding for Social Services.

After the Wednesday DSS hearing in which it was claimed a family member was wrongly removed and the case mishandled by the agency, Lourie said he didn’t know whether the agency’s problem was lack of funding or due to reduced case workers and a high turnover rate in its administration since Lillian Koller took over.

Koller was not able to attend the Wednesday hearing, as she is on medical leave and is working from home.       

Lourie has said he is interested in hearing from Koller.

Newly-introduced bills this week [See Tally Sheet for key bills] included some humdingers -- proposals that might cause folks to do a few doubletakes.

• No superintendent. Get this: State Rep. Andy Patrick (R-Hilton Head Island) is trying to eliminate the elective position that he says he’s now running for -- state superintendent of education. Where would the position go? To the governor’s cabinet as an appointment.
  
  
• Santa. With all of the nonsense on (some) television stations about people who say “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays,” it’s not surprising that lawmakers are set to debate Santa in an election year. House member Bill Sandifer (R-Seneca) has a proposal that would allow school districts to “educate students about the holidays of traditional winter celebrations in a certain manner, and to provide that a school district may display certain symbols associated with these holidays on school property unless the display includes a message that encourages adherence to a particular religious belief.”
  
  
• Tolls. State Sen. Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg) proposes a measure that would allow for a toll booth to be put on Interstate 95 in the Lake Marion area.
  
  
• Campaigns. In light of lots of recent campaign finance scandals and problems for state leaders, state Rep. Kirkman Finlay (R-Columbia) proposed six measures that would tighten campaign reimbursement and spending rules, such as elimination of cash contributions and prohibiting fines from being paid with campaign funds. Interesting: One proposal would give candidates a 30-day grace period to fix a campaign funds violation.
  
  
• Gay marriage. House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford (D-Columbia) must know he’s asking for it from conservatives in calling for a constitutional amendment that would delete a part of the state constitution that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Another proposal would allow in state tax filings that the terms “husband,” “wife” and “spouse” to include legal same-sex marriages from another state and “must not be construed to be gender specific.”
  
  
• Redistricting commission. State Rep. Laurie Funderburk (D-Camden) suggests establishment of an independent state Reapportionment Commission to submit new district lines every 10 years. The thought is having a non-partisan commission would take a lot of the politics out of reapportionment and create legislative districts that are more competitive.
  
  
• Helmet. State Rep. Wendell Gilliard (D-Charleston) and others are fighting the long-unsuccessful fight again for motorcycle riders to wear helmets.
  
  
• Guns and violence. State Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D-Orangeburg) is calling for a national instant criminal background check before any sale or transfer of a firearm. She’s also introduced a measure to reduce deaths by domestic violence.
  
  
• Flat tax. State Rep. Tommy Stringer (R-Greer) seeks to replace the individual income tax with a flat tax, with several provisions.

After years of bickering about whether to put more power into the state’s executive branch along with more effective oversight by the General Assembly, it looks like House and Senate negotiators have agreed to a measure that would be the biggest overhaul to state government since changes enacted after the Operation Lost Trust scandal more than 20 years ago.

Good. But these new changes don’t go far enough, particularly when you realize that agency effectiveness doesn’t seem to have any connection to whether an agency is in the governor’s cabinet. Just this week, a state Department of Employment and Workforce employee was fired after downloading personal data of more than 4,600 people to a flash drive. Last week, a state judge spanked the S.C. Department of Corrections in a 45-page order for failing to serve mentally ill prisoners for years, some of whom died and hundreds who “remain substantially at risk for serious physical injury, mental decompensation, and profound, permanent mental illness.” Both agencies are in the cabinet.

It’s not hard to look around and find other examples of how South Carolina’s state government is unresponsive, underfunded or just plain broken:

• House Speaker Bobby Harrell, right, is in headlines again after Attorney General Alan Wilson sent a complaint to the state grand jury about how Harrell reimbursed himself hundreds of thousands of dollars in airplane expenses from a campaign account. That Wilson made this next step public -- something not usually done when a case goes to the state grand jury -- and did it on the day before the legislative session opened is an example of the petty, vindictive nature of what’s going on politically in Columbia.
  
  
• The state Department of Health and Environmental Control (non-cabinet agency) completely fumbled a Greenwood County outbreak of tuberculosis last year that left lots of people sick. The agency contends it didn’t do anything wrong, which is probably why lots of lawsuits have been filed.
  
