Bluffton Today
As the session comes to a close, I will begin to recap what was accomplished, what was carried over until next year, and what each is likely to mean. This will take a few columns, as I try to intersperse local items of interest into the mix. A steady diet of legislative detail is not in the best interest of steady readership.
If there was anything on our legislative agenda this session that might qualify as an emergency, it had to do with the reforms to our electoral system. We all remember the removal of hundreds of qualified and motivated candidates from the ballots last time around. It was truly a political debacle, which will impact elected councils for years to come. This procedural fiasco diminished the quality and the integrity of the system we use to choose our leaders, as well as having the appearance of an incumbent protection scheme. The error was so egregious; the necessity for reform was accepted across the political spectrum. The proof is that we actually passed and sent to the governor, a bipartisan, common-sense bill that she could sign. And we did it in an appropriately timely manner.
The reform removes the filing of statements of economic interest from election law and places it under ethics law. It applies to both incumbents and new candidates alike. The procedure for county candidates was also completely revised by the legislation so that involvement of party officials was no longer required. All necessary filings, attestations, and paying of fees are now conducted through government offices. The law also revises the rules parties must follow to nominate candidates by convention.
The general rationale we followed in this reform was that the fewer obstacles candidates face to get on the ballot, the better. By comparison, the new system is far superior to the old, both in terms of simplicity and fairness. That said, I personally believe the parties have a legitimate role in vetting candidates seeking to run under that party’s banner. My experience has been that party officials, in Beaufort County at least, have historically been well informed and very helpful in these matters.
In response to your wishes, we have also put together the first official early voting program for our state. H.3176 mandates that each county must establish one early voting center, which must be supervised by election commission employees and located in a public building within the county seat or centrally located in the county. The early voting period is nine days, excluding Sundays, before the election. The legislation also stipulates that election be held on the following days: the second Tuesday in March; the second Tuesday in June; the second Tuesday in September; or the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. It also ends the practice of fusion voting, which is running for office under two or more parties, depending on how many may have nominated you.
On a more social note, Shag and Drag is back for its third annual iteration in Old Town Bluffton, this coming Saturday, June 15th. Beginning around 4 pm on Calhoun Street, there will be a free classic car show where you can get up close with all those cool cars you wished for as a teenager. From 6 to 9, the action moves to the Promenade for dancing and toe-tapping to the music of City Lights, a show band from Columbia playing the best of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and beach music. Please join Mary and I, along with a few thousand of our closest friends, for this fun evening. To reserve a table, call 815-2472. Summer fun in Old Town Bluffton!
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
From the House
Bluffton Topday
This is the time, late in session, where we in the House have to hash out several matters with our friends over in the Senate. Like last year, we may end with an extended stay in Columbia to get things squared away. One of those unresolved matters, at the time of this writing, has to do with the renovation funding for the Waddell Mariculture Center in Greater Bluffton. This legislator was instrumental in assessing the needs at Waddell, which are extensive, as well as negotiating with my colleagues on Ways and Means to determine the lowest prudent appropriation where these needs could be met.
This is by no means an extravagant renovation. It has more to do with keeping the ceiling from falling on staff or visitors or making sure we don’t lose valuable research or a million cobia fry because of the failure of an ancient pump. It was a disappointment when the Senate version of the budget did not include those absolutely essential dollars to support the viability of this high performing state asset. It will go to conference committee and get sorted out. I am guardedly optimistic but the workings of the Senate are often hard to fathom.
Constant readers of this column know that Waddell has been a project of mine for over a decade. We have cobbled together funding from various sources over the years to keep Al Stokes and his crew in business. This is important because what they do is one of the key economic drivers of our local economy both because it supports fishery-based livelihoods, and because their research helps to protect the local waters from a host of threats. We have managed to get their operational budget line-item status, but the physical plant is just falling apart. The renovation may mean the difference between continuing to perform their vital mission or scaling back or maybe packing it in. Local folks, including your delegation, realize this is an important challenge that must be met.
Imagine my surprise as a local columnist urged readers to call or write me, or members of the delegation, to express concern over this potential disaster. Now, I know the columnist to be a good fellow, a good writer, and a good fisherman to boot. But to suggest that your representative was not sufficiently motivated over Waddell is simply wrong. It is doubly wrong to suggest that hearing from properly outraged residents would somehow ameliorate the situation. In fact, I had almost 70 calls and emails from people who took the aforementioned columnist seriously and wanted action, or from folks who were confused at my apparent turnaround. Bad advice is easy to give, but it cost me a lot of time and aggravation to clear up. I would be more upset if I didn’t know that his heart was in the right place. When the conference committee is appointed, you will then have some senators to call.
