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Web posted Sunday, May 18,
2003
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The author, Ashley
Landess, is vice president for public
affairs of the South Carolina Policy Council
Education Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan
research organization in
Columbia.
| | Voices
of Carolina: Restructuring proposal is good public
policy
Voices of Carolina
By
Ashley Landess
As the legislative session
begins to wind down and the budget issues head
toward some resolution, there are a couple of key
proposals that the General Assembly should act on.
One of those is a plan to restructure South
Carolina government.
When he campaigned for
governor, Mark Sanford stressed the need to
overhaul our current system. He argued that
government should be more efficient and less
expensive. Legislative leaders such as Senate
President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell and House
Speaker David Wilkins agree, and have spearheaded
efforts to enact reform in the General
Assembly.
One of the main components of
restructuring is the appointment rather than
election of several constitutional officers,
including the secretary of state, education
superintendent, state treasurer, comptroller
general and agriculture commissioner. In a large
majority of other states, several of these offices
are appointed. For example, the education
superintendent is appointed in 34 states, as is
the comptroller general. In 37 states the top
agriculture official is appointed.
This
approach to government makes sense. Right now,
independently elected officials who differ
philosophically with the governor could make it
difficult to operate efficiently. While some might
argue that elected officials are more accountable
to the people, the truth is that many of these
offices are such that they should work with the
governor.
Everyone should be on the same
page when it comes to the financial goals of the
state, as well as the education goals. In
addition, there is no good reason to hold
elections for offices such as secretary of state
or agriculture commissioner. Again, those offices,
with their limited authority and functions, should
be an extension of the office of the governor,
working toward efficient state
government.
The people choose their CEO in
the election of the governor, and the
accountability should be consolidated in that
office because that is the first place citizens
look to determine whether government is operating
effectively.
Gov. Carroll Campbell, who
was the originator of the first round of
restructuring in our state, makes an excellent
case for new changes in his essay in the South
Carolina Policy Council's "Mandate for
Leadership."
He points out that education
is no longer a stand-alone issue, but is rather
interrelated to issues such as economic
development. He correctly points out that the
governor's office is designed to address the big
picture of state government, including education
and economic development. Right now, anyone
sitting in that office is hampered by the single
focus of agencies whose heads are not necessarily
working toward the same agenda as the governor.
Some have expressed concerns about taking
away the peoples' choices about who runs the
department of education or the secretary of
state's office. But the reality is that voters are
much more focused at the top of the ticket and
generally make their choices based on those
elections and the overriding philosophies of
candidates for higher office. With so many
elective offices to vote on, voters often know
very little about the candidates at the bottom of
the ticket.
The choice exists because the
candidates for governor can actually discuss state
government in the context of a whole picture,
including setting forth an agenda for education,
fiscal policy and even agriculture policy. Voters
would be more likely to focus on those issues if
they were discussed and outlined in the context of
the gubernatorial election.
In fact,
citizens choose their governor based on those
issues anyway. Consequently, any failings in those
offices would lead directly to the governor, who
would be responsible for those appointments, as is
the case at the federal level. The people would
still have their say about who runs agencies such
as the secretary of state's office by electing a
governor who outlines a plan for that
office.
In electing Governor Sanford, South
Carolinians clearly indicated they support his
plans for finishing the job that Carroll Campbell
started. The people want to make some changes to
our government, and they ought to have the
opportunity to vote on it. Right now, Governor
Sanford's proposal is in the hands of the General
Assembly. Let's hope there is some substantive
action on it soon.
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