  
• The state Department of Revenue (cabinet) fell prey in fall 2012 to the largest hacking ever of a government computer system, a pitiful occurrence that compromised the private information of 6 million individuals and businesses, and continues to embarrass the state. On the up side, the agency seems to have gotten its act together on security.
  
  
• The state Department of Social Services (cabinet) has racked up more than $100 million in fines since 1998 for not having a child enforcement computer system as required by the federal government. Our state is the only one in the country to lack the system.

What adds to the frustration of how state government -- not most of the thousands of hard-working employees, but the system -- is broken is that it’s not hard to find ways where government is really working well. All you have to do is turn to county and municipal governments around the state.

For example, Newberry County won the S.C. Association of Counties’ top award last year because of how it renovated an old Wal-Mart as a new satellite campus for Piedmont Technical College. In Charleston County, officials increased transparency of the judicial process with innovative mobile applications. Orangeburg County worked with a private recycling company to tear down old buildings and use some of the salvaged material to repave roads. And a burned railway trestle in Jasper County is now a recreational attraction thanks to its county government.

Municipal governments are being innovative too. Just look at how downtown redevelopment has made many communities more vibrant, particularly in areas expanding from Main Street in Greenville and with the new performing arts center that Florence built with Francis Marion University. Greer and Beaufort have great new city halls that make it easier for people to interact with government. Rock Hill is expanding its tax base with sports tourism through a velodrome and new river park.

Government can work. Our state needs to take some lessons from our towns and counties.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report.  You can reach Brack at: brack@statehousereport.com.

• 1/10:  Protect iconic rural sites, barns
• 1/3:  Tackle really tough issues
• 12/27: State makes some progress, but long way to go
  
• MORE BRACK:  See our archives

By Richard W. Riley
Former governor and U.S. secretary of education

NOTE: Secretary Riley gave the following speech Tuesday at the annual Wilkins Leadership Awards Dinner in Columbia by the Riley Institute at Furman University. We’ve removed some introductory material, but the rest of the prepared remarks are offered in full.

JAN. 14, 2014 -- As most of you know, today is the beginning of the legislative season in South Carolina . . . the first day that members of the Legislature get together to carry out the work that our citizens have  put their trust in them to do. 

That work is extremely important.  It affects all of us South Carolinians. Most importantly, the Legislature's work affects our children . . . and they are our future.  I have always loved the fast-moving pace of this time of year.  I looked forward to it when I was in the Statehouse . . . and I know my good friend, [former House Speaker and Ambassador] David Wilkins, did, too.  

It is a time of action to tackle the crucial issues that our state and its people face.  And it is a time for working together to move our state forward in this challenging 21^st Century. 

I doubt there is a person in this room who doesn't recognize how different our world is now, compared to just 20 or so years ago.

Look at how the world has changed

At the same time, we have suffered the huge loss of the textile industry . . . and we have witnessed the economic emergence of the so-called BRIC countries – BRIC being the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China. Seen as third-world countries just a dozen years ago, the BRICs now are major economic powers that compete with us and all around the world. 

China is playing to win

In the past three years, the Chinese have built the world’s fastest train – it hits speeds up to 240 miles per hour – and the world’s largest rail network.  The work on these projects – most of it now done entirely by Chinese engineers – is impressive.

Even more noteworthy, in my view, is that, in 2010, China graduated more than 10,000 Ph.D. engineers. At the same time, American universities graduated fewer than 8,000 Ph.D. engineers – two-thirds of whom were foreign nationals.  And some of those are Chinese, who will return home. As a result, the quality of Chinese engineering graduates is now seen by many as equal to – or approaching – that of the U. S.

It is clear that China is HUGE. It contains almost 20 percent of the world's population – compared to only 4-1/2 percent in the United States. And, while expanding their industrial and military complex, they have come to recognize the importance of investing heavily in their human capital.  

In just the last year, the Chinese announced their plan to invest the equivalent of 250 billion dollars – that's 250 billion with a capital "B" – in the education pipeline . . . from early childhood through graduate education. I recognize, as you do, that the Chinese lag far behind us when it comes to individual rights, safety, the environment and the whole host of quality-of-life issues. But when it comes to economic expansion and competition, the Chinese are in it to win!

We've got to be smarter and more effective

We no longer are competing for jobs, business, talent, and capital just with our other states. We now must compete with the whole world. And America no longer has the advantage. The new technologies I mentioned earlier have leveled the playing field . . . created "a flat Earth," as author Tom Friedman puts it.  

