Each year individuals and political advocacy groups in South Carolina publish legislative scorecards identifying state lawmakers who are “taxpayer heroes,” but the reality is that, with only a few exceptions, those earned grades are not really the consequence of lawmakers exhibiting any particular political courage. Occasionally, however, they do put themselves at great personal risk (in a conventional political sense) by standing up against the status quo in order to earn a true victory for the taxpayer. And such was the case last week with SC Sen. Kevin Bryant and SC Sen. Shane Martin.

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A few days ago, my colleagues in the South Carolina House passed their version of the State’s Budget for FY 2012-2013. Revenue projections for this year are ONE BILLION DOLLARS MORE than last year, and the House budget manages to spend just about all of this “new” money. Enough is enough. There’s no reason to grow state spending, period. We must adopt a hard spending cap so that every dollar above what the legislature spent last year is returned to the taxpayers.

If you are interested in learning more out about our state’s budget, please visit the South Carolina Statehouse’s website.

This week in the Senate, my colleagues and I have started work on the Charter School Bill, H.3241. I believe this bill is important to the future of our state’s educational system because it integrates diversity and choice into the process. As we increase competition in the market for education of our children, we give parents more choices and our schools become better. H.3241 has bipartisan support because improving education in our state cannot be a partisan issue.

Gina Smith of The State Newspaper wrote about the Charter School Bill in an article that ran yesterday. State Superintendent of Education Mick Zais has made the legislation a top priority for his department because the one-size fits all model doesn’t work in education. You can find her article here:

Last year, the S.C. House of Representatives passed a bill (H. 4033) that would allow the Hilton Head Island Town Council to tax owners of property within Sea Pines, without their consent, for the cost of dredging and disposing of sediment in the Harbour Town Yacht Basin and the creeks of Braddock and Baynard coves. I had concerns about the bill then, so I blocked it.

Tuesday, the bill came up again, this time for consideration by the full Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee passed H. 4033 on an 11-to-8 vote, and I immediately filed a minority report on the bill. What that means is, pursuant to the Senate rules, the bill cannot be considered by the body unless it is set for “special order debate” by a supermajority vote. I have obtained the necessary assurances from senators on both sides of the aisle that such will not happen, so H. 4033 is effectively dead.

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