On Wednesday, April 30, 2008, the spending caps bill (S. 718) has been amended by finance committee to:“When the balance in the Budget Stabilization Fund is greater than 15% of the prior year’s actual general fund revenue collection, 50% of the overage must be used for debt retirement and 50% must be used for capital improvement projects.”

In my opinion adding to capital improvement projects would be adding to a slush fund, which in turn, spending is not capped at all.

I agree with the Budget Stabilization Fund. It keeps us from the current roller coaster ride of up and down years. But with this committee amendment, the ride keeps going up at a sharp incline.

Greenville’s channel 4, covered this public meeting about government transparency!
                 
Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom called me this weekend with the unfortunate news of a death in his family. He will be attending a funeral Monday morning so he will be absent at our meeting on Monday at the Bagel Shop at noon. The Comptroller’s Chief of Staff, Nathan Kaminski, Jr., Esq. will be in Anderson at the Bagel Shop, however. As you may know already, the Comptroller’s office has offered to assist any local government with online reporting should my transparency proviso survive the SC House and the Budget Conference Committee.

          
Today, Sen. Jim Ritchie placed an objection on the whole calendar until another attempt is made at meaningful immigration reform. This means that the Senate will not take up any legislation until this matter is debated once again. We’ve found a new “vehicle” House bill H. 3032. Since this bill has passed the SC House already, we have the chance to beef up a piece of legislation, send it to the House. H. 3032 cannot amend this bill, only vote to “concur” or “non-concur”.
               
Sen. Ritchie has drafted a “strike-and-insert” amendment that inserts strict definitions of legal status of workers. I am also a sponsor of this amendment which will require all employers, whether State contract or not, to use either the e-verify or a SC drivers license to determine employees status. This is a great step in the direction of true immigration reform. A document called the “i9” is currently being used to verify status. This “i9” is virtually a joke (explained here), since the requirements to obtain an i9 are so lenient.

A pdf stands for portable document format. This format is commonly used when sending documents created in programs such as Word or Excel. If you send the original document, the recipient may not see the information as intended. Screen settings, printer settings, and other issues cause these differences. pdf’s can be created from any program, such as Quickbooks, Microsoft Money, or any professional book keeping software. It is very simple to create a pdf and post it on the web. primo pdf maker is a free download. pdf maker installs as if it were a printer. You simply click on “print” and select “primo” as your printer and boom you have a pdf.

If you have been following the recent debate, I’ve sponsored bills and provisos to require government agencies to post their expenditures online. Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom has verified this is being done already with over 70 agencies at not cost. I don’t know if the Comptroller’s office is using primo pdf maker or not, but I thought ya’ll would like the information.

House Walks Out On Immigration Bill

Ritchie vows to fight for strong illegal immigration reform

Columbia, SC – The House today walked out on illegal immigration reform. The Senate calls on the House to live up to its agreement. Less than 24 hours after agreeing to ask their members for a vote on private employer verification, the House failed to follow through on their agreement. After more than a week of political rhetoric, the House has failed again to take a decisive vote on legislation addressing private employer verification requirements.

“The people of South Carolina deserve better than what the House is doing,” says Senator Jim Ritchie (R-Spartanburg), Chairman of the Joint Legislative Conference Committee on illegal immigration reform. “The House has tried to kill this bill twice this year. They are hiding behind some strange interpretation of the rules to avoid delivering strong illegal immigration reform to the people of South Carolina”

The Senate has consistently led the effort on including private employer verification, while the House has offered little more than rhetoric and political maneuvering. The House had at least seven opportunities to vote on private employer verification and they have again failed to do anything to strengthen immigration reform.

Since 2006, the Senate has been working to deliver the strongest illegal immigration reform bill possible and remove the $186 million financial burden that illegal immigration places on the citizens of South Carolina.

After failing to secure the vote they had committed to yesterday, House conference committee members walked out on a conference committee meeting this afternoon.

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