Our South Carolina ship of state is adrift. Progress desperately needs to be made on economic development, public education, government accountability, budgetary reform, health-care affordability and a myriad of other issues. But instead of forging ahead with a common vision, our governor and legislative leaders have spent this year in what seem to be never-ending squabbles. Almost the entire legislative year was wasted arguing about whether to accept funds from the federal recovery stimulus package that we will pay for regardless, in order to keep teachers employed — an argument that all other 49 states wasted little time engaged in and that has now embroiled our state in litigation.
First and foremost, we need leadership in economic development and job creation. South Carolina has had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country for most of this decade. This sad state of affairs is in sharp contrast to the low unemployment levels we experienced in the previous decade. The governor is assigned the responsibility of recruiting and assisting in the growth of industry within this state. Yet we have seen no new initiatives to combat record-high unemployment levels.
An economic crisis of this magnitude should be met with the same aggressive leadership that we would expect in coping with a natural disaster. We should see a command center set up within the executive branch to coordinate and streamline all job-placement and job-creating programs.
Next, we know that our schools need new ideas and new innovations to keep pace with our sister states. Yet instead of discussing ways to improve our schools, we have spent the past five years fighting off attempts to take public dollars out of our public schools through a voucher/tax credits program that is being pushed by out-of-state millionaires. We must stop obsessing about testing and begin obsessing about teaching. We can and must transform our complicated school funding formulas into a system that provides for our kids’ educations fairly, regardless of what county they may happen to live in.
We know that our state government structure is outdated and unworkable. It rewards mediocrity instead of merit and diffuses power throughout the numerous elected executive officers and General Assembly. Some of us in the Legislature pushed hard this year for reform of both our executive and legislative branches, but we have seen no success and little energy spent to achieve this by our top leaders.
We know that our state tax system has become riddled with special-interest loopholes that keep rates high on some of us without meeting government’s core missions. Comprehensive tax reform is a dire necessity for the economic success of our state, and yet we could not even pass a tax study commission through the Legislature.
We know that our state has by far the lowest cigarette tax in the nation while having a high rate of underage smokers and health care that is unaffordable for working citizens. And yet we could not pass a reasonable increase in the cigarette tax dedicated to making health care affordable for our working citizens. This failure was due in large part to our governor’s threatened veto of any net tax increase.
We know that we have some of the loosest regulations on payday lenders in the nation. These loose regulations allow thousands of our citizens to be trapped in an unsustainable cycle of debt. Yet we were able to accomplish only a small step forward in regulating the industry.
A description of our lack of leadership and vision could go on and on. But it doesn’t have to be this way. What South Carolina needs is a shared vision that will move us forward, regardless of where we live and regardless of what party we identify with.
That vision must include an emphasis on job creation, both the recruiting of large businesses and the promotion of small businesses. Instead of trying to tear down public education, we should focus on reforming the way we fund it, create a rational testing system and push available funds into the classroom. Our vision must focus on restructuring both the legislative and executive branches of our government to bring the accountability we taxpayers deserve. We must reach consensus on the need to raise the cigarette tax to a reasonable level and use its proceeds to lower the cost of health care for working people.
For too long we have had a do-nothing approach to government in South Carolina. For too long we have bought into the myths that government cannot do anything well and that we must settle for mediocrity. We should stand up and demand better efforts and better results. If we delay too long, it will take a generation to recover. We cannot afford to wait.
