Columbia – Senator Glenn McConnell, President Pro Tempore of the SC Senate, has named the members of the subcommittee tasked to consider his “Fiscal Fitness” agenda that consists of legislative initiatives to place a Constitutional cap on state spending, conduct a streamlining review of state government, enact a taxpayer fairness act, a deficit prevention act, and a trust fund protection act.
Senator McConnell will chair the subcommittee whose members include: Senator Tom Davis, Beaufort County; Senator Vincent Sheheen, Kershaw County; Senator Shane Massey, Edgefield County; Senator Jake Knotts, Lexington County; Senator Gerald Malloy, Darlington County; and Senator Phil Shoopman, Greenville County.
Senator McConnell said “I have personally spoken with each Senator on the subcommittee and asked them to serve. I told them that each of these initiatives was very important to me and that I believed that if we want to improve core government services, stop abuse of taxpayers, and get our economy back on the road to prosperity, we need a concerted effort to make South Carolina government fiscally fit.”
The subcommittee will soon begin holding public hearings across the state to get these issues ready for immediate action as soon as the General Assembly returns in January.
Senator McConnell said “it is vitally important that we engage the public across the state about government practices so that we can hear from them as to what reforms they think are needed and they can join the effort to get them adopted next year.”
Senator McConnell also announced that a broad-based regulatory reform initiative would be added to the task force’s agenda to change the way regulations and fees are approved in South Carolina, so as to require an affirmative vote of the General Assembly before any regulations go into effect and to prohibit fees from being created or raised in regulations or in the appropriations act.
“To be effective, regulations and administrative fees need to rise or fall like any bill by requiring an affirmative vote of the legislature. They should not get added by being tucked into a budget proviso. Regulations should not become effective by letting the time for the General Assembly to consider them run out,” says Senator McConnell.
“The members of the task force will face difficult choices about how our government operates in our state. I believe it is important that we improve our state’s fiscal health by limiting what government can spend, preventing agencies from spending more money than they have, protecting taxpayers from bureaucrats creating or changing tax laws in search of more revenue, and securing trust fund monies. Perhaps with these reforms, our state’s fiscal fitness can be an example for those in Washington.”