“Congaree Fever”
June 3, 2008 | 5 Comments
Last week I heard a term I had not heard before in my four years in office - Congaree Fever.
I can’t remember what colleague mentioned it from the House floor but I do remember it was in reference to a former colleague who had shared the term and that he had “caught it”. He realized it only after he lost his election.
He shared that he had forgotten whose support and votes matter most. Whose voice he was sent to be in Columbia. Who he was representing.
It wasn’t supposed to be the other 123 House members. It was his district, his people, his state.
Congaree Fever is said to occur when elected officials worry about what their colleagues in Columbia (where the Congaree River flows) think of them. Congaree Fever is when those officials look to gain the support of their colleagues and their colleagues’ votes at a later date instead of remembering and thinking of the people who sent them to Columbia in the first place.
The term is also called “waiting on the Blatt precinct” to come in (to re-elect you to office). You see, the Blatt Building is where the House members’ offices are located and - as most people know - each district in the state has several voting precincts; but none of those are in the Blatt Building. Members with Congaree Fever are always waiting on that Blatt precinct votes to come in on election night…but back home, when the people vote….the Blatt precinct has never and will never come.
Today, I shared similar thoughts with some colleagues. You see, many of us feel we were sent to represent what our constituents back home - as well as the majority of our state, in our opinion - believe and want.
Today it was vetoes and today I sustained more than I overrode. Several others did as well.
Were we “carrying the Governor’s water”? No. If we had sustained all of them, one might could make that argument. But are we viewed as siding with the Governor over our colleagues? Yes.
The water we carry is from home. Our constituents. The voters we represent.
If you ask most people in the state, they would agree officials are spending too much and/or they’re not disclosing where the money’s going. A reporter picked up on something earlier this week that shows apparently there still isn’t full disclosure where your tax dollars are going.
It’s one thing to argue whether officials spend too much or not. It’s an entirely different argument when the details of how/where that money is being spent aren’t even shared with the public.
Were our decisions personal? No. Where they taken that way by the representatives who would have rather us voted another way? For some - yes.
One member (and if that member is reading, you asked me to put you in the blog but I never disclose specific names) asked me if I had ever read the book “How to Make Friends”. As I told him, no, I haven’t.
And if that book tells me to catch Congaree Fever, to vote against what I hear from my constituents, to fold under peer-pressure, to “go along to get along”, to make people happy so they’ll “like me”…well then, I don’t want to read it. Apparently, there are others in the body as well that don’t want to read it either.
I saw some people today take tough stands today. I’ve seen it before. Many damaged relationships with colleagues but many stood by the belief that we are to vote our conscience, vote as our constituents wish/ask (when appropriate) and vote how we think the state as a whole would benefit.
One colleague reminded us “the vetoes total only $70 million out of a $7 billion budget (one percent)”. Yes, that’s true….but the votes have been/should be and are no different when it’s more or less money.
At least we sustained roughly 20% today. That’s a start.
I just wonder whether this epidemic named Congaree Fever will ever be cured.
So much for Earmark Reform…
June 2, 2008 | 2 Comments
Are you kidding me? A colleague sent me this from the The Post and Courier. This really makes me wonder about the vetoes we are taking up tomorrow.
Governor Sanford found what he thought were 69 items we could do without this year. Just think what he DIDN’T find!
I’ve often heard that “people in the know” have ways to hide things that can never be found but with this year being the “Year of Disclosure” (Earmark Reform, Campaign Finance Reports online), I thought we had stopped all this.
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Schools act as money funnels
By Diane Knich
The Post and Courier
Sunday, June 1, 2008
South Carolina legislators are using some of the state’s public universities as funnels, quietly channeling nearly $2 million in tax dollars to their favorite charities during the past three years, a Post and Courier investigation found.
Some legislators sent this money to nonprofit groups with which they have direct ties. For instance, state Rep. David Mack, D-North Charleston, has sent $700,000 through South Carolina State University to a Columbia-based nonprofit organization where he works and receives money.
But it was far from an isolated case. The newspaper’s analysis found that legislators funneled money through most of the state’s major public institutions of higher learning.
The practice raises questions about conflicts of interest and how legislators distribute public money.
“It looks like a way to camouflage money to do something they can’t do or don’t want to do directly, something that might be politically embarrassing,” said John Crangle, director of the government watchdog group Common Cause South Carolina.
Here’s how it works: State legislators take money from the state budget and tuck it into universities’ state appropriations — sometimes without the schools’ prior knowledge. The universities then hand over that money to the charities.
The Post and Courier requested information, under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, from seven of the state’s largest public universities about money legislators had them pass through their budgets to charity groups over the past five years. Legislators went through all of the schools except the College of Charleston and The Citadel to funnel tax dollars.