Finally, I want to express my thanks to friends Jimmy McIntire and Dave Harter for publishing letters to the editor indicating my strong and long-standing support for Waddell. Jimmy is a vocal and well-informed advocate for our waters and Dave is the president of the Hilton Head Sportfishing Club as well as past chairman of the board of Friends of the Rivers.
A note to my good friend, Karen Heitman of Sun City: Last week, Ways and Means had its first-ever hearing on the South Carolina Fair Tax. When you finally get finished in the garden, pop the cork on that bubbly.
This is the time, late in session, where we in the House have to hash out several matters with our friends over in the Senate. Like last year, we may end with an extended stay in Columbia to get things squared away. One of those unresolved matters, at the time of this writing, has to do with the renovation funding for the Waddell Mariculture Center in Greater Bluffton. This legislator was instrumental in assessing the needs at Waddell, which are extensive, as well as negotiating with my colleagues on Ways and Means to determine the lowest prudent appropriation where these needs could be met.
This is by no means an extravagant renovation. It has more to do with keeping the ceiling from falling on staff or visitors or making sure we don’t lose valuable research or a million cobia fry because of the failure of an ancient pump. It was a disappointment when the Senate version of the budget did not include those absolutely essential dollars to support the viability of this high performing state asset. It will go to conference committee and get sorted out. I am guardedly optimistic but the workings of the Senate are often hard to fathom.
Constant readers of this column know that Waddell has been a project of mine for over a decade. We have cobbled together funding from various sources over the years to keep Al Stokes and his crew in business. This is important because what they do is one of the key economic drivers of our local economy both because it supports fishery-based livelihoods, and because their research helps to protect the local waters from a host of threats. We have managed to get their operational budget line-item status, but the physical plant is just falling apart. The renovation may mean the difference between continuing to perform their vital mission or scaling back or maybe packing it in. Local folks, including your delegation, realize this is an important challenge that must be met.
Imagine my surprise as a local columnist urged readers to call or write me, or members of the delegation, to express concern over this potential disaster. Now, I know the columnist to be a good fellow, a good writer, and a good fisherman to boot. But to suggest that your representative was not sufficiently motivated over Waddell is simply wrong. It is doubly wrong to suggest that hearing from properly outraged residents would somehow ameliorate the situation. In fact, I had almost 70 calls and emails from people who took the aforementioned columnist seriously and wanted action, or from folks who were confused at my apparent turnaround. Bad advice is easy to give, but it cost me a lot of time and aggravation to clear up. I would be more upset if I didn’t know that his heart was in the right place. When the conference committee is appointed, you will then have some senators to call.
Finally, I want to express my thanks to friends Jimmy McIntire and Dave Harter for publishing letters to the editor indicating my strong and long-standing support for Waddell. Jimmy is a vocal and well-informed advocate for our waters and Dave is the president of the Hilton Head Sportfishing Club as well as past chairman of the board of Friends of the Rivers.
A note to my good friend, Karen Heitman of Sun City: Last week, Ways and Means had its first-ever hearing on the South Carolina Fair Tax. When you finally get finished in the garden, pop the cork on that bubbly.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
From the House
Bluffton Today
My trip to Washington was productive but a little exhausting. I had good conversations with folks that we will need on our team when the infrastructure push starts in earnest in a year or so. Also, it is necessary to make sure one’s relationships up and down the food chain are attended to. I try to be up on what the counties and municipalities are working on as well as seeing how things are holding up at the federal level. Roads and bridges are not only an absolute necessity for us in South Carolina, but are a huge concern across the nation. It may also provide our best opportunity to return to some level of bipartisan productivity in the foreseeable future.
We had a good group of visitors up at the statehouse after the furlough. My good friend, Joe Fragale, a member of the SC Human Rights Commission, was in for a visit. I know I probably talk about Joe too much, but he is such a good example of an engaged, informed citizen who really makes a difference. Joe is a good conservative Republican, but you always know his thinking is about good governance, not hyper-partisanship.
We also had the Sun City Government Affairs Committee, including a couple of neighborhood representatives, up for a day. This is a group of very active, knowledgeable residents who represent 18,000 or so of your neighbors in Greater Bluffton. You may remember back when we were getting started with the golf cart legislation, and there were some folks in the Senate who were sitting on the bill for reasons that were none too persuasive. It was the Sun City Government Affairs Committee and a crowd of folks from Daufuskie who wrote letters, make calls and paid courtesy visits to the lawmakers in question. It was an effective operation that has almost passed into legend around Columbia. It’s one of those things that I bring up only when it’s important. Don’t want to play that ace too often.
