COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Legislature needs to rethink its role in overseeing state government operations, Judiciary Committee Chairman Glenn McConnell said Wednesday as a Senate panel took up plans to restructure state government.

The panel is handling several bills that would eliminate elections for all but a couple of statewide offices, but McConnell said the committee has to decide how the Legislature will fulfill a constitutional role of overseeing state agencies in a restructured government.

"How do we do it? What should be the mechanism?" McConnell said. "Those are the sorts of things that I thought we needed to start giving some thought to."

He thinks the Legislature should take on the role of a corporate board of directors, but stay out of the day-to-day activities of agencies.

The panel did not discuss more than a dozen bills that called for ending elections for the state's top elected offices, except the governor. Still, Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia, sat in on the hearing and objected to efforts to end elections for the state adjutant general.

Knotts noted the resignation earlier this month of Jim McClain, director of the state Probation and Parole Department, after questions arose about claims on his resume and told the panel he was worried about giving governors the power to appoint adjutant generals.

A governor with no military experience could appoint an inexperienced adjutant general who would be responsible for guiding the South Carolina National Guard in war or disaster, Knotts said. "We shouldn't put our young people in that position," Knotts said.

But there's no apparent rush to move that bill or others to the Senate floor for debate.

"I don't feel compelled to have anything finished by any time - certainly not by January First," said Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Clearwater.

Moore said questions linger about the benefits from the 1993 round of government restructuring, including saving taxpayers money or making government more efficient. As in 1993, restructuring plays out in a tight budget year. Legislators are grappling with $500 million gap between spending demands and projected revenue.

"You don't just restructure and say everything is going to be fine," Moore said. "If you don't fund state government, you're going to get what you deserve and get what you pay for."

Moore has been pushing plans to raise the state's sales tax to restore money cut from critical state services. "The rubber is going to hit the road in how we fund whatever we restructure or don't restructure," he said.

Before the Legislature adjourned in June, McConnell said restructuring could take three years to reach voters. Eliminating elected officers would require a constitutional change, which means two-thirds of the House and Senate and a majority of voters would have to approve the measure.