NONE OF US WILL have any room to complain that legislators didn’t earn their pay this year if they manage to deal effectively with the state’s most pressing issues — revamping our tax code, overhauling our governmental structure and reforming the budgeting process.

But several other matters that will come before them this year — many of which they have failed for years to effectively deal with — also deserve attention. In the next five months, legislators would do well to:

• Close loopholes that allow drunken drivers to convince jurors that it’s OK to drive with a high concentration of alcohol as long as they don’t seem drunk — even though the law clearly says doing so is illegal.

• Scale back or eliminate the super-sized subsidy the public is forced to give to legislators’ retirement fund — a subsidy that is more than four times as generous as the one that goes to state employees.

• Require an outside agency to investigate whenever a police chase ends in a collision, and whenever any employee of a police agency is involved in a wreck.

• Require older drivers to pass road tests for license renewal, and restrict or prohibit driving for some with physical or mental impairments.

• Close the loophole that allows able-bodied drivers to borrow someone else’s handicapped placard and park in handicapped spaces.

• Write a definition of “prepared meals” that are subject to local sales taxes, so that each local government that collects the “hospitality” tax doesn’t write a different (and often bizarre and over-reaching) definition.

• Repeal the law that allows city governments to call off the election and declare a winner when only one candidate files and no one mounts a write-in campaign.

• Allow the Highway Patrol to charge for providing special traffic control for college football games and other money-making events.

• Create an early release/probationary system for non-violent offenders to operate outside the court system.

• Allow police to enforce the state’s seat belt law, by passing a primary enforcement law so they can write tickets even when no additional law has been violated.

• Establish a statewide voting system, with a single type of voting equipment, and spell out such things as when recounts will be ordered, what standards will be used for them and what actions will be taken before the ballots are cast to reduce the chance of mistakes.

• Give county councils control of all local boards — many of which are controlled by state legislators — and a workable way to dismantle special purpose districts, which dilute their authority and increase costs.

• Prohibit state agencies from spending public money to lobby the Legislature.

• Overhaul the Public Service Commission, to make sure it is not too cozy with the utilities it is supposed to regulate. This should include imposing education requirements for commissioners and separating their job — as judges — from the job of the staff, which is supposed to present the state’s case in regulatory matters.

• Revamp our economic development incentive system to make sure it actually improves communities. Offer tax breaks only to companies that provide well-paying jobs, require counties to publish easy-to-understand lists of tax agreements, and make counties share fees paid in lieu of property taxes with schools.

• Eliminate the law that requires third-party candidates to file for election at the same time as candidates from the major parties. Since the state does not have to run primaries for these parties, their candidates should have as long as independent candidates to declare.

• Require that all ethics complaints against public officials and candidates be made public after the targets have a chance to respond, and publicize the outcomes.

• Require state officials to review the environmental-law compliance records in other states of companies seeking environmental permits or economic incentives in South Carolina. Restrict or prohibit permits and incentives for those with bad track records.

• Fight accidental killings by holding parents criminally responsible if children use their unlocked guns to kill or injure others. This would give adults more incentive to use trigger locks or safe storage.

• Limit the use of state funds for highways, sewer projects and other infrastructure where they will contribute to suburban sprawl.

• Eliminate the law that invites judge- and jury-shopping by allowing plaintiffs to file a lawsuit in any county where the defendant does any business.

• Repeal the minibottle law, which requires bars and restaurants to sell drinks that are 70 percent (or more) stronger than those served in all other states.

• Make it illegal for minors to purchase, possess or smoke cigarettes.

• Eliminate the TERI retirement program, which allows older state employees to draw extra benefits, without their employers having any say.