Video: Senators McConnell, Knotts, Bright and Rep Cobb Hunter on Abortion
March 30, 2010 by senatormcconnell
Video: Senators McConnell, Knotts, Bright and Rep Cobb Hunter discuss state funded abortions This Week in The Senate.
Spending Caps Bill Passes Senate
March 25, 2010 by senatormcconnell
Columbia, SC – March 26, 2010 – The State Senate gave key approval to legislation authored by Sen. Glenn McConnell that would institute spending caps and a “rainy day” fund. Several years of dwindling revenues and tough decisions on budget cuts have spurred this dramatic change to the state budgeting procedures.
While the federal government seems determined to spend our nation’s future away, South Carolina’s Republican Senators are limiting spending and securing our state’s budgetary process.
For any new revenue, 25 percent of it would be placed into a stabilization account. Funds from the stabilization account could be used to even out spending when the state hits harsh economic times like we are currently facing. Senator McConnell believes this will eliminate the feast or famine process state government has seen in recent years.
“The Senate has crafted a way to limit government growth and spending, so we don’t find ourselves in the same position in the future,” McConnell said. “By evening out our spending, there won’t be pressure to overspend when times are good or have to cut services to the bone when times are bad.”
Going into the session, Senate Republicans made fixing our state’s budgetary crisis a top priority. It’s part of a wholesale group of reforms to fundamentally change how state government works — making it work better for all South Carolinians.
“There’s a good reason why Sen. McConnell’s efforts on spending limits were the first two bills filed in the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler said. “No issue is more important than keeping government growth in check. This is an idea whose time has come, and conservatives in the Senate are enthusiastic about passing it.”
From here, the bill moves on to the House.
“We hope our colleagues in the House pass the statutory language and send the constitutional amendment through and we can put it on the ballot,” McConnell said. “We quite literally cannot afford to find ourselves in the same fiscal position again.
Judiciary panel advances sentencing reform plan
March 24, 2010 by senatormcconnell
A comprehensive plan to divert nonviolent criminals from prisons to the probation and parole system so South Carolina can avoid spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build new prisons was adopted Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 14-0 vote.
The bill calls for more drug users to serve supervised criminal sentences in the community as a way to free up beds in the overcrowded prisons. The measure, as written, deals with future offenders, although there are a few exceptions to parole some current prisoners.
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State lawmakers move to opt South Carolinians out of federal health overhaul
March 24, 2010 by senatormcconnell
A bill aiming to stop a federal mandate requiring South Carolinians to buy health insurance will be voted on today in the Senate Judiciary subcommittee, a day after the state joined 12 others in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health reform bill signed into law Tuesday by President Obama.
Under the new federal law, individuals would be required to purchase coverage, with subsidies for low-income people.
But under S987, no one in South Carolina would be required to buy a policy, according to its co-sponsor, state Sen. Kevin Bryant, who said the bill gives citizens the freedom to choose whether they want coverage or not.
“There is a thought that state law supersedes federal law when the Constitution does not directly address it,” said Bryant, R-Anderson. “If someone does not want to carry health insurance, it’s not government’s role to tell them they have to.”
Unlike requiring drivers to have auto insurance to cover injuries to others, health insurance only covers oneself, he said.
Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Larry Martin said he supports the measure and will vote to move it to the full committee.
“The state of Virginia passed something very close to this prior to the passage of the health-care bill, which was the basis for the state attorney general filing suit,” said Martin, R-Pickens.
However, Columbia health-care consultant Lynn Bailey said their efforts will simply delay coverage for the nearly 1 million South Carolinians who are uninsured and increase the financial burden for their care on hospitals.
Bailey said the lack of access to health care is a barrier to economic growth, innovation and employment. “The largest employer in South Carolina is small business,” she said, “and without this reform, they cannot afford to provide their employees coverage.”
The 2010 Legislative Session (Video)
March 15, 2010 by senatormcconnell
Lawmakers Honor SC Lives Lost At War
March 11, 2010 by senatormcconnell
Lawmakers and families from across South Carolina met in Columbia to honor the 10 lives lost at war in 2009.
“A lot of people don’t realize what they did sacrifice and I just think South Carolina’s wonderful in doing it. Not a lot of states have done this,” said Paula Antisdel, mother of Spc. Justin Antisdel.
Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington Co., started the annual luncheon to honor those from South Carolina who’ve served the country and paid the ultimate sacrifice. Tables at The Summit Club had arrangements of red, white and blue flowers, plus the U.S. and South Carolina flags.
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State voters to decide secret union voting measure
March 11, 2010 by senatormcconnell
South Carolina voters will decide on an amendment to the state constitution which would require secret union organizing votes.
The House and Senate agreed on a final version of the constitutional amendment resolution on Wednesday. The Senate approved the measure 33-9 and the House followed that with a 106-12 vote.
The measure headed for the November ballot asks voters to decide if a secret ballot is a fundamental individual right in deciding whether workers are represented by a labor organization.
Republicans said the measure is a reaction to federal legislation they say would strip workers of their right to vote for unionization by secret ballot.
Democrats said employers and workers can request votes at any time during union organizing attempts.
Secret union ballots gets OK in Senate
March 11, 2010 by senatormcconnell
The Senate passed a bill Wednesday that Republicans say will preempt future attempts by the federal government to promote labor unions in South Carolina by any other method than through a secret ballot.
Card check, so-called because of federally proposed legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, allows union managers to recognize employees’ desire to organize by publicly displaying a card, and thereby bypassing a ballot election.
That legislation has not passed the U.S. Congress, but South Carolina is a right to work state and Senate Republicans wanted to guarantee the secret ballot process, currently outlined in state law, by making it part of the state Constitution.
The resolution, roiled by Senate Democrats as a meaningless waste of time, passed the Senate with 33 votes. It required a two-thirds vote to pass.
SC’s fallen soldiers honored, another name added today (Audio)
March 10, 2010 by senatormcconnell
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a South Carolina soldier supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Aaron M. Arthur, 25, of Lake City, died March 8 north of Al Kut, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over. He was assigned to the 203rd Brigade Support Battalion, attached to the First Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment, Third Brigade Combat Team, Third Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga.
Such notifications happened in South Carolina 10 times in the past year. Families like the Fowlkes of Gaffney still struggle with the grief. Dominick Fowlkes wrote about it after his brother Lance Corporal Christopher Fowlkes was mortally wounded in Afghanistan.
(Listen to Fowlkes’ poem, “The War” MP3 :40) Read more
Lawmakers Honor Fallen Soldiers
March 10, 2010 by senatormcconnell
South Carolina lawmakers remembered the members of the armed forces from South Carolina who died in the last year while serving their country.
This year’s Fallen Soldiers ceremony and luncheon honored ten young men and their families.
Each family was presented with a concurrent resolution from the state House and Senate honoring the fallen soldier, along with The Order of the Palmetto Patriot and a state flag that was flown in their honor over the Statehouse.
WSPA
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