The day I read that article, the Senate was on, what, it's fifth day debating an amendment to require people to pass a drug test before they could receive unemployment benefits. After it finally disposed of that fight and wrapped up the debate on the underlying bill to overhaul the ESC, the Senate in one of the most union-hostile states in the nation moved on to a proposal to amend the state constitution to pre-emptively nullify any law the Congress might someday pass to make it easier for unions to organize. And let's not even talk about that ridiculous stick-our-finger-in-the-president's-eye 10th (and Ninth, and Second) Amendment resolution, which carries absolutely no force of law, that bogged down first the Senate, and then the House and then the Senate again - because that's about the related but different problem of wasting time on completely pointless endeavors.
I write a lot about the need for legislators to do a better job setting priorities for spending. But they need at least as much to do a better job of setting priorities with their time.
So far this year, the Legislature has sent 12 bills to the governor, the most significant of which changes how the school board is constituted in a single county.
The House and Senate each have passed about 40 bills so far this year, and while that includes the ESC bills in both bodies, more typical are the ones to give the Summerville National Guard Armory to the town of Summerville, to add more members to the Patriots Point Development Authority and to change the black bass catch limit in lakes Moultrie and Marion.
Among the many, many bills that legislative committees met last week to consider were measures to establish a recycling program for bars, tighten the rules for dissolving nonprofit corporations, change the way members of The Citadel's governing board are selected, tweak the procedures for appealing magistrate court decisions and allow microbreweries to sponsor beer tastings.
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