Agenda for 2013, Texting Ban, Police in Public Schools – Bill Hixon Legislative Update

Dear Friends

On Tuesday, January 8, 2013, the House of Representatives convened in Columbia for the commencement of the 120th South Carolina General Assembly. We returned to Columbia with a long list of issues to tackle and only 20 weeks to work on them.

As the House begins its legislative session, the body operates under the rules it adopted with resolution H.3001 at last month's organization session, including a rules change that revises the COMPOSITION OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES LEGISLATIVE ETHICS COMMITTEE by increasing its size from six to ten members and providing for representation on the committee to be divided equally between the majority and minority parties. The Chairman of the Ethics Commitee must be one of the five members from the majority party and is elected by the members of the Ethics Committee. The other officers of the Ethics Committee are also elected by the committee's membership, but are not required to be affiliated with a particular party.

In order to have a strong voice in Columbia, I have to communicate with my constituents. And that is you! My website, newsletters, mailers and Facebook are the communication tools that I use. It takes extra time and campaign funds to maintain them.

If you would like to contribute, please mail a check to Hixon for House, P.O. Box 7927, North Augusta, SC 29861, or contibute online by going HERE.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE – JANUARY 23, 2013

Agenda for 2013:

The House Republicans issued our agenda for 2013 and focused on broad government reform. This year, many of the items on our agenda were dropped on us by outside forces (such as foreign computer hackers or President Obama). It is a smaller agenda than we have had in the previous years because these are all serious items that require serious debate and lots of research to see what the impact and cost will be to our state.

Since voters gave Republicans control of the House in 1994, the most significant legislative achievements originaed in the Caucus Agenda items such as: workers compensation reform, property tax reform, illegal immigration freform, campaign finance reform, and elimination of the Budget Control Board, amonth many others.

We have a history of accomplishing our agenda quickly and thoroughly. We plan to do that again this year. This year's agenda includes:

Election Reform: Legislation is being written to correct the 2012 election fiasco credit by the S.C. Supreme Court. Hundreds of people were kept off the ballot around the state by a minor technicality on how papers were filed. We will fix the law so anybody who qualifies for the ballot can run for office. I am on this Election Reform Committee.
Data Security: The hacking of the Department of Revenue's computers was one of the most shocking news events in our state in years. The House currently has a committee, chaired by House Majority Leader Bruce Bannister, examining both the data collected by the state and to ensure that data is protected in the future.
Update Ethics Laws: Ethics reform must be done to re-instill trust in our political system. Our current ethics laws were written more than two decades ago after Operation Lost Trust– before the wide proliferation of credit cards, electronic funds transfers, websites like PayPal, and the internet in general. It is clear that our two-decades-old ethics laws are insufficient for our 21st Century world.
Oppose Obamacare: Obamacare is a massive expansion of government healthcare that will cost our state taxpayers billions of dollars and put nearly 40 percent of our state on a government healthcare plan. We will fight the implementation of this law, and the massive tax increases that follow it. The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed states to opt-out of the most costly expansion of government healthcare, and this is what South Carolina will follow. We believe the best way foward is to expand our economy and expand opportunities for people so they can get well-paying jobs that provide health insurance. We sympathize with people struggling to pay for the high costs of medical care, but adding 17 percent from our state to government dependency is not a sustainable path forward.
Real Tax Reform: We knew tax reform would be a multi-year effort. Last year, only one of the seven tax reform bills we approved made it through the S.C. Senate. This year, we will again send the Senate bills to lower manufacturers' property tax rates to make us competitive with Georgia and North Carolina, flatten the personal income tax to lower income taxes and make them more equitable, and reduce special interest sales tax exemptions.
Grow our Economy: Every Caucus agenda has featured new ideas to make our state a strong, pro-business place. This year, we will fight to reign in the government regulations created by unelected officials, we will work to help small bsuinesses get more access to the capital they need to grow their businesses, and work on providing enhanced skills training so businesses can find workers and workers can find jobs.
Government Restructuring: Last Spring, we came within a Senate filibuster of the biggest government overhaul in two decades. The last-second effort to kill a bill that eliminated the Budget and Control Board was awful. We believe the time is still right to get this needed restructuring through and we will work to do so again this year.

State of the State Address:

On Wednesday night, January 16, 2013, Governor Nikki Haley delivered her third State of the State Address. Her yearly update focused on jobs, infrastructure, cyber security, ethics reform and health care. We were excited to hear Governor Haley give endorsements to so many of the issues we placed on our Republican caucus earlier this month. To view the complete text of the address click here.

Texting Ban:

The Public Works subcommittee gave unanimous approval to a bill H.3121 that bans texting while driving. It provides strong penalties for texting while behind the wheel, particularly if a person is involved in an accident that hurts others. Expers say distracted driving increases your crash risk while driving 23 times. While some feel this is another encroachment of their personal liberty, a Rasmussen poll shows 94 percent of Americans oppose texting while driving. Thirty-nine other states have a texting ban in place.

Police in Public Schools:

Every public school in South Carolina would have a trained police officer on-site, if a bipartisan bill introduced to the state Senate this week wins passage. This bill calls for the state to pick-up the annual tab of $30-$40 milion.

Road Money Needed:

The S.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) needs $29.3 billion over the next two decades to make the state road system "good" again. DOT Secretary Robert St. Onge stated the need for much more road money in testimony before the Senate Transportation Committee. Without significant additional funding, St. Onge told reporters his job is "to manage the decline of the state highway system." We must make additional road funding a high priority to remain safe and entice business and industry with more jobs.

Senator Tom Young:

Tom Young was elected to represent Aiken County District 24 in the South Carolina Senate. You can contact him by phone at (803) 649-0000, his cell phone at (803) 215-3631, by mail at 505 Gressette Bldg, Columbia, SC 29201, by email tom@senatortomyoung.com or visit his website by clicking here. Senator Tom Young also has a weekly newsletter and you can subscribe to it by visiting his website above.