New Media and Your Participation in the Political Process
First of all, I would like to thank the Palmetto Scoop for allowing me the opportunity to submit my very own “TPS” Report.
It is an honor to serve you as Speaker in the S.C. House. Bringing the political debate to the people and talking about the issues we work on at the State House in a public format is one of my favorite parts of the job. Politics is all about the free interaction of ideas.
Blogs, websites and other “New Media” outlets are beginning to play a bigger and bigger role in our technology driven world. I greatly encourage their participation and appreciate the addition they have made to the political process in South Carolina.
I too have jumped into the process, and will use this as an opportunity to shamelessly plug my own site.
Later this week, we are launching a new website that will provide people a great way to access up-to-date information on what the General Assembly has been working on. The new version of BobbyHarrell.com will put bloggers, members of the media and everybody else just a click away from the latest news and updates on issues the House is working on and provide readers a quick way to get in contact with me and see my thoughts on major issues.
We have seen this medium come a long way.
In my view, Thomas Paine was the first American blogger. His common sense contributions on issues were viewed as, at the time, criminal thought. But his revolutionary ideas helped create the cornerstone of our Constitution, the First Amendment.
Today, this free thinking process has been taken to a new level. Now, blogging is more like free speech on steroids.
This is the future. People better adapt now, or move out of the way.
“In my view, Thomas Paine was the first American blogger. His common sense contributions on issues were viewed as, at the time, criminal thought. But his revolutionary ideas helped create the cornerstone of our Constitution, the First Amendment. Today, this free thinking process has been taken to a new level. Now, blogging is more like free speech on steroids. ”
This is an extremely busy year for the S.C. House, election years always are. But already, we have been able to address a number of issues.
In an effort to promote responsible spending practices and curb pork spending at the state level, we passed a measure that will put a stop to hidden earmark spending in our state budget. Our taxpayers have the right to know exactly how their money is being spent.
Over the last couple of years, the House has passed several bills that address our state’s exploding illegal alien population. The number of illegal immigrants in South Carolina has grown in the past decade from 5,000 to an estimated 75,000 illegal aliens here today, at a cost to our taxpayers of over $186 million a year. While the true solution to our nation’s illegal immigration problems reside at the federal level, states have been forced to act because of the federal government’s inability to deal with the issue.
In the first month of this year’s session, the House passed “The South Carolina Plan.” This plan is the strongest, most comprehensive illegal immigration reform package our General Assembly has ever considered. Past plans have failed in the Senate, but it looks like this year we will be able to get a solution to the Governor’s desk.
We have introduced legislation that does away with the PACT test in favor of a diagnostic test our teachers have been asking for. The plan brings us inline with all other states by following the federal No Child Left Behind Act. House members rejected other plans that were loaded with feel-good language that watered down accountability in our educational system and instead have backed this plan that keeps our high standards in place.
This week our state budget is being debated in the full House Ways & Means Committee.
South Carolina is feeling the same economic slow down the rest of the nation is experiencing. We are still experiencing growth but at a much reduced rate than that of years past, so spending will be greatly reduced this year.
But our fiscally conservative actions over the past few years should help our state’s economy continue to grow. During our most difficult budget years, we refused to raise taxes and that led to a major economic turnaround. Last year alone, we passed the largest tax cut our state has ever seen, reducing taxes by over $220 million.
A major concern we are addressing in this year’s budget is improving our state’s infrastructure. We are attempting to devote the revenue currently generated from the sales tax on cars to go solely to our roads and bridges. This move will help prevent any effort to raise the gas tax.
These are just a few of the things we have been working on this year. And I look forward to updating you on further progress in later “TPS” Reports.
Please continue to be a part of the process and let me, and the other members of the House, know what your major concerns are this year. By participating, you highlight issues, steer debate and play a part in deciding our state’s future.
Thank you, and God Bless.
Rep. Bobby Harrell is the Speaker of the S.C. House of Representatives. Elected in 1992, Speaker Harrell has also served as Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee and as House Republican Caucus Majority Leader.
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Hats off to Speaker Harrell for his participation in the new electronic journalism. As a former broadcast journalist,I welcome anything that will shed more light on the political process. Years ago, unless you physically went to the state house, coverage of what was really going on there was well nigh impossible.Rep. Harrell’s effort,hopefully followed by others, will go a long way towards shedding light into those formerly dark corners. Again, many thanks,and I don”t normally thank politicos.
Congrats TPS on your big Bobby Harrell scoop (pardon the pun). it sounds like he is getting into the “political fray” so to speak via blogging.