Having said that, we may have to deal the cards again if we don’t get some movement on this archaic law, proscribing games and alcohol in the same place. It is just not right for a small group of Upstate Representatives and Senators to impose these silly moral strictures on folks who don’t follow their particular brand of morality. It is even more egregious as these are the same moralists that are always carping about getting the government off their backs, when they seem to have no problem in having that same government enforcing long out-of-date laws on people engaged in innocent entertainments. Playing checkers and having a beer is not a threat to the republic.
This may seem like a trivial waste of time, but to me it’s a big deal to give up even a small amount of personal freedom to appease and indulge the silliness of these self-appointed arbiters of the state’s morality. If I am on the wrong track, please send me an email and explain the error in my thinking.
Every year as the session winds down, we in the Beaufort/Jasper Delegation have to maintain high vigilance as to what comes over from the Senate. There are always unpleasant surprises, and this year seems to be no exception. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fund has been bled, and the carefully structured Waddell renovation funding is in jeopardy.
Incidentally, if you are curious why the Waddell Center is in the column so often, please call my friend Al Stokes and arrange a tour of the facility. You will then probably be curious why we don’t talk about it more often.
My trip to Washington was productive but a little exhausting. I had good conversations with folks that we will need on our team when the infrastructure push starts in earnest in a year or so. Also, it is necessary to make sure one’s relationships up and down the food chain are attended to. I try to be up on what the counties and municipalities are working on as well as seeing how things are holding up at the federal level. Roads and bridges are not only an absolute necessity for us in South Carolina, but are a huge concern across the nation. It may also provide our best opportunity to return to some level of bipartisan productivity in the foreseeable future.
We had a good group of visitors up at the statehouse after the furlough. My good friend, Joe Fragale, a member of the SC Human Rights Commission, was in for a visit. I know I probably talk about Joe too much, but he is such a good example of an engaged, informed citizen who really makes a difference. Joe is a good conservative Republican, but you always know his thinking is about good governance, not hyper-partisanship.
We also had the Sun City Government Affairs Committee, including a couple of neighborhood representatives, up for a day. This is a group of very active, knowledgeable residents who represent 18,000 or so of your neighbors in Greater Bluffton. You may remember back when we were getting started with the golf cart legislation, and there were some folks in the Senate who were sitting on the bill for reasons that were none too persuasive. It was the Sun City Government Affairs Committee and a crowd of folks from Daufuskie who wrote letters, make calls and paid courtesy visits to the lawmakers in question. It was an effective operation that has almost passed into legend around Columbia. It’s one of those things that I bring up only when it’s important. Don’t want to play that ace too often.
Having said that, we may have to deal the cards again if we don’t get some movement on this archaic law, proscribing games and alcohol in the same place. It is just not right for a small group of Upstate Representatives and Senators to impose these silly moral strictures on folks who don’t follow their particular brand of morality. It is even more egregious as these are the same moralists that are always carping about getting the government off their backs, when they seem to have no problem in having that same government enforcing long out-of-date laws on people engaged in innocent entertainments. Playing checkers and having a beer is not a threat to the republic.
This may seem like a trivial waste of time, but to me it’s a big deal to give up even a small amount of personal freedom to appease and indulge the silliness of these self-appointed arbiters of the state’s morality. If I am on the wrong track, please send me an email and explain the error in my thinking.
Every year as the session winds down, we in the Beaufort/Jasper Delegation have to maintain high vigilance as to what comes over from the Senate. There are always unpleasant surprises, and this year seems to be no exception. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fund has been bled, and the carefully structured Waddell renovation funding is in jeopardy.
Incidentally, if you are curious why the Waddell Center is in the column so often, please call my friend Al Stokes and arrange a tour of the facility. You will then probably be curious why we don’t talk about it more often.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
From the House
Bluffton Today
As usual, I am grateful for all the calls and emails about last week’s column. The overwhelming majority of the comments were positive, with many folks wanting to add their own take as to why Bluffton has evolved into the vibrant little town it has become. There were a few of the usual suspects who cannot seem to help themselves and complain and focus on the negative. They are well within their rights to do so and I appreciate the fact that they make the effort, although I feel kind of bad for folks who seem to have difficulty in seeing the good because they are focused exclusively on the not-so-good.
We are fortunate that so many of our District 118 people are a little older and more experienced. They may have lived in areas where things were done differently, oftentimes more efficiently, and I am thankful they are willing to share that knowledge. The very best complaints are those that define a problem and then offer possible solutions to the problem. Much of what we have done regarding the enhanced utilization of golf carts started with some Sun City folks “just trying to make things better.” Positive complaining gets results, negative—not so much.
