Government transparency gaining steam...

Those who know me know how increased government transparency is something I feel strongly about. That's why I have been working hard as Comptroller General to do my part to shine a light on state spending... so the taxpayers have access to as much information as possible about how their hard-earned tax dollars are spent.

Fortunately, the government transparency movement appears to be picking up steam. Every day, the drum beat grows louder. Increasingly, daily newspapers are using their opinion pages to advance the idea that the best government is the government conducted in the open -- in full view of the citizenry.

Below are two such editorials from the Charleston Post & Courier and the Myrtle Beach Sun News. It is certainly refreshing to witness newspaper editorial writers using their "bully pulpit" to advance the important cause of open government.

New chance for roll-call solution
From the Post & Courier (Saturday, December 13, 2008)

A reform plan for roll-call voting by the state Legislature gets another chance with a bill prefiled by Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler this week.
The Senate shouldn't settle for something substantially less, as did the House of Representatives.
The Gaffney Republican's bill reflects the changes sought in the House by Rep. Nikki Haley, R-Lexington. It would require South Carolina's important legislative business to be submitted to a roll-call vote — as it is in the large majority of states.
The need for greater accountability was revealed by the S.C. Policy Council, whose analysis found that only 8 percent of House votes and 2 percent of Senate votes were recorded.
The Policy Council also found that South Carolina had the weakest requirements
in the nation for roll-call voting by the Legislature.
The House response was to approve a rules change that includes some mprovements, but far less than envisioned in the bill by Rep. Haley. The public support of more accountability is reflected in the bipartisan support for her bill. So far, 30 representatives have signed on to the bill.
Rep. Haley's bill, incidentally, has also been pre-filed for introduction to the House when the session opens. So the House will have another opportunity to consider her reform plan.
Sen. Peeler's bill has garnered broad support in the Senate, with 20 co-sponsors.
Sen. Peeler contends that the lack of accountability has resulted in irresponsible
spending by the state, and is partly to blame for the state government's current
fiscal problems.
"Transparency is clearly needed in South Carolina," Sen. Peeler said in a statement. "More roll-call votes will shine a bright light on the General Assembly, holding us accountable for the tax dollars we spend."
Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell supports more roll-call voting, but says the plan needs to be crafted as a rule change to avoid Senate gridlock. "We're trying to make sure that everything that is substantive and controversial gets a recorded vote," he said.
Presumably, those parliamentary concerns can be addressed during the debate.
The primary objective should be to provide more roll-call voting by senators who clearly haven't been on the record. If that requires some adjustments in the way the
Senate does business, then senators should be willing to make the necessary changes. Roll-call voting is essential to legislative accountability. It provides a record showing citizens how their legislators voted. It informs the electorate as voters go the polls.
The shortcomings in accountability have been revealed, and a remedy should be applied by the Legislature. A cure, not a bandage, is needed.

Let Us See the Truth
From the Myrtle Beach Sun News (Friday, Dec. 12)

Good for S.C. Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, and the doughty and of Senate Republicans who believe that the long era of secrecy in S.C. lawmaking ust end. Local Sens. Ray Cleary, R-Murrells Inlet, and Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach, re among senators backing Peeler's bill to let ordinary South Carolinians in on how he General Assembly handles their tax money. Under present Senate rules and recently evised House rules, legislators too easily can obscure money-handling decisions and ositions with which their constituents may disagree.
The Senate Republicans' Spending Accountability Act would amend state law to equire roll-call recording of senators' and representatives' votes on: Each section of appropriations bills on second reading; Floor votes adopting House-Senate conference-committee and free conference-committee reports (most final budget decisions have their beginnings in these reports); Second reading of all bills and joint resolutions; Concurrence votes on Senate amendments to House bills, and on House amendments to Senate bills; Third (and final) readings of bills and joint resolutions amended after second readings. We can almost hear readers' eyes glazing over at all this legislative inside baseball. The S.C. representatives who last week approved House "reforms" that would allow many financial dealings to remain secret are counting on them to react that way. Too
many legislators like it when we see the inside stuff as boring.
The House rules changes require recorded member votes only on bills to raise or reduce taxes, to increase budgets by more than $10,000, to adopt the final version of the state budget, to reapportion the General Assembly or U.S. House districts,
to raise legislative pay and to amend ethics rules. That sounds like transparency but really isn't.
House rules, as amended, do not require roll-call votes on the measures itemized in the Peeler bill - even though the inspiration for his bill came from a House member, S.C. Rep. Nikki Haley, R-Lexington. The House refused to consider her accountability bill. And Speaker Bobby Harrell subsequently stripped Haley and another transparency reformer, S.C. Rep. Nathan Ballentine, R-Irmo, of their committee assignments. The two got punished, in short, for daring to suggest that House members should show their constituents how they handle public money.
Why should readers care that S.C. legislators, when stacked against their counterparts in other states, are among the least accountable legislators in the nation? For the answer, one need only look at how poorly the current-year state budget, which has imploded by more than a billion dollars, has worked out.
How did that happen when it was clear at the beginning of the year that the S.C. economy was headed for a bad place?
Who is to blame for this fiasco? There's no way to tell because the official record of the 2008 legislative session does not speak to the dozens upon dozens of procedural votes made during budget construction in the General Assembly.
Peeler says that if the House refuses to engage on his bill, he'll work to incorporate its provisions into Senate rules. The hope must be, however, that Harrell and his cohorts recognize the weakness of their rules "reforms" and unite with the Senate to make legislative transparency a matter of law.