The South Carolina House Judiciary Committee will shortly meet to finalize the lines for the State’s congressional districts. During this committee meeting, a vote will be taken to determine Greenville County’s influence in the 4^th Congressional District. The committee’s recommendations will then be voted on by the full House before being sent to the Senate.

At the beginning of the mapping process several weeks ago, it appears that two assumptions were made about our congressional districts. The first assumption was that our new 7^th congressional district would be on the coast. The second assumption was that Greenville County would be split between two districts. Beyond these assumptions, we should remember that the federal courts require that the 6th district remain unchanged due to the demographics of its minority population. These factors produced an “agreed upon” scenario where the bottom third of Greenville County, some 60,000 people, would be moved to the 3^rd district.  

When this scenario was challenged by members of the Greenville delegation, we were told that Greenville County must be split to avoid adversely affecting all of the other districts. As Greenville representatives, a couple of us felt a duty to verify what we were told. We asked if a map existed showing Greenville County totally in the 4^th district. Upon learning that such a map did not exist, we spent several hours in the map room creating one. Even though we were told that it could not be done, we kept Greenville County entirely in the 4^th district without disturbing the population demographics of the other districts, including the 6^th.

Our new map was not received with great enthusiasm. While we proved their demographic assertions wrong, we were still accused of being unfair to Spartanburg County. We moved a portion of northern Spartanburg County over to the 5^th district, but we kept the important I-85 corridor intact. We cannot change the reality that we are larger than Spartanburg County in economic output and population.

Greenville County enjoyed significant population growth over the past decade. Our growth represents our collective efforts to make Greenville an attractive place to live. In a representative government, population growth normally equals increased political power – hence our State’s new 7^th congressional district. Yet, under the current scenario, Greenville County will be punished for growing. We will have our hard-earned increase in political power taken away.

Greenville County has five members on the Judiciary Committee. They will have the opportunity to introduce the new map for consideration – a map that Greenville has earned.

The Education Opportunity Act came up before the full House on Wednesday. However, before we could debate the merits of the bill, 16 Republicans joined with 44 Democrats to table the bill. The vote was 60 to 59.

The problem with the tabling motion, other than it was made by a Republican, was that it prevented debate. In other words, 60 elected Representatives decided that they did not want to hear, nor allow the public to hear, any benefits of the legislation. More importantly, they did not want public discussion regarding the status of our k-12 public education system.

As a member of the majority party, I have voted “cloture” on the Democrats during debate. Cloture limits the time that a bill can be debated – an hour from each side. While limiting the time, it does not limit information. Furthermore, cloture is rarely used and only after we have suffered through several hours of debate.  Contrast cloture with the tabling motion that killed debate on the education bill after only ten minutes.

Ten minutes was all the attention that 16 Republicans could grant to 58 of their Republican colleagues who wanted the debate. (Note that one lone Democrat voted against tabling the bill). Ten minutes was all the time given to hear information on a bill that was nine months in the making. Ten minutes was all of the courtesy that 16 Republicans could give to 40 of their Republican colleagues who had co-sponsored the bill.

The fact that the Democrats did not want to debate the status of our education system does not surprise me. Their actions reflect the reason why they are the minority party – they have no ideas to present and have a vested interest in the failing status quo.

The actions of the 16 Republicans are . . . ? You decide.

As a legislative body, we have no hope of solving the problems in our state or even protecting a free society without debate.

The following are bills that I sponsored or co-sponsored this week -

H4276 - Utilities - This bill would expand the make up of  public utility commissions by including commissioners from outside are elected.

H4246 - Utilities – This bill define the maximum fee that could be collected for water and sewer.

You may read each bill in its entirety at www.scstatehouse.gov.