I hate to follow up a post about Young Life with this type of post but folks, I’m for transparency and I wanted y’all to know what’s going on in government.

This time locally – with Richland County.

Many would never know that our community, once again, has NO representation on the Richland County Recreation Commission if I didn’t tell you. But I’m telling you and I’m telling you how it happened.

For years before I was elected, we had no representation but I was fortunate after y’all sent me here to work with the delegation (10 Democrats, 5 Republicans) and get an Irmo citizen elected a few years back. I thank my Richland House and Senate members for understanding our area had long been underepresented on the commission and they supported my nomination.

Unforunately, our commisioner’s stint was a short one as he was unceremoniously removed by the ranking Senator on our delegation because our commissioner supposedly “wasn’t voting correctly” (what I was told). You may recall (or may not) how this Recreation Commission is the pet-project for this ranking Senator and how that Senator is very much involved in what goes on.

My philosophy has been that we should empower the individuals we appoint instead of micro-managing them. If you’re SO interested in the day-to-day operations and votes, then you should run for the position yourself but don’t be a puppet-master. [Read more...]

I always tell folks that when I was growing up I had a drug problem.

My mom drug me to church on Wednesday nights, Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and every chance she could. That’s the kind of drug problem we need in society today, wouldn’t you agree?

Last night, I was fortunate to be invited by Bill and Teresa McAfee to attend a Celebration Event in Lexington for Young Life – Lake Murray .

It was a great event and I was excited to see members of Young Life from Irmo High School and Lexington High School share what Young Life has meant to them and how their lives have been changed by having a relationship with God.

The event will hopefully springboard the efforts to move Young Life to the Dutch Fork and Chapin schools within two years.

Last night also gave me the chance to see folks I went to high school with and church with when we were growing up in Taylors, SC. Caroline Claudepierre (now Buck) and Donna Mayfield (now Currey). I also saw one of my cousins and her husband, Sally and Vance Lipe.

If you don’t know about Young Life, you can read a letter from last year by the Columbia Area Director, Jason Blackwell. Oh, he’s a former member of our community and a product of our school district!

Members of the Irmo Committee are Warren and Sara Bazemore, Chris and Caroline Buck, Todd and Donna Currey, Jay and Tonya Hayes, Susan Kirby, Mark Lowell, Bill and Teresa McAfee, Jane Roberts, Bill and Caroline Robinson. Members of the Lexington Committee are Charles and Leslie Bumgardner, Stephanie Devaney, Quin Johnson, Marcus and Ann Miller, Darby Reeves, Butch Scott, Billy and Crystal Wallace.

To find out how your child can get involved or to offer your support (prayers, financial, time), please visit the link here. [Read more...]

By now, you’ve seen that the “blogsphere” has taken over politics (national/state) and is becoming a “main stream” way for folks to stay informed.

There’s one young man, Jonathan Williams – a student at USC, who can be found roaming the halls of state government and reporting in “layman terms” for followers of his TWO BLOGS: Blatant Reality and SC Statehouse Blog.

While many of the popular blogs are accused of having agendas, Jonathan is simply a college-student who cares about what’s going on.

I’ve spoken with Jonathan several times during the past year but on Friday, I agreed to a video interview about the budget cuts just approved by the House and Senate this week.

The 7 minute, un-edited clip can be seen here.

When it comes to letters and calls from the community (relating to our roads) it’s THIS intersection that I hear about the most! Today I took the picture above but I could’ve posted photos from various accidents over the past year, or the large number of cars in the morning/afternoon for school drop-off/pick-up, etc.

Instead just a normal photo from the Coogler Road side.

If you’re not familiar with this location, you might not be able to notice there’s a curve (blind?) right before the intersection. Inevitably someone pulling out doesn’t see the traffic coming or they either underestimate the speed at which the cars are traveling. The result? Not good. A couple of accidents and many, many near-misses.

Since I’ve been elected, we’ve seen many road improvements in our community . I’ve been pleased with the Department of Transportation and their attention to our needs and I again say “thank you” to the Department and Thad Brunson (Administrator, SCDOT Engineering District 1) in particular.

At this intersection, Senator Courson and I have pushed for (and received) improvements with SEVERAL signs placed as you approach the intersection in either location. The intent is to draw people’s attention to the dangerous conditions. These signs include the usual warning signs as well as another set of flashing signals that were installed. We’ve also worked with Richland County Sheriff’s Department and had patrols monitor for speeders. Still, it appears accidents and congestion continue to happen.

