2012 SC Legislative Priorities We are fast approaching the 2012 South Carolina Legislative Session, which begins January 10, 2012! It seems like only yesterday when we were bouncing around over Voter ID, Roll Call Voting, Budget, Immigration, Tort Reform, Redistricting, etc. I’m sure most of us remember that while there were some significant achievements, we were disappointed in the overall results. We walked away from the session muttering to ourselves, next year will be better.
But will it?????
There are some across the state that believe we shouldn’t “rock the boat” in an election year. They are generally concerned about their “favorite incumbent”. That concern translates to low expectations for the 2012 Legislative Session. On the other hand, many of us believe that an election year is the very time to engage with our legislators and actively support those who are working on our priorities. It’s also the time to “help” those who might be more timid about stepping out on a controversial issue/legislative bill with an election coming up. We need to help them understand that, with their support of our priorities, we will work diligently on their campaigns.
The Charleston TEA Party proposes the attached 2012 SC Legislative Priorities list as the basis for engaging our legislators in the House and Senate. We also propose the following approach beginning November 18 and continuing through the end of the 2012 Legislative Session:
Post the 2012 SC Legislative Priority list on our CTP web site and email blasts
- Make subscribers aware of priorities and solicit feedback
- Objective is to create interest and provide information that can be sustained throughout the session, so we can apply focus at key times on appropriate legislative issues.
- Solicit volunteers to participate on research, phone calls, posting FB, web site, Twitter, etc.
- This could be a “swat” team of folks who could mobilize on specific issues week to week as needed.
- We need volunteers, so pick your favorite topic and sign up
Present and discuss with our Lowcountry legislators. Let them know our expectations.
- This will be criteria used in next year’s election.
- Important to do this month, so we can contact all of them before the session begins
- We must engage and communicate before March 15 filing deadline
- Those incumbents without viable competition may be less interested. We need to let them know we are actively seeking new candidates across the state.
Thank you for your consideration, please join us in our 2012 SC Legislative Session project where we intend to define expectations, measure results not rhetoric and hold legislators accountable in November 2012 for the results achieved in the 2012 Legislative Session.
If you would like to be part of the team please fill in the contact form below and someone will get in touch with you with further information.
Download 2012 SC Legislative Priorities Here
I don’t see anything in there about nullifying Obamacare. What happened to being opposed to that?
How about nullifying the legal tender laws and allowing for competing currencies in South Carolina to help protect the savings of our seniors from the hidden inflation tax?
School Choice should be at or near the top of the list. We have a good chance to spring this from the table and pass it in the house early and then work on it in the Senate. FreedomWorks is planning a lot of assistance for a full scale effort this spring.
We should also be targeting the 16 Republicans who prevented the bill (H 3407) from passing on 25 May 2011. FreedomWorks is willing to help with that too if we can provide viable candidates. Jenny Horne was one, I believe.
Tom, I undertand and share your focus on repealing Obamacare. This list and associated focus is targeted to priority 2012 legislative issues that will be handled in Columbia by our state legislators. I’m trusting Tim Scott and the rest of our SC Congressional team to take care of Obamacare. This doesn’t mean that I, or others, am not interested in Obamacare, we just choose not to pile all state and federal issues into one list. Thanks for your comments.
J.R., I agree with you on school choice and that’s why it’s listed as one of the key education issues in SC education. As I stated in the above post, the list isn’t intended to be in priority sequence. I’ve seen that conservative subscribers have varying views of what item should be #1, and to spend energy and hours debating that online is time/energy wasted that could have been better spent engaging our SC legislators on whichever item you or I believe is most important at a point in time. Our focus here is to communicate to the SC legislators what our priority list contains and to engage with them to build support for our issues BEFORE the 2012 Legislative Session begins.
I like your suggestion of targeting the 16 GOP legislators, would you take on the job of driving that effort? By the way, I spoke with Jenny Horne about her vote and she supports school choice, her concern was that there were some big flaws in the bill that would lead to a serious funding problem if not corrected. She is pro school choice, but not through a flawed bill.
I would like to see the Charleston Tea Party promote the South Carolina FairTax Act (H=3993/S-274). It eliminates that state 7% personal income tax, which most small businesses pay, and the 5% state corporate income tax and replaces our current sales tax code with a uniform 6% sales tax on all new goods and services. Making South Carolina a zero income tax state will boost consumer confidence and enable small businesses to expand and hire!
I would like to help with the last item on the list, “Stopping the infiltration of Shariah Law” but Im not sure how I can help. What would it mean for me to head up this effort? What is involved?
