The pledge is nearly identical to Gov. Mark Sanford's agenda for the session, focusing on creating jobs, reducing income taxes, restructuring government, broadening school choice and retooling the state's liability laws.

The vigor with which House Republicans have attacked the coming session, flooding the dockets with bills, could mean the party is serious about putting aside its differences with Sanford and working together this session.

Still, lurking in the background is the knowledge that all of this paperwork could be for naught. Last session, scores of bills died in the Senate, victims of gridlock.

Senators have vowed to change the rules of their body to prevent such a thing from happening again. House Republicans are crossing their fingers.

Wednesday was the first of three days for prefiling bills prior to the session's Jan. 11 start. Bills also can be prefiled Dec. 15 and Dec. 22.

By the time the session begins, legislators could be faced with more than 200 bills, ranging from a renewed attempt to strengthen the gay marriage ban to increasing the state's gas tax.

However, topping most House members' lists are the five components of the Palmetto Pledge.

When Speaker of the House David Wilkins, R-Greenville, announced the agenda last month, he promised to prefile the bills and push them through the House within the first 90 days of the session.

"That wasn't just fanfare," Wilkins said. "We are serious about passing these bills. A promise was made, and that promise will be kept."

The bills were assigned to committees Wednesday, and Wilkins said preliminary work will begin right away. Four bills in the pledge are repeats of legislation introduced last session. Of those, three passed easily out of the House. The same is expected this session.

That cannot be said for some of the other, more controversial, bills prefiled Wednesday.

Gay marriage was a hot-button issue last session, with more than 90 House members signing onto a piece of legislation that would have denied benefits to gay couples married in another state. That bill never made it out of the Senate.

The issue returns this year with two bills seeking similar statutory limitations and another that seeks a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Constitutionality is at the heart of another prefiled bill. State Rep. Marty Coates, R-Florence, has authored legislation that would allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed on public property.

Wilkins said this is not the first time such a bill has been introduced. It is an issue that he expects to generate controversy.

"But does that mean it won't pass? I think it could pass," he said.

The poor condition of the state's roads led to two prefiled bills to increase the state's gas tax, which is among the lowest in the nation.

A bill sponsored by House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, and state Rep. David Umphlett, R-Moncks Corner, proposes to increase the gas tax by 6 cents per gallon.

Another bill, sponsored by state Rep. Wallace Scarborough, R-Charleston, looks to decrease the tax per gallon by 5 cents and impose a sales tax of 5 cents on the dollar. At current price levels, that would mean about 4 cents more per gallon at the pump.

Scarborough said the plan would raise $80 million. That money would go straight to the S.C. Department of Transportation.

"I get calls all the time with people asking me to do something about the roads," Scarborough said. "The only way to fix the roads is to generate money somehow."

Asked how other Republicans would feel about his proposal of a tax increase, Scarborough said, "The bill may not go anywhere. It may die because people will not like that I'm talking about raising taxes. But you can either do something or not. We need more road maintenance money. I'm liable to get beat up on it. I can take it."

During the last session, the House passed 14 of Sanford's 16 agenda items. But the Senate passed just three.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, has taken the lead on changing the Senate's rules. Should he succeed, it is likely that bills favored by Sanford and House Republicans will enjoy a better fate this time.

Senators also prefiled bills Wednesday. Officials with the clerk of the Senate said those bills would be released to the public today.

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