Restructuring should happen

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums

Gov. Mark Sanford's restructuring plan for the executive branch was gutted last week when most members of the Senate Judiciary Committee opted to put politics ahead of the need for good governance in South Carolina.

What the senators did had nothing to do with increasing efficiency and accountability in state government or eliminating waste and saving money. It had everything to do with protecting the positions of several well-connected constitutional officers who benefit from not having to answer to the head of this state's executive branch — namely, the governor.

And even worse, if the committee's action stands, it will do this: prevent South Carolina voters from having their say on what happens to about half of the constitutional offices covered by the restructuring proposal. State Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, doesn't mince words about what happened last week. A number of Republican senators got together and decided which constitutional officers they wanted to protect. They forged an alliance with some Democratic senators. And then they undermined the restructuring of the executive branch to "protect their friends."

Gov. Sanford and Sen. McConnell, Senate president pro tempore, have proposed a restructuring plan that does two things, both extremely important: (1) Voters would get to decide if they want the governor to appoint most constitutional officers in an effort to give more authority to the executive branch. (2) A number of state agencies would be consolidated in an effort to make them more efficient and more accountable.

South Carolina needs the "whole loaf" of restructuring that Sanford promised to pursue if he became governor. Sanford ran on several campaign themes in 2002, and restructuring state government was one of the main ones. He was elected by a clear majority of state voters, and that fact alone indicates some support for his restructuring proposal. He wants to complete the restructuring of state government that was started about a decade ago under Gov. Carroll Campbell.

Restructuring is needed. South Carolina has one of the weakest executive branches in the nation. The governor does not get to pick his running mate, and he must work with elected executive branch officers who can follow their own agenda. This is a recipe for disaster. It helps explain why South Carolina, a relatively poor state, spends so much money on state government and gets such poor results.

The governor of South Carolina should be able to select a partner to run as lieutenant governor, just as the governor should be able to appoint the education superintendent, adjutant general, agriculture commissioner, comptroller general and secretary of state.

Under the plan, voters would continue to elect the attorney general (who must represent both the legislative and executive branch) and the state treasurer (thus preventing either the Legislature or executive branch from controlling the state Budget and Control Board).

The senators decided not to allow voters to decide, through a constitutional amendment, whether the lieutenant governor, adjutant general and agriculture secretary should be appointed by the governor. As McConnell has recognized, the restructuring plan for the executive branch cannot survive if several offices are protected.

Sanford and McConnell have promised not to give up. McConnell said the restructuring proponents "will be back in two weeks" and will try to get some Judiciary Committee members to change their minds. "We need to make government more efficient, leaner, more responsive," McConnell said in an interview.

The current system erodes the authority of the governor. As Sanford and McConnell wrote on these pages last week, "We have often learned the hard way in South Carolina that a system accountable to everyone is accountable to no one."

South Carolina's state government needs to move into the 21st century. State senators should stop protecting their political buddies and allow the voters to have their say on this restructuring plan.