Yet, South Carolina has some serious constraints.

We are a small state and we are a poor state economically, relative to most others in America. One out of five of our people live in poverty – real poverty, by any standard – and about half of our public school students live in abject poverty.

The recession that plagued our country hit South Carolina hard.  A low tax base, high poverty and unemployment, an inadequate infrastructure, and a contentious political climate are real impediments at any time – but especially in this globally-competitive world in which we now live.

Some people demonstrate extraordinary leadership in trying to combat those challenges, and it is those individuals to whom the Riley Institute pays tribute with the Wilkins Leadership Awards. For the last nine years, we have celebrated men and women who have exhibited exemplary leadership in the Legislature. More recently, we also have recognized remarkable civic leaders.

Tonight we are here to honor two very special people – the distinguished Senator Paul Campbell and the late Steve Morrison – my dear friend and law colleague, whose professional credo was "those who serve the law . . . must also serve the poor." All of the Wilkins Leadership awardees have worked hard and selflessly for the public good, for our state, and for all of our people.

From this podium, I look out at our state’s political, business, and community leaders.  I do so with pride and with the certain understanding that all of us here want what is best for our state and all of our people.  And, all of us know in our hearts that we are at a juncture in our state’s history where "business as usual" simply is not an option.

We are too smart to spend our time on petty disputes or on turf battles.  We are better people than that.  This is the time in our history for us to work intelligently, collaboratively, and with hard-nosed focus to move our state forward for all of our people.  We must begin to do this right here and right now!

Let's put our minds, talents to work to "smell the future"

We know beyond any doubt that education and economic development are linked.  We don’t need our friends in China or other parts of the world to tell us that.  We know that the wise investments we make in the human and physical infrastructure of our state pay off, both in the short and long run.

It is time to use our great colleges and universities, our business leaders, and our elected public servants at all levels – city, county, state, and federal – to move us forward on education, health, and economic development.   This would be a "Grand Coalition" to focus on our beloved state of South Carolina and serve all of our people. 

We really don’t have a choice, do we? South Carolina must take far-sighted, collaborative, progressive action . . . or be relegated to the backwaters of the national and international economy.

When I was governor, we had a real shot at getting a large Sony plant here in the Midlands. One of the Morita brothers, the owners of Sony, met with me at the Governor's Mansion and we talked late into the night. Mr. Morita told me of the Japanese belief that, to be truly successful – as a corporate executive, as a governor or legislator, or as a leader of any kind – to be truly successful, you had to be able to "smell the future." 

That is the message I share with you this evening. Let's all of us "smell the future" together . . . and then prepare for it together.

Riley served as governor of South Carolina from 1979 to 1987 and as U.S. secretary of education from 1993 to 2001.

To the editor:

Ah!  This is a super article.  Here is what SCIWAY has in terms of barn photos.

I love that you are bringing attention to these old buildings.  Great quote from [S.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh] Weathers too.

-- Robin Welch, James Island, S.C.

To the editor:

I have also been in love with these barns. Maybe since I helped my mother and her family put up tobacco in a barn in eastern N.C. as a kid and loved the community it demonstrated. I have looked at every one I have ever passed on the road and wanted to purchase them, move them to a lot somewhere and move in for a vacation home. I still do, but like your comments today, so many are falling down, so now I just photograph them.  My friends and wife know of my plans and they all say I am crazy, but after nearly 60 years, I still have a love affair with these buildings.

-- Bob Noe, Columbia, S.C.

To the editor:

I always look forward to your Statehouse View.

I too love old tobacco barns. I have painted a series of barns. If you would like to see more, check my Facebook page, Thomas Fulton Art Studio.

-- Tommy Fulton, Walterboro, S.C.

NOTE:  Thanks Tommy for sending along the great barn painting above.  -- ACB

Drop us a line. We love hearing from our readers and encourage you to share your opinions.  But you've got to provide us with contact information so we can verify your letters. Letters to the editor are published weekly. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.We generally publish all comments about South Carolina politics or policy issues, unless they are libelous or unnecessarily inflammatory. One submission is allowed per month. Submission of a comment grants permission to us to reprint. Comments are limited to 250 words or less.  Please include your name and contact information.  Send your letters to:

• feedback@statehousereport.com
  

Teen birth rate down. South Carolina should be happy that its teen birth rate is the lowest that it’s been in 20 years, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. More.