One of the things we have been getting calls on is the situation with games and liquor. As weird as it may seem, if you play games in your home, be it mahjong, rummy, tile, monopoly, or whatever, and you have a drink, you are technically in violation of SC law. There is also a situation where if your church or social club or civic group wants to have a raffle to raise funds for even a very good cause, at this moment, it is illegal. We have passed a measure to place on the ballot in the next general election, a change to the SC constitution to allow non-profits a certain number of raffles or gaming type fundraisers per year.
The problem is there is a cultural distinction between the coastal areas of our state and large parts of the upstate when it comes to any kind of games or any kind of alcohol. There is an upstate contingent that is reflexively opposed to any games, be it checkers or old maid, and any kind of alcohol, regardless of circumstance. From an electoral standpoint, the population in the upstate is more concentrated and the legislative calculus is always complex and frustrating. We are slowly chipping away at the 19th century, but it is a tough job.
We were on furlough last week, but my time off was spent in Washington, D.C., looking for road dollars and hoping to repatriate some of the tourism dollars we send to our federal friends. I had good conversations with my old friend from Laurens County, Congressman Jeff Duncan, as well as my friend from the SC House, the new Senator Tim Scott. They were helpful and sympathetic. We all come from business backgrounds and recognize the fact that I-95 and parts of I-26 are literally falling apart, hurting our business prospects in so many ways, not to mention making our visitors run the gauntlet to get to our pristine beaches and excellent resorts.
I have broached the infrastructure issue in this space a number of times in preparation for the big push next session. Roads and bridges in our state have become a choke point restraining our economic future. There has to be some federal participation, but the bulk of the burden is going to fall on you and me. If we don’t address this issue with mature seriousness, and soon, we will continue to fall behind our regional competitors, with consequences that will make all our other challenges pale by comparison.
As usual, I am grateful for all the calls and emails about last week’s column. The overwhelming majority of the comments were positive, with many folks wanting to add their own take as to why Bluffton has evolved into the vibrant little town it has become. There were a few of the usual suspects who cannot seem to help themselves and complain and focus on the negative. They are well within their rights to do so and I appreciate the fact that they make the effort, although I feel kind of bad for folks who seem to have difficulty in seeing the good because they are focused exclusively on the not-so-good.
We are fortunate that so many of our District 118 people are a little older and more experienced. They may have lived in areas where things were done differently, oftentimes more efficiently, and I am thankful they are willing to share that knowledge. The very best complaints are those that define a problem and then offer possible solutions to the problem. Much of what we have done regarding the enhanced utilization of golf carts started with some Sun City folks “just trying to make things better.” Positive complaining gets results, negative—not so much.
One of the things we have been getting calls on is the situation with games and liquor. As weird as it may seem, if you play games in your home, be it mahjong, rummy, tile, monopoly, or whatever, and you have a drink, you are technically in violation of SC law. There is also a situation where if your church or social club or civic group wants to have a raffle to raise funds for even a very good cause, at this moment, it is illegal. We have passed a measure to place on the ballot in the next general election, a change to the SC constitution to allow non-profits a certain number of raffles or gaming type fundraisers per year.
The problem is there is a cultural distinction between the coastal areas of our state and large parts of the upstate when it comes to any kind of games or any kind of alcohol. There is an upstate contingent that is reflexively opposed to any games, be it checkers or old maid, and any kind of alcohol, regardless of circumstance. From an electoral standpoint, the population in the upstate is more concentrated and the legislative calculus is always complex and frustrating. We are slowly chipping away at the 19th century, but it is a tough job.
We were on furlough last week, but my time off was spent in Washington, D.C., looking for road dollars and hoping to repatriate some of the tourism dollars we send to our federal friends. I had good conversations with my old friend from Laurens County, Congressman Jeff Duncan, as well as my friend from the SC House, the new Senator Tim Scott. They were helpful and sympathetic. We all come from business backgrounds and recognize the fact that I-95 and parts of I-26 are literally falling apart, hurting our business prospects in so many ways, not to mention making our visitors run the gauntlet to get to our pristine beaches and excellent resorts.
I have broached the infrastructure issue in this space a number of times in preparation for the big push next session. Roads and bridges in our state have become a choke point restraining our economic future. There has to be some federal participation, but the bulk of the burden is going to fall on you and me. If we don’t address this issue with mature seriousness, and soon, we will continue to fall behind our regional competitors, with consequences that will make all our other challenges pale by comparison.
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