Bobtailing’s Back

SOUTH CAROLINA LAWMAKERS HAVEN’T LEARNED THEIR LESSON

FITSNews – June 9, 2008 – Senate President Glenn McConnell doesn’t like what’s happened to his own bill promoting tax breaks on the purchase of energy efficient appliances … in fact, he took to the floor of the Senate earlier this session to declare it “unconstitutional.”

What happened? Well, McConnell’s bill got “bobtailed,” a term used to describe the process of unrelated (and typically special interest-driven) additions getting tacked onto bills at the last minute in an effort to improve their likelihood of passage.

There’s just one problem with “bobtailing” – it’s in clear violation of state law, which requires that proposed bills address “one subject.”  The S.C. Supreme Court specifically ruled multi-subject legislation unconstitutional in a high-profile 2005 case involving government watchdog Ned Sloan.  Unhappy with such flagrant disregard for the rule of law, Sloan sued over a bill known as the Life Sciences Act, which much like McConnell’s energy efficiency bill had morphed from a well-intended piece of one-subject legislation into a special interest “Christmas tree.”

For his part, Gov. Mark Sanford has been unequivocal in his stance against “bobtailing,” repeatedly vetoing bills that seek to take this unlawful end-around our State Constitution. Yet while Sanford and McConnell have both stood strong on this issue, sadly most state lawmakers haven’t learned their lesson …