Island Packet Online: Help the governor's effort to rein in General Assembly

Gov. Mark Sanford is right to challenge the legislature on its "kitchen sink bill." He may seek a state Supreme Court ruling on whether the Life Sciences Act is constitutional now that the General Assembly has loaded it with pork and bad policy.

Somebody -- whether it is the governor, court justices or the voters -- needs to rein in the legislature. They must be made to live within their own guidelines and honor their own commitments.

The legislature should not with impunity:

Divert money from trust funds devoted to specific uses. The legislature routinely takes money from the trust fund for the future cleanup of nuclear waste disposal sites near Barnwell. Last week, the House of Representatives voted to take for other purposes $7.5 million proposed for the S.C. Conservation Bank. Money in state insurance funds also has been taken for other government purposes.

Renege on its promises to slowly taper off nuclear waste accepted at Barnwell and close the dump to the nation in 2008. Last week, the House of Representatives voted to triple the amount of radioactive waste allowed to come to the landfill in 2005. Legislators say it will bring in $6 million that will go to police pay raises.

Use money raised by the S.C. Education Lottery to pay for existing programs. The statewide referendum enabling the lottery said that would not happen. It was to fund new enhancements. But of the $111 million in lottery funds used to prop up the House of Representative's version of the new state budget, $70 million will pay for existing programs, critics say.

Tack unrelated amendments onto bills, as the governor contends was done in the case of the Life Sciences Act. Sanford vetoed the bill, but the General Assembly quickly overrode the veto last week. The state constitution says every act or resolution that carries the weight of law must relate to one subject. House leaders say that the 20 additions to the Life Science Act fit that requirement, though the bill is seen as such a joke even legislators call it the "kitchen sink act."

Sanford, to his credit, is willing to stand against the tide and say, "This politics-as-usual process of tacking on numerous pieces of totally unrelated pork-barrel spending to individual bills has raised any number of constitutional concerns. Beyond the fact that it's an outrage from a taxpayer's perspective, it's a broken way of doing things and as long as I'm governor I'm going to fight to fix that process."

The bill's original intent was to provide research and economic development opportunities in biotechnology and related fields. It would be a boon to Clemson University, the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina in fostering greater intellectual capital in South Carolina.

In the end, the bill included money for an international convention center in Myrtle Beach, new residency criteria for LIFE scholarships and a culinary program at a Charleston technical college. It calls for the conversion of the University of South Carolina at Sumter to a four-year school, against the wishes of the USC president and the S.C. Commission on Higher Education. It gives all 33 state institutions of higher education the power of eminent domain.

The bill is a great example of how poor public policy is made. It shows that we'd all be better off if the legislature had less time in Columbia to meddle with our business. It also is indicative of a legislature that believes it can do whatever it wants, regardless of stated constraints on everything from trusts to the Home Rule Act. That is unhealthy and unwise.

Sanford is to be commended for trying to step into the breach. His legal challenge may fail. But somebody needs to stand up to the legislators and tell them they are wrong.