Restructuring plan is sound

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums

One of the major planks of Mark Sanford's platform when he ran for governor was to continue the restructuring of state government that began more than a decade ago under then-Gov. Carroll Campbell. Gov. Sanford followed through last week by unveiling his landmark plan to make state government more efficient and more accountable by consolidating more power in the Governor's Office.

This isn't merely about putting more power in Sanford's hands, or the hands of his successor. It's about reshaping state government so that power is not diffused to the point that no one is responsible for poor decisions.

What made Sanford's announcement all the more exciting last week was this: He was accompanied at his press conference by the two most powerful legislative leaders — House Speaker David Wilkins and Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell. The Legislature has been slow to part with some of the power that it wields in South Carolina. Gov. Campbell got only half of the restructuring loaf that he sought. The support of Wilkins and McConnell is critical to Sanford's effort.

Here are the key parts of Sanford's plan:

Have the governor and lieutenant governor run as a ticket, and the governor would select his running mate. That's what the president and vice president do. The lieutenant governor then would become a full-time member of the executive branch.

Make the secretary of state, superintendent of education, state treasurer and agriculture commissioner — all of them now elected by voters — cabinet-level appointees. The comptroller general would be nominated by the governor and appointed by unanimous vote of the Budget and Control Board.

Remove the state treasurer and comptroller general from the five-member Budget and Control Board, leaving that a three-person board of the governor, House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committee chairmen.

Leave the attorney general and adjutant general as elected offices.

Create a Department of Administration that would handle the state's general services, human resources, employee insurance, procurement, internal audit and energy office.

Allow the governor to shift Cabinet agency programs from one department to another.

This restructuring plan "goes to the heart of our ability to get things done," Sanford told this newspaper last week. "It's not the whole of what I talked about during the campaign. But the bottom line is it's a meaningful step toward state government restructuring that Campbell started."

Sanford's plan makes sense. It offers dramatic improvement in the way state government goes about the business of the people. It would bring much-needed accountability and make government more efficient. The plan should be passed this year, so it can go before voters in 2004.