There are dual themes in Gov. Mark Sanford's frustration with the Legislature: too much pork and too little concern over reform. Taking piglets to the Statehouse got him some attention on the pork. No one should forget, however, about the lack of action on such reforms as the completion of state government reorganization, a victim of political back scratching.
Unfortunately, this Legislature refused to even allow the voters to decide whether the governor should round out his Cabinet by appointing rather than electing such state officials as superintendent of education, secretary of state, secretary of agriculture and adjutant general. As the governor pointed out in his veto message, they've also even ignored his call for eliminating taxpayer-funded, contract lobbyists for two consecutive years.
In his first year, the governor issued an order prohibiting his Cabinet heads from hiring contract lobbyists. He noted that legislation was introduced last year to apply that ban to all state agencies but that bill "has languished in the House Judiciary Committee ever since. The result of this inaction for the taxpayer has been noticeable --especially in the area of higher education."
State colleges and universities have long been among those employing lobbyists to look out for their interests in Columbia. According to the governor, the weakness of the state's Commission on Higher Education has allowed the lobbyists to make their cases directly to the lawmakers rather than through the CHE. "Though this budget includes our proposed cuts to agencies and higher education institutions for the amount of their contracts with lobbyists, the additional funding allocated to those same institutions clearly spells out the need for higher education reform," the governor wrote the lawmakers. A number of higher education expansions were approved by the lawmakers this year either without the approval or over the objection of the CHE.
The governor gave this example of the problem in his veto message: Seven of the eight higher education institutions that employ taxpayer- funded contract lobbyists received a total of $6.4 million in new money -- an average of more than $900,000 per school.
But, he said, the 20 schools that had no registered lobbyists had their budgets reduced by an average of $650,000 per school. The answer, according to the governor, is two- fold: In addition to banning the contract lobbyists, create a higher education commission with some real teeth.
Here's one way to help accomplish that. When a lawmaker seeking re-election asks you for his or her vote, ask how he or she feels about contract lobbyists in state government. That ought to get the conservation started in the right direction.
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