State politicians for years have used budget mechanisms to send tax dollars to pet projects. But the amounts tend to be higher for money funneled through universities.
In Mack’s case, he sent $300,000 to S.C. State in the 2006-07 school year and asked the university to send the money to a Columbia-based nonprofit organization called the Palmetto Center for Advocacy. The center conducts health education programs statewide, especially obesity prevention programs.
Mack sent the group another $400,000 through S.C. State in the 2007-08 school year.
Anastasia Shaw, deputy director for Palmetto Center for Advocacy, said the $700,000 from the state is the only money the group has brought in so far. But, she said, the center is “looking to diversify funding.”
According to the group’s Web site, Mack is employed as its “outreach director.” In a telephone interview, Mack said he now does consulting work for the group and previously was the organization’s interim director. He also said he is paid for all of his work with the center but declined to say how much.
By law, nonprofits must allow the public to view tax forms, which include salaries of directors. But the center is relatively new, so its tax records are not yet publicly available.
When asked why he chose to send the money through the university instead of going through the state’s competitive grants program, Mack said, “We just chose that way.” Read more
Contact our County Councilman: Road Tax (Yes? No?)
June 1, 2008 | 5 Comments
I received the following email from our County Councilman, Bill Malinowski, this week and I wanted to share with you. Please take the time to let him know your thoughts and opinions.
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Richland County Council must decide if a one percent tax should be put on the November ballot for voters to decide. This one percent tax would be with us for 8 years and raise $521.48 million for transportation to include:
1. Bicycle, Greenways and Pedestrian Modes ($67.5 million)
2. Vehicular Traffic Improvements/Roads ($303.5 million)
3. Public Transit and Transit-Oriented Development. ($185 million)
The actual analysis was done for a 25 year plan and this would only be the first phase of three if voters continue to keep it in place.
I asked the question at council during the work session this week, “How many miles of dirt roads will be paved in Richland County with the $15 million set aside for that project?” No one could give me an answer, but they could give me exactly how many miles of bike paths, foot paths and sidewalks would be done.
There is $42 million slated for our District 1 during the 8 years. The projects that would consume those funds would be widening of Rte. 176 from Royal Tower in Irmo to the Peak interchange at I-26, a restructuring of the Coogler/Kennerly Road intersection at Ascot and additional turn lanes and road work at Broad River/Kennerly and Kinley. The Rte 176 construction would create 5 lanes, bike paths and sidewalks the entire length. Plus whatever small part of the dirt road paving we may get.
I would like to have as much input as possible from all constituents in order to determine if we should put this matter on the ballot or not.
Please contact as many people as possible and provide me with input, or have them contact me as soon as possible.
Thank you for your assistance and input in this matter.
Bill Malinowski
malinowski@rcgov.us
COMMUNITY UPDATE: June 2008
June 1, 2008 | 2 Comments
Here’s this month’s regular update to keep you informed of what’s going on in the State House and in our community!
If you have events you’d like me to share on the site, please email me at BallentineN@scstatehouse.net and be sure to put the word CONSTITUENT in the subject line so that I can reply to your email before the hundreds of others I receive daily.
STATEHOUSE
This week we’re in the last three days of our current two-year legislative session. It’s sure to be filled with activity as we’ll continue with the Governor’s Vetoes (Budget and Cost of Living Adjustment for State Retirement System, among others. FYI, I will override the COLA veto.) and will surely see several bills fight to become law this week or else die and start the process again next January.
This time of year everyone is generally in a defensive mode to stop things that might otherwise “slide by” because of the rush of our last week. Some bills may slide by but others (rightly or wrongly) might get stopped just because of members not having sufficient time to know and understand how the other body (House/Senate) amended the bill in the last days/hours of session.
If you have any legislation important to you, please let me know! At this point if that bill is not listed on the calendar of the House/Senate and already passed by the other body, it has no chance of becoming law.
Later this month, I plan to blog about Major Legislation passed this year.
*** QUESTION: What is one issue you wanted to see passed, reformed, or changed this year that the General Assembly/Governor did not address? ***
YOUR MONEY
Last Thursday I was pleasantly surprised as I witnessed a first in my four years of service. The House was looking for ways to save money for taxpayers and actually sustained 3 of 3 budget vetoes! But then, something happened…
“Veto week” is always tough on me and other fiscal conservatives but it appears this year we have some new folks joining the cause. Could it be because some have primary elections on June 10? Could it be because of the November elections?Who knows? I’m just glad to see us stop what can often be called pork or special projects.
Let me be clear, if state tax dollars are going to be used for a program, I want to be sure the STATE benefits - not just one particular county/town/organization. Presently, I plan to sustain a large majority of vetoes but am looking to override the S-CHIP (children insurance) and maybe an Indigent Defense Fund, Rural Dentists Veto, and a small handful of others. Read more