We lost a member Sen. Bill Mescher, Saturday who will certainly be missed. I enjoyed working with Bill and appreciate is straightforwardness and dry wit.

Family visitation will be tomorrow afternoon from 5-7 and the memorial service will be on Wednesday at 11 am.

Biography:MESCHER, William Clarence “Bill” [R]–(Dist. No. 44, Berkeley Co.)–Pres., William Mescher and Associates Mgmt. Consultants; residing at One Tranquility Lane, Box 1, Pinopolis; b. Sept. 5, 1927 in Belknap, Ill.; s. Clarence H. and Jane (Richards) Mescher; g. Univ. of Ill., BSEE; Northwestern Univ., M.B.A.; Aug. 1948 m. the late Shirley Sisson, 1 child, Barbara Micheau; Feb. 15, 1986 m. Sallie Kitty Stanley, 3 children, Kathy Johnson, Reed Tanner, and Karen Tanner; State Legis. Chm., Amer. Legis. Exchange Council (ALEC); past Pres. & Chief Exec. Off., Santee Cooper (S.C. Public Serv. Authority); past Pres., Amer. Public Power Assn.; Adjunct Professor, Univ. of S.C.; Registered Professional Engineer, State of Ill. & S.C.; Tau Beta Pi, Natl. Engineering Honor Soc.; U.S. Dept. of Interior Bird Bander; mem.: Bd. of Dirs., Tri-County Chamber of Commerce; past Chm., Berkeley Co. Museum; Amer. Legion; Moncks Corner United Methodist Church; past Bd. of Dirs. mem.: Adv. Bd., Natl. Soc. of Mechanical Engineers; Boy Scouts of America, Silver Beaver Award; life mem.: Greater Univ. of S.C. Alumni Assn.; VFW; S.C. Council on Econ. Educ.; Charleston-Trident Dev. Bd.; Charleston-Trident Chamber of Commerce; Charleston Symphony Orchestra; Coastal Carolina Council, Boy Scouts of America; S.C. Natl. Bank, Moncks Corner; past mem.: Natl. Soc. of Professional Engineers; Illuminating Engineering Soc.; Utility Technology Mgmt. Delegation to China; Gov.’s Southeast/Korea Intl. Trade Comm. & U.S./Japan Intl. Comm.; World Energy Conf.; Legis. Leadership Delegation of the Southeast USA to Taiwan; Paul’s Foundation Senator of the Year, 2001; S.C. Family Court Reform Serv. Award, 2002; The Hon. Order of Kentucky Colonels, May, 2003; Peidmont Municipal Power Ag. Legislator of the Year, 2005; Rotary Intl.; Elks Club; Masonic Lodge; Eastern Star; Shriner; mil. serv.: USA, Staff Sgt., Korea; prev. serv. in Sen. 1993-06.

As a member of the Legislative Audit Council, I will probably stand by our determination that the Second Injury Fund (SIF) needs to go:

“We found no evidence that the Second Injury Fund has an effect on promoting the hiring and retention of the disabled.

* Most claims to the SIF have been based on “unknown conditions,” in which the injured employee did not know that he had a previous disability. Unknown conditions cannot have an effect on employers’ hiring decisions.
* Since 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has protected potential employees and prohibits employers from questioning potential employees about their disabilities or previous injuries. At least 75% of employees in South Carolina are covered by the ADA.
* Arthritis is the most common disability for which the SIF provides reimbursement, cited in 80% of claims over the past three years. Arthritis is also widespread in the population, reported by 21% of adults. It seems likely that the SIF is paying for claims for arthritis that were not related to hiring decisions.
* We found no evidence that the majority of employers are aware of the SIF and its potential benefits.”

Click to read the Report at the LAC’s website

Thursday afternoon, the senate passed a bill that offers no reform. Basically, its like “rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking titanic”.

For the record, I did not vote for this bill, nor any amendments that scaled back the very good bill passed out of the Transportation Committee.

The Spartanburg goupstate.com gives a good assessment.

“The Senate plan is even worse. It includes the commission appointed by lawmakers and then sets up a committee of lawmakers to oversee that commission. This isn’t reform. It simply adds another committee to give further cover to whoever will be responsible for the next round of favors and waste at the department.”

This morning S. 84, the ultrasound requirment, was the topic of the ETV show “This Week in the Senate” – Featuring Sen. Glenn F. McConnell of Charleston – President Pro Tempore. Guests were Sen. Brad Hutto of Orangeburg, Sen. Jake Knotts of Lexington, & myself.

Now’s the time to really fix SCDOT (Sen. Grooms represents parts of Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton and Dorchester counties)

When’s the last time you sat idling in bumper-to-bumper traffic while your valuable time ticked away? Or were late to your destination because of poorly timed and uncoordinated traffic lights? Or slammed into a seemingly bottomless pothole and rounded a bend only to hit the brakes because of road construction?

You’re not alone. You and I and South Carolina’s 1.8 million other commuters see every day the unprecedented growth and change our state is experiencing. And as the Palmetto State grows and changes, so too must our system of roads and transportation change to meet our needs.

Yet as a recent independent audit shows, our state Department of Transportation seems trapped in the good-ol’-boy mentality of yesteryear. The Legislative Audit Council found the Transportation Department spent millions on certain road contracts without ensuring the most qualified contractor received the job. There was no evidence of how DOT negotiated contract prices; the department’s history with one engineering firm raised “questions of favoritism and ineffective management of resources” and the Transportation Department paid about twice as much as necessary to hire temporary employees, “mostly former SCDOT employees.”

Continued