Gov. Mark Sanford announced Tuesday morning what he'll be pushing in the legislature when lawmakers go back to work in January. His "Contract for Change" has five items, compared to sixteen last year.

The contract items are: income tax relief; government restructuring; more educational choices for parents; tort reform; and updating Senate rules.

He says they're all focused on one goal--competitiveness. "It is absolutely essential that we become more competitive as a state," he said.

He pushed income tax relief this year, but it failed by just three votes. He'll try again next year, saying it would especially help small businesses create new jobs. His plan is to lower the state's top income tax rate from 7 percent to 4.75 percent over a six-year period.

His government restructuring proposal this year was too large, he said. So next year he'll scale it back, focusing on health care reform, administrative restructuring and on some of the constitutional offices.

His plan to offer more educational choices for parents includes his "Put Parents In Charge Act", which failed this year. It would offer tax credits to parents so they could send their children to another public school, a private school, or if they're home-schooled.

Tristen Sharpe stood behind the governor during his news conference because she's behind his "Put Parents In Charge" act. She used to be a public school teacher, but now teaches her three boys at home.

"I assume that to be able to have monies available to educate your children would enable a lot more parents to make the choices that they feel are appropriate for their families," she says.

The fourth item on the governor's agenda is tort reform, or lawsuit reform. He hasn't announced specifics, but says South Carolina's tort liability system is ranked 9th worst in the nation.

The cost of medical malpractice insurance has gone up 378 percent since 1999 for OB-GYN doctors in South Carolina, and he says small businesses are also being squeezed.

He'll propose "a more equitable civil justice system by setting fair standards for procedures and damages."

His final agenda item is to update state Senate rules. The House passed 14 of his 16 agenda items this year, but the Senate passed only 3. Most of his ideas, along with many others, died in the Senate because they never came up for a vote.

Current Senate rules allow any one senator to block just about anything. Senate president pro tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, says, "Members should be very frustrated at this point. We have to beg and plead for unanimous consent virtually to do anything in the Senate." 

He says there's a window of opportunity to change the rules, and he'll push for it. "I look for the Senate to change its rules. I would say it's almost a guarantee." 

That doesn't mean all of the governor's agenda will pass, but it would mean that the items could at least be debated.