The House took action this week on two major pieces of legislation to protect our economy and promote future economic growth.

The House unanimously passed a bill to protect our state’s waterways by reaffirming an existing 2007 state law requiring the DHEC Board to gain the approval of the Savannah River Maritime Commission before taking action on any matter pertaining to the navigability, depth, dredging, sludge disposal and other collateral issues in regard to the Savannah River.

We passed this legislation because of concerns over DHEC’s decision to ignore state law by reversing a decision to deny dredging of the Savannah River to a depth of 48 feet. 

One of every five jobs in our state is directly tied to our ports, and this issue was too important to ignore.  Had DHEC followed existing law, this measure would have been unnecessary.  As evidenced by the 111-0 vote, my House colleagues were disappointed when DHEC voted to reverse its decision to deny the Savannah River dredging permit. Overwhelming evidence presented by DHEC scientists showed the dredging would cause irreversible environmental damage. 

Based on those facts alone, DHEC was correct to deny this permit. 

The decision also placed Charleston’s port at a competitive disadvantage and jeopardized the very existence of a future port in Jasper. Both of those ports are critical to our state’s future economic development. The decision also put our taxpayers on the hook for paying a significant portion of Georgia’s port dredging. 

Also this week, the House Republican Caucus, flanked by Chairman Bill Sandifer, Speaker Bobby Harrell, and Governor Haley, unveiled sweeping legislation this week designed to protect the rights of our state’s workers.

The Right to Work Act of 2012 is a central part of the Caucus’s commitment to strengthening our state’s business environment and creating jobs. The bill was pre-filed with the entire Republican Caucus signed on as co-sponsors.

Every South Carolinian should have the right to work and make a living for his or her family without being forced to join a union or pay dues. Union participation should be a matter of choice for any worker, but our workers must be protected from undue coercion or influence by unions or businesses. This legislation strengthens more than a half-dozen parts of our Right to Work Act.

The legislation requires employers to display a poster that informs workers of our state’s Right to Work protections, and clarifies language that the Right to Work must not be denied because of membership, or non-membership, in a labor organization. The legislation also increases labor organization transparency, increases civil penalties for violations, and requires written authorization for any union dues to be deducted from a worker’s paycheck.

The current Administration in Washington is engaged in a direct assault on private businesses locating in our state, as evidenced by action against Boeing and its threats of a lawsuit because we protected our workers’ right to a secret ballot.

This week, we received great news that our state’s unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest rate since 2008. Our Right to Work law is a key part of our future economic development, and one of our most important economic incentives.

The House Republican Caucus is committed to preserving the rights of workers and ensuring minimal outside interference in a business’s affairs. This is an ongoing fight that we take very seriously.

For the past two years, the South Carolina House approved a measure requiring voters to show a picture identification at the polls. The bill finally became law last year.

Wednesday, the director of the S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles testified that – after examining fewer than 10 percent of the state’s registered voters – that as many as 957 dead people are listed as having voted. This is an incredible finding that not only validates the need for the Voter ID law, but also adds more fuel to the argument that the Obama Administration was playing politics when it rejected the law last month.

I’m thinking none of the dead people showed picture ID’s at the polls, and if a cursory check found 957 dead voters, I’d hate to see what the final number is once the other 2 million records are examined.

The Obama Administration rejected the Voter ID law as part of an ongoing crusade against our state. It did this after receiving inaccurate data provided by the S.C. Election Commission and its director, Marci Andino – according to a study by the Associated Press. The Election Commission told the Justice Department that 240,000 registered voters lacked a picture ID. Our DMV, in a feat of nothing more than basic record-checking, found 37,000 voters on the Commission’s list were dead, 334 were registered at the same address, 25 were registered at the Sumter County jail, and an unreported number had Social Security numbers of 000-00-0000 or 999-99-9999.

Under the provisions of our Voter ID law, people in ourstate have to show a state-issued driver’s license or ID card, a military ID or a U.S. passport to vote. In December, the U.S. Justice Department determined the law was discriminatory, said the state had not demonstrated a need for the law.

They found all this, despite approving a similar and more restrictive law in Georgia.

South Carolina’s law even allows someone who does not have a picture ID to sign an affidavit attesting to who they are – something Georgia’s law does not do.

Democrats have repeatedly used the ridiculous assertion that the Republicans are trying to disenfranchise voters. They don’t make the same assertions in Rhode Island, where a heavily Democratic legislature also enacted Voter ID.

South Carolina’s Republicans are simply trying to disenfranchise the dead and those who would maliciously use loopholes in the system to defraud our election system.

Perhaps the Justice Department is comfortable with dead people voting – after all, the dead have been voting in Chicago for decades.

The House Republican Caucus supports Attorney General Alan Wilson’s intention to file a lawsuit against the Justice Department, and we also support his calls for SLED to investigate the DMV’s findings. This is clearly an issue that will go back to the Federal courts, and Voter ID laws have already been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Our democracy will be at its most healthy when we have 100 percent voter participation, and the Republican Caucus firmly believes that.

But when you go to the polls this year, apparently you should check the pulse of the person next to you in line.

We started the second half of the 119th Session this past Tuesday. Generally, the first couple of weeks are filled with committee meetings so that legislation, including the budget bill, can start moving. It should be noted that I have moved committees from the Agriculture Committee to the Education Committee. Though I will miss battling DHEC regulations, I am looking forward to debating education regulations along with the anticipated texting ban bill.

The House Republican Caucus passed most of our two year agenda last year. So, we are pressing on with tax reform, pension reform and Dept. of Transportation reform.  As I have mentioned before, I am the chairman of the Caucus Tax Reform Advisory Committee. I will be presenting our final report to the Caucus in the next couple of weeks. Our goal was to lay a foundation that will enable tax reform to take place over the next three years.

Given the reported problems with DOT finances, I have anticipated that reform effort by signing onto H4444 which moves control of the DOT to the Governor.

Reform of the state retirement plan will be a major battle. Other than the changes required to keep the plan solvent, I will be looking for legislation that will prevent the General Assembly from making changes to the plan that could potentially increase the plan’s unfunded liability.

In anticipation of k-12 education funding reform that will hopefully happen next year, I have signed onto another school choice bill. Education improves when parents have more control of their children’s educational opportunities. We must realize that our entire k-12 system – public, independent and home schools – are major assets to our state. We must take steps to improve the performance and access to the entire system.

Another issue that has impacted the Blue Ridge and Greer community involves the way that we elect judges. Currently, the Judicial Merit Selection Committee determines who is qualified to be elected as a judge. Their current rules require them to report out no more than three candidates even though they may have determined more than three are qualified. We have a local magistrate that has filed to be elected to the Family Court in Greenville three separate times. Each time he was found qualified, but the committee refused to report him out. Each time they have reported out other candidates with less experience. This appearnesss of bias is unfair to the candidate and unfair to our community. I have signed onto H4514 in hopes of correcting this issue.

Budget projections show that might have as much as $1billion in new revenue this year. I am most interested in seeing some of these funds used to further pay down our unemployment system debt to the federal government. We also need to devote some of the funds to repair of our infrastructure. Most importantly, some funds could be used in conjunction with tax reform efforts to pass on a tax break to the citizens of our state.

I am looking forward to the new year and I anticipate positive reform bills to pass. I remain honored to represent District 18 in the SC House.