So what’s next?

Serving on a few of the committees I have, I’ve learned that roads and signals cost money – LOTS of money! Being in state government, I’ve also seen how we have yet to improve funding for our infrastructure and, of course, I know how money is just not there for the improvements we need (for the state as a whole). Richland County Council even considered a sales-tax dedicated specifically for roads but that proposal was defeated.

To get the money, there’s two things that can happen at the state level. The gax tax can go up. (Note: No, thank you!) or we can dedicate money in the budget specifically for roads. The latter is exactly what the House tried to do last year when we passed a bill to take the sales tax on cars and dedicate that to road improvements. Unfortunately, the bill didn’t get out of the Senate.

To talk more specifically about this intersection….the cost just to put in turn lanes needed for a traffic signal runs roughly $900,000.

I’ve even thought about a traffic-circle (as others have thought, as well). We run into the same thing though…costs. Still runs about $900,000 PLUS the SCDOT has to get right-of-way from the property owners at the corners because more space is needed when you do a traffic-circle.

The cheapest way to help would be a Four-Way Stop put at the intersection. That is currently what we are pursuing but I’m not sure what the SCDOT traffic studies will tell us. While my gut and my eyes tell me we have to do more, the intersection still doesn’t meet the criteria for a traffic signal, traffic cirlce, or four-way stop.

Stay tuned for more details within the next two weeks…

No, this isn’t a NRA / Charlton Heston post tonight.

Instead, it’s a Paul Harvey “rest-of-the-story” post about a campaign going on in Aiken County. While this instance is specifically one Senate race in SC, it can pretty much sum up everything about political races in South Carolina from dog-catcher to President.

Palmetto State consultants are good at making Eagle Scouts look like crack-addicts.

They can even do it by using “the facts” but…out of context and in the worst possible light. The “good” ones are so “good” they actually can defend their smears by simply say “it’s all a matter of public record.”

The sad part is unless you follow this stuff closesly OR an official has tons of money to spend on fixing the damage by getting “the rest of the story” out, the smears usually stick in the mind of voters.

In this instance, we’re talking religion and we’re talking about “The Ten Commandments Bill” which passed last year but not without some shenanigans.

Here’s hoping this latest distortion won’t stick because Shane Massey seems to be a good guy who is “shaking things up in Columbia”.

This latest distortion reminds me of two things my pastor told me when I sought his counsel about running for public office:

1) God doesn’t put this on many people’s hearts; you should listen.
2) Politics ain’t Sunday School.

Boy was he right!

The General Assembly reconvened today at noon and quickly adjourned for the day after the procedural “reading of the recisison bill” across the desk.

As mentioned before , we’re looking at roughly a HALF A BILLION dollars in budget cuts. As, I’ve also shared before, we’re not the only state facing these tough decisions.

To put things in perspective (for example only), we would have had to zero-out 20+ agencies budgets completely to accomplish that if we didn’t do targeted cuts to every agency. That would include completely cutting all USC satellite campuses, Winthrop, Francis Marion, College of Charleston (or is it Charleston University). Only the technical schools, USC, Clemson, and MUSC would have survived.

We’re also actually cutting 7% instead of 6% in order to hopefully spare additional cuts later.

It’s important to know that in about 60 days, the new session begins in Columbia so we’ll be back soon enough to address the budget again – if needed.

State law requires the reading of the appropriations act on three separate days and today was the first reading. Here’s a look at a possible schedule so that targeted budget cuts can happen before the default goes back to the 3% across-the-board cuts the Budget and Control Board approved recently.

Monday: House gives first reading

Tuesday: House reconvenes at 9:30 a.m. for second reading (with unanimous consent for third reading on Wednesday, we can go home and save the taxpayers a little money by not having to stick around until Wednesday. Of course, many of us are not taking any pay this week).

Wednesday: House gives third reading and Senate then gives first reading

Thursday: Senate gives second reading

Friday: Senate gives third reading (IF there are any Senate amendments, the House then comes back Friday to take those up as well).

Assuming the House/Senate agree this week, the changes go to the Governor who will have until midnight the following Thursday to either (a) sign the bill (b) veto the entire bill (c) line-item veto or (d) let become law without his signature.