Folks, “They” say that the FairTax will never pass because the politicians will have to give up too much power. That is exactly why I believe we must pass the South Carolina FairTax Act.
I want back the power that the politicians have over my life and the lives of my children. I want to make business decisions based on growing my business, not on minimizing the tax burden. I want the freedom to earn as much money as God gave me the ability to earn. Most of all I want my legislators to hear my voice, which under the current tax code is drowned out by an ocean of bottom-feeding lobbyists.
Politicians control half of the people with welfare in one form or other. They control the rest of us with the tax code. We must regain the upper hand. Just as passage of the SC FairTax would have been impossible without Roll Call voting, it would seem that accomplishing the items on the 2012 agenda will require passage of The SC FairTax Act (H-3993/S-274).
And after that – we clean up Washington DC!
I keep sending mail addressed to “they” and can’t seem to get it delivered. It keeps coming back recipient unknown….lol
We don’t publicly elect state judges here in SC, so the best you can do is petition the governor to not appoint any judges who are sympathetic to Sharia Law…
Personally, I’d like to see the 1802 law prohibiting the legal playing of “games of chance” (anything involving cards or dice) repealed… As Richard Todd proposes, crafting the replacement law so that churches and charities could host a casino night. If it was up to me, I’d also like to take it a step forward and legalize and strictly regulate gambling in the state, and in doing this as Richard Todd also says, “Turn the corridor of shame into the corridor of game… If you build it, they will come”. Instead of having to go to Indian casinos in bordering states every other year, I’d like to keep my money in state and go yearly. Just an idea.
Oh, I’d also like for liquor stores to be allowed to stay open past 7pm. Whether they close at 8 or 9 it doesn’t matter to me too much, 7 is hard to make sometimes. Once again, I wouldn’t be opposed to them being open on Sundays or liquor being sold in grocery stores as is the case in other states… But I also know that in a state as Baptist as our state is, there are some adequate middle grounds. Where capitalism meets Baptism
Chris, ‘They’ are destructive little moles. You know ‘They’ by the damage ‘They’ cause. Nobody has ever seen ‘They’ and lived to tell about it.
TPANick, I have to agree with you on the gambling front, as I never understood why bingo and poker machines is ok, but games of chance are not, and where we get off regulating someone’s leisure is beyond me when it does not infringe on anyone else’s rights. And as far as the liquor stores, I would also agree since we are regulating according to a time zone alone…..what is the difference of one hour going to make in the life of someone who wants a drink? ….lol
And Joyce, I think you have cured me. I will no longer seek to identify the “theys” of this world and will instead settle myself to knowing that THEY don’t really matter in my life at all……
Happy Thanksgiving all and may it be filled with a spirit of gratitude. The fact that we can sit comfortably and gripe and debate the woes of civilization online is enough for me to know that I have TONS to be thankful for!!
XOXOX
I want to echo what John Steinberger said… The Charleston TP needs to get behind EXISTING LEGISLATION, not just some wishful pie-in-the-sky dream that no one has put in writing or submitted to the state legislature in Columbia. The FairTax is an existing bill that has existing legislative cosponsors!
Please, get behind this existing bill and help push it through and onto Gov. Haley’s desk this upcoming legislative season. The bill is called The South Carolina FairTax Act (H=3993/S-274).
It eliminates that state 7% personal income tax, which most small businesses pay and the 5% state corporate income tax and replaces our current sales tax code with a uniform 6% sales tax on all new goods and services.
Help make our South Carolina a MAGNET for business and job creation! Zero income tax states by far outpace job growth when compared to states with income taxes.
In addition, please note that Romney, Newt and Santorum do not support the national FairTax (HR-25) bill that currently has OVER SIX DOZEN congressional cosponsors in the house & senate. Gary Johnson, Michelle Bachmann, Ron Paul have each said they would sign the FT bill if it gets to their Oval Office Desk!
Just as your life and your family is your business is your responsibility, the U.S. is YOUR Country… It’s up to you to hire “managers” in both the executive branch and in congress that will provide you with the best possible environment to allow your business and your family to thrive! And the FairTax would do just that.
Absolutely!….We have the FairTax Bill…a well-researched way to change our tax structure, waiting to be passed. Tea Partiers….Please get behind this bill…..We have the power to get things moving….something that hasn’t happened in years- REAL CHANGE….See scfairtax.org for more info and call your reps….make sure they know we want to get rid of our state income tax with the FairTax Bill!!!!!!!