Annualization Annie, Et Cetera
JOIN ANNETTE YOUNG FOR SOME FITS-STYLE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE FUN
FITSNews – June 4, 2007 – Calling the current legislative process in the state of South Carolina a “clusterfuck” would be an understatement. In fact, it would be a downright compliment. It’s kind of like watching the Hindenburg crash into Apollo 13 on the deck of the Exxon Valdez during Hurricane Katrina – except without all the blimps, spaceships, oil tankers and category five hurricanes.
Whether on the state budget, DOT reform or workers’ comp reform, the S.C. General Assembly has devolved into a Planet of the Apes’ knife fight, as ethically-challenged “leaders” like State Rep. Annette “If We Don’t Spend It The Senate Will” Young are turning what should be common sense decisions on tax cuts, responsible spending and pro-business legislation into a poor man’s version of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Young – who has earned the nickname “Annualization Annie” for her insistence that we use $200 million in one-time money to fund recurring expenses at the efficiency-challenged State Department of Transportation – is getting the worst of it from what we hear. Basically, the DOT conference committee has pretty much consisted of Young getting tossed around (intellectually speaking) like a rag doll Annie by State Sen. Glenn McConnell, who has taken to publicly ordaining our coverage here at FITSNews as gospel at the hearings. Which of course it is.
House Majority leader Jimmy “Let’s Break For a Fundraiser” Merrill has grown so frustrated by the whole thing that he’s even accusing McConnell’s staffers of doubling as contributing writers for our esteemed publication, despite the fact that we’ve always viewed the South Carolina Senate as slightly to the left of Karl Marx on its best day.
Over at the workers’ comp conference committee, it’s basically Nikki Haley stepping up as the lone, intelligent pro-business voice amid a chorus of trial lawyers and trial lawyer sycophants. Word is she’s holding down the fort against the likes of Sen. Brad Hutto, who might as well have the words S.C. Trial Lawyers’ Association tattooed on his forehead.
Then there’s the budget … which might as well be called the Hugh Leatherman Pig Pickin’ Festival. Sure they got rid of the Green Bean Museum, but the current state spending plan still looks like a roomful of those morbidly obese people who are so fat they can’t even fit through their own front doors.
Finally, sitting on the sidelines is S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, who for the second year in a row has chosen to nickel and dime on his previously-held convictions in an effort to say he passed an income tax cut – any income tax cut. Never mind that the miniscule income tax relief “package” he’s pushing is only slightly less impotent than he’s been lately … politically speaking, of course.
We’ll be popping in on some of the committee meetings tomorrow, so stay tuned for more on South Carolina’s dysfunctional Republican majority …
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