"Meet Your Rep" event draws more interest in C4L
South Carolina's Lexington County C4L held its first "Meet Your Representative" event on Thursday, Jan 22nd 2009. Nikki Haley, who is leading a statewide effort to require every vote in the General Assembly to be recorded spoke to the attendees. We all got the chance to know her on a more personal level. After her comments, she answered questions for about 30 minutes.
At the conclusion of the question and answer period, I gave the attendees a brief description of C4L and handed out contact information cards with a check box to request more information. Out of 33 attendees, of whom 10 were already C4L members, we got 5 requests for more information. Below is a summary of Nikki Haley's remarks, and some pictures. Thanks to Gloria Black for taking notes and typing up the summary. Thanks also to Trey Black, Chelsea , Alex Black, Suzannah Byerly, David Byerly, and Taylor Byerly for helping with last nights event.
Meet Your Representative January 22, 2009
87th District Representative Nikki Haley
The meeting was held in the County Council Room of the Lexington County Administrative Building and was conducted by Talbert J. Black, Jr. He welcomed everyone and then introduced Representative Nikki Haley. There were 33 people in attendance.
The following is a paraphrasing of her comments:
She began by making the point that the voices of the electorate are needed for good government. Her parents taught her "don't complain about it, do something about it." As an employee in her family's business, she realized that the government was involved in the business much more than she felt it should be, so she decided to not complain about it, but to do something about it-run for the South Carolina House of Representatives.
After she and her seat mate in the South Carolina House of Representatives saw important legislation being passed by a voice vote without most of the legislators even being aware of what they were voting on, they decided that this needed to be corrected so they introduced a bill to require votes on money matters to be by roll call so that legislators could be held accountable by their constituents on their votes. The 2008 Spending Accountability act was written and introduced by them. It languished in committee until the end of the session. They reintroduced the bill in 2009 as the 2009 Spending Accountability act and included provisions for a roll call vote on all matters for second and third readings. It is now in the House Ways and Means Committee. A fellow legislator introduced a bill providing for similar accountability in the South Carolina Senate. Both houses enacted rule changes that provided for this accountability for this year but she encouraged everyone to contact their senator and representative and insist on a law requiring accountability instead of just a rule.
Her research showed that 92% of the votes in the House of Representatives and 99% of the votes in the Senate last year were passed on a voice vote. She reiterated that the legislative seats and the votes belong to the people-not the elected officials. The reason that the rule change was agreed to by a vote of 115 to 0 was because the public became involved. The House bill is H-3047 and the Senate bill is S-11.
She stated again that we need responsibility from and we need accountability from our elected officials. Elected officials need political courage. Change happens when the public sees a problem, notifies their elected officials that it is a problem and that it must be changed. Principle is more important than power. Frequently, the legislators forget that they work for us. She quoted Thomas Jefferson as follows: "When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself public property".
The South Carolina budget has grown by $1,000,000 every year since 2005. Growth in government is what is creating the problem. Government is not intended to be all things to all people. She outlined the following items as things that citizens need to insist on:
1. On the record voting 2. All check registers for the governor's office and the legislature need to be on line 3. Spending caps 4. Make every agency more accountable 5. Zero based budgets 6. Limited government (Reform never stops. Change is important) 7. Stop talking. Start acting. 8. Thank legislators when they do something good
As a general rule it is a waste of time to contact a legislator that is not in your district. The exception being, if a bill is in a committee, then you can contact each member of the committee to let them know how you feel about the bill. To contact a legislator, it is best to call their office and ask a member of their staff whether the legislator responds better to phone call, letters, or e-mails. Then contact him in whatever way they recommend. Letters to the editor are the best way to make it known to the whole political body how you feel on an issue. Sending e-blasts to your contacts requesting that they contact their legislators is another effective way of addressing an issue. Attending committee meetings is another good way to let it be know that you have strong feelings on an issue. Anybody can testify before a committee.
A 30 minutes period of questions and answers followed with much audience participation.
There were 33 people in attendance.
Categories: Campaign For Liberty, Education, Grassroots News, State Legislation Tags: lexington, C4L, meet your representative, talbert black, Nikki Haley Showing comments 1—5 of 5
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