July 17, 1997 

The Real Price of the Great Senate Desk "Debate"

Were you shocked to learn state Senators wanted to spend hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars to buy themselves brand new desks?

How about when they claimed buying new ones was more efficient then keeping old ones?

But when Senators closed the 22 week, 66 day, 146 hour legislative session without a vote and later mailed in their ballots, you probably thought that took the cake.

Unfortunately, that's not the half of it.

Like most South Carolinians, I find the notion of three thousand dollar desks absurd. However, as state Senator Greg Ryberg (R-Aiken) has noted, the question of buying new furniture is not nearly as important as questions that have been raised as a result. At the crux of these questions are fundamental issues that relate directly to our faith in the democratic process.

Should legislative concerns be sequestered in subterfuge from public scrutiny? Are prejudicial, predetermined, arbitrary, multiple choice selections the way to conduct the public business? Should a postcard vote precedent be allowed to stand? And should the state allow the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars without appropriate authorization? All these questions transcend mere desks.

Presiding over the Senate the past three years, I've heard the proud traditions of the body invoked repeatedly by Senators from the chamber floor. Traditions that Senators claim differentiate them from their colleagues in the House. They speak with reverence about Senatorial courtesy and take great pride in free, open, and deliberative debate.

Yet by addressing the desk question through a non-binding, multiple choice postcard vote, senatorial courtesy was unceremoniously abandoned and substantive deliberation suppressed. By constraining choices and evading discussion, the postcard vote effectively nullified the deliberative process to the extent that about the only deliberation really left for Senators was whether to affix one stamp to their ballot or two.

This unusual "sense of the Senate" postcard vote was probably not illegal. However, a "sense of the Senate" vote is an advisory opinion, not a binding directive. Just because it may be legal to poll the membership doesn't make the poll of the membership legally enforceable.

The fact is, the full Senate never passed an official resolution on this matter. Nevertheless, the Senate President Pro Tempore "ordered" a $133,000 purchase despite the distinct absence of either a binding directive from the Senate or legal authority to act on his own.

It's precisely this kind of unsanctioned action that strikes at the very heart of our democratic process. It makes one wonder: who else can direct appropriations without proper statutory authority? Why do we even bother to create laws, rules, and committees? And if formal legal authority is not required to allocate hundreds of thousands of tax dollars, then exactly when is it?

There are only two entities in South Carolina that have the power to act on the Senate desks: the State House Committee and the full Senate. The State House Committee, which by law has authority over State House renovations and alterations (See S.C. Code Sections 10-1-40; 60-12-90), voted to halt funding because it believed the Senate should address the issue from the floor as previously promised to state Senator Joe Wilson (R-Lexington) by the Senate leadership during the budget debate.

In spite of this, non-elected state officials have defied this explicit directive and are refusing to halt the order. Meanwhile, the senior Senator who inappropriately authorized the purchase of new desks says he sees no cause for cancellation, and that it's probably too late to change anyway.

In essence, new Senate desks have been "ordered" without requisite authority and justified by an unprecedented vote lacking the force of law. All pretense of accountability in this matter has vanished. Rule of law has fallen prey to politics as usual. And that's not just scary. That's wrong.

This isn't about fancy furniture or expensive desks anymore. It's about a deliberative process that has been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. And a democratic process skillfully circumvented and willfully ignored.

As Lieutenant Governor, it is not my lawful prerogative to call the Senate back into session. I suppose I could simply "order" it anyway, but two wrongs won't make a right. Instead, I am calling for the desk purchase to be halted until the full Senate reconvenes without compensation to settle this matter once and for all.

$133,000 is a lot of money to spend for new furniture, but it's a price that can't be assessed in dollars that threatens to exact a much costlier toll from the public trust.