Opinions from around South Carolina: ethics reform, Conservation Bank, legislative session

Ethics reform

If the Legislature is to be taken serious on ethics reform, it first will have to pass a bill that includes a provision for independent review of ethics complaints against legislators.

Unfortunately, there are still legislators who contend that the House and Senate need to “take care of our own,” as Sen. Paul Campbell, R-Berkeley, explained to our reporter on the issue this session. That viewpoint is the biggest impediment to ethics reform.

It ignores that all other elected state officials in South Carolina are required to submit to an independent investigation and judgment of ethics complaints by the state Ethics Commission. …

The refusal, so far, by senators to allow independent review is one of the main reasons that lawmakers lack credibility on the ethics front. Having legislators continue to deal with ethics complaints about their colleagues will never be viewed as anything but “the fox guarding the henhouse.” And correctly so.

Conservation

The robust development that many of us celebrate for the jobs it brings and the opportunities that it offers comes with a price. Left to its own devices, such growth can advance rapidly and bluntly as it responds to a marketplace that concerns itself solely with the whims of consumers and the discipline of the balance sheet.

This is why all South Carolinians have a vested interested in supporting the South Carolina Conservation Bank as it goes about its mission of improving the quality of life in our state through the conservation of significant natural resource lands, wetlands, historical properties and archeological sites. Funded ever so minimally and unpredictably through an indirect tax, the S.C. Conservation Act has been a key part of the conservation of some of the most well-known natural resources in our area over the past decade.

To ensure a bright future and good health for the Conservation Bank, state legislators must in good faith remove the uncertainties of both its funding and more importantly its existence. That can be easy to do if legislators act openly and forthrightly on legislation now working its way through the legislative process.

Stellar session?

It’s looking like another stellar legislative session is wrapping up in Columbia.

We don’t have a sarcasm font in our software, but if we did the above sentence would be in that font.

Ethics reform? Nah, who needs that? Certainly not South Carolina. Certainly not our lawmakers. Oh sure, we’ve heard from the governor and members of the state House and Senate that ethics reform is a top priority. Only problem is, whatever is supposedly at the top must be buried under a mound of something. Perhaps some lawmakers covered ethics reform with fertilizer? Indeed, they are adept at producing fertilizer.

▪ “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

▪ “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”

This story was originally published May 2, 2015 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Opinions from around South Carolina: ethics reform, Conservation Bank, legislative session."