South Carolina Statehouse Blog

Dear Friends:

This week ends our fourth week in session and next week is our first furlough of the session. We are going on furlough to reduce our spending for this fiscal year. We are expected to have several other weeks of furlough before this session is over. Undoubtedly, the State’s unemployment, budget, and education problems put us in dire straits so we all need to do our part to bring these things in line. I am doing my best to work with leaders in both parties to address these issues.

I would have liked to report that we have made significant progress on many of the issues that I think are important to you and the people of this state, like rebuilding our economy, reforming our budget and tax processes and increasing transparency, ethics and accountability in our state. Sadly, we made very little progress on any of these issues. Instead we wasted much of our week on “process” and not “progress”. We debated a meaningless Senate Resolution that was about “reaffirming our 2nd, 9th and 10th amendment rights to the Constitution that seemed to be a debate with much ado about nothing. It is this myopic obsession with symbolic resolutions rather than the determined focus on accomplishing substantive public policy that frustrates me. It is also frustrating to other colleagues who are also focused on making progress.

The frustration I feel was exemplified on Wednesday afternoon, in a Joint Assembly of the Senate and House, when we elected a number of judges to the circuit courts, family courts, and administrative law courts. The process to elect judges in South Carolina is archaic and is questionable in terms of ‘checks and balances’. There are so many flaws with this system that I don’t have time to lay out my ideas for judicial election reform in this email, but I will tell you what I watched happen over the last month was embarrassing and disgusting at the same time. If you want to know what’s wrong about the selection process just stay tuned to my email updates or my blog on www.RepresentativeGunn.com, I will have more to say soon.

I think it’s irresponsible how we decide who serves in the judicial branch of our government. What is even more irresponsible is the behavior of some of my colleagues when it comes to choosing judges. Over the last month it was outright nasty in one judicial race. Members became visibly upset and verbally lashed out at other members because they supported a different candidate. I was surprised that some of my colleagues spent all of their time and political energy fighting each other over a judicial race but won’t spend any political energy trying to improve education, create jobs, reform our fiscal policies or bring more accountability to state government.

Again, I will have more to say about it later but I do want to let all of you know that the process of electing judges in our state is like watching a middle school popularity contest. It should be a process based upon qualifications but it is really based on everything but qualifications. It’s time for this to change.

Nonetheless, here are some positive highlights of this week:

Budget Reform

I have been a strong proponent of better budgeting, and increasing the predictability of our budgets. Two interesting bills on this matter were H. 4525, which would increase reserve funds and use capital reserve funds to replenish them in years when the state funds run short, and H. 4562, which was a resolution that proposed making a Constitutional Amendment to accomplish the same goal.

Tax Reform

South Carolinians deserve accountability and fairness in how their property taxes are calculated. One bill introduced this week that addresses this issue was H. 4482, which would allow the Tax Re-Alignment Commission (TRAC) to study the local real estate taxes and specifically the non-homestead property tax exemptions for the purpose of broadening the property tax base and therefore allowing for overall property tax rates to be lower.

Financial Reform

The most significant investment most South Carolinians make is in their homes. Two bills were introduced this week to encourage accountability and fair dealings between homeowners and mortgage companies. The first, H. 4533, would require mortgage companies and other mortgagors to apply at least thirty percent of a homeowner’s payment toward the principal loan balance, unless otherwise required by contract or law. The second was H. 4534, which would provide a mandatory minimum grace period of twenty (20) days for mortgage payments.

Rural Infrastructure

One key component to economic development and the growth of jobs in South Carolina is access to infrastructure such as electrical power, gas, water, sewer, and paved roads in rural areas. A significant bill introduced this week was H. 4511, which would enact the “South Carolina Rural Infrastructure Act,” which would help coordinate loans and other funding sources for municipal infrastructure projects.

Making South Carolina Safer

Safety and human dignity are at the core of South Carolina values. One important bill introduced this week was H. 4522, which would fight human trafficking in this state, by strengthening laws on the matter and establishing an inter-agency task force to fight serious offenses related to trafficking in persons, labor safety standards, and illegal immigration.

That’s it for this week. If you have a comment or opinion concerning the issues discussed in this update, or if I may be of assistance to you at any time, please feel free to call my legislative office in Columbia (803-212-6794); or reply to this email, please visit me at RepresentativeGunn.com to follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you in the House of Representatives.

Representative Anton J. Gunn