POLICY COUNCIL DROPS NEW DATA ON LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY AT STATEHOUSE

The South Carolina Policy Council released a study today on the frequency of anonymous voice votes in our state’s General Assembly as compared to other southeastern states, and the results are frightening.

For bills that passed during the 2008 session, the House called roll just eight percent of the time, the study notes. The Senate called roll one percent of the time. That means that, on average, more than 95 percent of laws are passed in this state without lawmakers having to be responsible for their actions.

“This lack of accountability will likely shock most South Carolinians who assume they can look up how their lawmaker voted on important issues.” said Policy Council’s communication director.

But it gets better.

When placed head to head with the rest of the southeast, South Carolina comes in a very distant last place on the transparency of legislative voting.

The Policy Council’s research noted that Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi mandate roll call voting on final passage of all bills. Tennessee requires roll call voting on every bill including bills making appropriations of public dollars and North Carolina mandates roll call votes on second and third reading of revenue bills.

South Carolina only requires roll call voting on elections by the General Assembly, taking up the Governor’s vetoes, contested Supreme Court elections, removal of officers and amendments to the state Constitution.

The result of all of this hard work and great research hits home the fact that transparency in our state government is atrocious. It is unacceptable that the individuals making our laws can do so almost entirely free from culpability and scrutiny by voters.

And that is exactly why spending has increased more than 40 percent over the last four years and why our schools are failing while legislators sit idly by and do nothing. It’s time to shine the light on state government and let voters know what these folks are up to.

We can start with legislation similar to the “2008 Spending Accountability Act,” which would have required a roll call vote for all bills with a fiscal impact but unfortunately died in committee. Hell, they could write their names on a gerbil and put their pet gerbil in the “yes” or “no” cage for all I care, anything is better than what we’ve got right now.