Should the General Assembly need to address any vetos, we’d come back October 31st to take those up. (Yes, I can see the mailers going out now against incumbents….Halloween, Trick or Treat, etc).

In addition to the budget cuts, we also will be taking up the veto on the “DNA Bill”. The Senate has it first (today) and, if they override the veto, the House will take it up Tuesday. One thing to note: that bill would cost a few million dollars. IF we’re going to vote to override it, look for us to put language in the budget bill that says basically “if no funding, no action on the bill.”

I just left the Ways and Means Committee meeting and wanted to get this out to you. The committee unanimously passed the changes that will be presented to the full House next Monday when we return at noon for an “emergency session” to deal with almost a HALF A BILLION DOLLARS in budget cuts due to, among a few things, the struggling economy.

Some quick highlights as I’m hoping to get back to my paying job this afternoon.

SC is not alone in this type of revenue shortfall. California ($22 Billion), Florida ($5 Billion) and Georgia ($1.8 Billion) are just a few of the states facing shortfalls.

If there were any “winners” today they were Education (particularily school buses who picked up almost $20M for fuel), Medicaid, and the Department of Corrections.

Losers? Several. Agency cuts in the plan range from 3.6% (Dept of Ed) to 15.8% (Dept of Natural Resources).

The “say what?” moment occurred when a member of the committee mentioned the idea of raising taxes or revisiting the tax breaks we passed in recent years.

One thing I’m pleased to report is that FINALLY the Competitive Grant Program will be “zeroed out” with those millions going to the Department of Corrections.

In addition to the full Ways and Means Committee (which even had retiring Representatives Bill Cotty and Adam Taylor report for duty today), the following House members were in attendance: Haley, Huggins, Toole, Frye, Glenn Hamiton (also retiring), Clemmons, Thompson and Danning.

Stay tuned….the General Assembly reports back Monday at noon.

For those that don’t surf the net as much as I do, here’s something I found in the Lancaster News from a colleague of mine. I found it refreshing to read in such a “partisan time” like this.

I’m not gonna blame Superintendent Jim Rex for supporting “his team” but I do question why he would “go after” one of the three leading Republican supporters of his “public school choice plan” last session. Is this how you return the favor for someone (Rep. Mick Mulvaney) who took hits from his own party in trying to help do something…anything….different with our educational system?

I”m glad to see that Rep. Ted Pitts (who is running to be the next chairman of our House Education and Public Works Committee) can look past labels and try to work with anyone willing to try to improve how we educate our children.

Vote for statesmen, not partisans

By Ted Pitts

After reading the article,“Dems Push for Change at the Fish Bash,” I surely hope for the sake of public schools in our state that what Superintendent of Education Jim Rex told the crowd is not true and that he becomes an unborn-again “born-again partisan.”

This new partisan approach would be bad for our schools and our state. You see, there are some of us Republicans and Democrats who are committed to working together to improve public education in this state and we need statesmen, not partisans, if we are going to have any luck.

I found this out firsthand last year when Dr. Rex and I worked together on a public school choice bill that was killed in subcommittee.

I caught it from the partisans on my side of the aisle for “carrying the Democrats water.” He caught it from folks on his side of the aisle who don’t want to talk about choice even if it is inside the public school system only.

I was happy to work with Dr. Rex and was thankful that two co-sponsors, Mick Mulvaney and Bill Cotty, stepped forward to help our efforts no matter what heat we received from third party groups and some in our own party.

Some of us look at education policy not through Democrat or Republican glasses, but as South Carolinians trying to create a better system for children.

Republicans and Democrats are going to have to work together if we are going to improve education.

In January the new chairman of the S.C. House Education and Public Works Committee is going to be a Republican.

Republican Sen. John Courson is going to be the chairman of the Senate Education Committee and Dr. Rex, a Democrat, is going to be the state superintendent of education.

So education is depending on a bipartisan approach.

I would ask that you don’t do as Dr. Rex said, “It’s going to have to be a straight Democratic ticket,” and that you continue to take the time to be sure the folks you send to Columbia are statesmen like Mick Mulvaney, Jimmy Neal, Jay Lucas, Wes Hayes and Vincent Sheheen.

I actually can’t think of a region of our state where the voters have done a better job of sending statesmen to Columbia than yours.

Ted Pitts

S.C. House of Representatives

Lexington