Voting records lacking
Filed Under Caucus, McConnell, Top News | Leave a Comment
Some question absence of roll call on some bills
Trying to track down a legislator’s voting record might be a little like chasing Bigfoot: First, you have to find out if it really exists.
Open-government advocates argue the state Legislature’s lack of roll-call votes — revealed in a new study — is designed so that legislators have “plausible deniability” when comes to taking a stance on controversial bills.
South Carolina’s legislative leaders, though, say they and their colleagues want to be on record when it comes to important bills, that taking roll call on procedural matters would clog the system and cost money. Besides, they reason, a bill that passes without a roll-call vote indicates unanimous support on the House and Senate floors. Read more
McConnell suggests privatizing the port
Filed Under Caucus, McConnell, Top News | Leave a Comment
Citing steep cuts in the S.C. State Ports Authority’s container business, the top state senator suggested today that the authority consider privatizing a portion of its operations.
“I think the time has come to really look at this,” Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said after a meeting of Charleston County lawmakers charged with overseeing the SPA.
During the meeting, McConnell directed SPA executives to study the issue and report their findings to him. After the meeting, McConnell said he likely will call a public hearing on the topic sometime this year. Read more
Lawmakers hammer SPA chief
Filed Under Campsen, Caucus, McConnell, Top News | Leave a Comment
Tough questions from state lawmakers hit the State Ports Authority’s top executive in rapid succession Wednesday:
How have we slipped so far behind Savannah? Should the SPA maintain total control of the working waterfront, or should the Port of Charleston be partly privatized? Is anyone evaluating the SPA’s administration?
The port’s mainstay container business dropped 10 percent in the latest fiscal year, which ended June 30, said Bernard Groseclose Jr., the SPA’s president and chief executive. Though break-bulk, or non-containerized cargo, and cruise business both picked up, container cargo accounts for 90 percent of port traffic. Read more
Lawmakers rip Sanford on economic development
Filed Under Caucus, Leatherman, McConnell, Top News | Leave a Comment
COLUMBIA — Saying they were frustrated at what they called the lack of economic progress in the state under Gov. Mark Sanford, Republican leaders in the House and Senate announced their own plan Tuesday to boost jobs and increase the state’s average income.
Advertisement
