The Charleston Post and Courier yesterday released a well-penned editorial calling for an end to the legislative mess that has left the state without a budget. The Editorial further begged lawmakers to hurry up and finish the reform the Department of Transportation.

Reform of the South Carolina Department of Transportation has become the legislative line in the sand that has stalled passage of the state budget past the normal adjournment deadline. The acrimony between House and Senate leaders over this issue must now be put aside and a compromise reached. Otherwise this session will go down as proof positive that the S.C. General Assembly is incapable of curing structural flaws in state government no matter how scandalous the mess.

The House has been in the forefront of this reform, passing restructuring legislation early in the session in the wake of a devastating Legislative Audit Council report that led to the early retirement of the DOT’s executive director. Not only did the audit uncover the waste of millions of dollars and questionable contracts, but a department rife with good old boy politics, including highly paid make-work jobs.

The huge state agency is run by a legislatively controlled commission that has only one gubernatorial appointee. A commission answerable to various legislative delegations has, in effect, no direct accountability. It was, in fact, the governor’s sole appointee who first called attention to some of the questionable practices that resulted in the probe by the Legislative Audit Council.

Despite the stunning findings of waste and cover-ups, some senators have been among reform’s most vocal naysayers. Fearing the worst, House leaders decided not only to pass a reform bill but to attach it to the budget as a proviso. The strategy is not one we can endorse. Annual budgets aren’t the proper vehicle for permanent legislation. But the House felt it needed a big stick to ensure the Senate would agree to deal with DOT reform. Its leaders counted on the unlikelihood of the Senate adjourning without a budget. [Charleston Post & Courier]

This once again points to the fact that there may be some very questionable things going on behind closed doors in the Senate.