| Curtail the bobtail The practice of bobtailing - tacking unrelated amendments onto carefully drawn up legislation at the last minute - should be curbed, if not banned. The issue was discussed recently with the Aiken Chamber of Commerce by the area's lawmakers. An example of bobtailing in this year's contentious South Carolina General Assembly session involved House members tacking on a ban of same-sex marriages and altering lobbying rules to a teacher protection bill, sparking complaints from the Senate. One add-on-laden bill got Gov. Mark Sanford so upset that he threatened to sue the legislature. Because bobtail amendments are often controversial, they can result in shooting down good legislation. Conversely, if the main bill is a "must pass" measure, controversial rider legislation may pass with it - often with little or no discussion in committees or the House or Senate floor. Common sense suggests it is not a good idea to pass laws the consequences of which have not been examined. That's how lawmakers come up with unintended consequences, where the legislation makes matters worse, not better. Yet, as Rep. Roland Smith, R-Warrenville, chairman of the Aiken County legislative delegation, points out, bobtailing may not be right, but without it "some legislation would never get passed." Aiken area legislators Sen. Greg Ryberg and Rep. Skipper Perry both said they believe bobtailing needs to be curtailed. It probably is too much to expect - and perhaps wouldn't be practical anyway - to prohibit rider amendments altogether, but they should at least be banned, as Perry suggests, during the last few hectic days of the legislature. That's when most of the mischief is done. Unworthy add-ons can be caught in time earlier in the session. If lawmakers aren't going to give the governor the government restructuring plan he seeks to boost efficiencies, then the least they can do is make their own body more efficient by putting some curbs on bobtail amendments,
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