COLUMBIA, S.C. - Gov. Mark Sanford's agenda to overhaul government got a huge boost in the Senate on Thursday - 1,900 pages of legislation standing more than a foot tall addressing what he wants.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, a Sanford ally in restructuring efforts, balanced the massive bill on the Senate lectern Thursday, telling senators the legislation would make government more effective.

"Hopefully, in partnership with the executive branch, we can continue to fine tune government and make it better," McConnell said.

Sanford was quick with praise, commending senators in a prepared statement "for taking the lead on this issue and for having the courage to support such groundbreaking change."

Sources close to Sanford said the bills contained nearly every element of reorganizing government that he wanted.

The legislation gives the governor authority to appoint chiefs at four new agencies created after merging dozens of smaller ones. Governors would also appoint five people now elected to statewide offices to oversee agriculture, education, the National Guard and state financial operations.

McConnell hopes the legislation will make agencies more accountable to the Legislature. While agencies regularly file reports on how they spend money, McConnell said they don't show how they achieve what laws require them to do.

It's not a partisan issue, McConnell said. "It's a question for our people. How do we do things better? And it's in that spirit that we offer up this bill," McConnell said before hefting the two huge bills to the clerk's desk.

McConnell had 18 co-sponsors out of 45 sitting senators. Among the supporters are skeptics, such as Senate Minority Leader John Land, D-Manning, and Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Clearwater, both veterans of the last state restructuring effort ten years ago.

"I do think it is ... a launching pad to get this a closer look," Moore said. "We haven't saved money as result of the 1993 restructuring," though benefits don't all show up in dollars, he said.

Others were more enthusiastic.

"This is the beginning of smart government in this state," said Sen. Jim Ritchie, R-Spartanburg. He sees a more agile, responsive and accountable government emerging from the process.

McConnell's Judiciary Committee began work on the bills in August and used recommendations from Sanford's Commission on Management, Accountability and Performance, released in September.

Sanford's budget last week called for reorganizing several agencies. For instance, Sanford wanted the Forestry Commission, parts of the Department of Health and Environmental Control and Natural Resources Department rolled into a new cabinet-level Department of Environment and Natural Resources. McConnell's legislation calls for the same thing.

The bills goes further than the MAP commission's recommendations in eliminating elections for some statewide officeholders. The commission recommended ending election of the education superintendent and adjutant general, and moving the secretary of state's responsibilities to the Revenue Department.

McConnell's legislation leaves elections only for a joint ticket of governor and lieutenant governor. The treasurer and attorney general also would be elected.

But voters would have to approve eliminating elections for adjutant general, agriculture commissioner, education superintendent, comptroller general and secretary of state. Voters also would have to eliminate the lieutenant governor as a standalone office.

Doing away with elections for the nation's only elected National Guard leader brought immediate criticism from Sen. John Hawkins, a Spartanburg Republican and Army Guard major. Many are deployed in Iraq "protecting our freedom," Hawkins said, "while we sit here ... in the middle of the war, stripping away ultimately their right to vote on their adjutant general," Hawkins said. The legislation is a "slap in the face" for them, he said.

McConnell hopes guard members, like other South Carolinians, would be able to vote on the issues in November. "There's no effort here to shortchange anyone," McConnell said.

ON THE NET

Senate bills 840 and 841 on the Legislature's Internet site: http://www.scstatehouse.net/