IT’S TIME FOR our annual installment of What Our Legislators Have Been Thinking About Since June — a review of the bills that legislators just couldn’t wait until this week to file, so they pre-filed in December.

It’s unsafe to draw many conclusions from the pre-filed bills in the second year of the legislative session, because all of last year’s bills are still available for debate. That means there’s no need to file new legislation addressing some of the most important topics. Still, the list can provide an indication of the types of issues that have become more important to legislators during the off-season.

Below are my picks for most interesting pre-files:

• Sen. David Thomas would let local building code enforcement officers deny permits to builders with shoddy compliance records and against whom they have filed complaints. The bill needs a review method added, but the concept makes perfectly good sense.

• Sen. Robert Ford wants state agencies to file reports twice a year explaining their expenditures. It’s a long way from programmatic or zero-based budgeting, but it’s on the right track.

• Sen. Greg Ryberg wants to close the TERI retirement incentive program to new enrollees and prohibit the Legislature from reinstating it without a two-thirds vote. The program needs to end, but that’s no justification for allowing a minority of legislators to prevent the majority from passing whatever law it wants. Rep. Herb Kirsh would end TERI without the troubling two-thirds requirement.

• Sen. John Courson would reduce legislative meddling in local affairs, by letting county councils make the appointments legislative delegations make to election commissions and other single-county entities. This can’t happen too soon, and this is the way it should be done. But just to be safe, Sen. Courson and others should keep trying to make this change in their individual counties, too.

• Sen. Scott Richardson would sunset all sales tax exemptions in three years. They could only be reinstated with a two-thirds vote. The sunset provision is a good idea, but, again, there’s no reason to undermine majority rule.

• Sen. Jim Ritchie wants to make greater use of the driving privilege as an incentive to keep kids in school. He would require that all minors not only be in school but make progress toward graduation in order to get behind the wheel. It’s a smart mix: Kids value driving above almost anything, and this could help them work for the most valuable thing they can have.

• Rep. Joe Mahaffey would prohibit anyone driving with a beginner’s permit from using a cell phone. There are questions about whether adult use should be restricted, but there can be no legitimate objection to banning such distractions from the least experienced drivers on the road.

• Rep. Roland Smith would require that local school board members and their families who receive state health insurance pay the full cost. City and county councils and the Legislature should try this themselves, rather than requiring the taxpayers to provide employee perks for politicians in part-time positions.

• House Speaker David Wilkins wants to close loopholes that have made the per se drunken driving law practically unenforceable. He would repeal the provision that lets drunk drivers argue that it’s OK to drive with a high blood-alcohol concentration as long as they don’t seem drunk — even though the law says that is illegal per se. It’s a needed change.

• Rep. Billy Witherspoon would require a referendum on delaying school starts until after Labor Day. It’s an awful idea. Communities should make this decision locally, and this decision should be made by the school board members who are entrusted by voters to operate the schools.

• Rep. Chip Limehouse would count some houseboats as real instead of personal property, thus lowering taxes; that’s a debatable idea. What’s not is the provision to cap the tax bills at $1,500. It’s hard to justify capping property taxes on one type of “house,” but if you could find a justification, this isn’t the type of house you’d protect.

• Rep. David Umphlett would carve out special protections from mid-year budget cuts for salary supplements the state gives sheriffs, auditors and other county officials. I’m not sure the state should even provide these supplements. Beyond that, if we’re going to protect anything from across-the-board cuts, it ought to go to a higher state priority, such as, say, the schools.

• Finally, Speaker Wilkins would give the Corrections Department some tools to manage the unmanageable combination of a rapidly growing prison population and a shrinking budget, by allowing officials to place some non-violent prisoners on a sort of intensive probation. The program would operate outside the court system, so the department could yank participants back into prison if they don’t follow the rules. While some of the details need debate, it’s a smart idea that could help us keep our communities safe without breaking the bank.

Ms. Scoppe can be reached at cscoppe@thestate.com or at (803) 771-8571.