Written By: Rick Brundrett
Power to the people.
That’s what Sen. Mike Rose, R-Dorchester, says he’s aiming to boost in sponsoring or co-sponsoring several joint resolutions filed this month that would give voters the right to:
- Initiate new state laws or constitutional amendments, or repeal existing laws (S. 97);
- Recall local or state officials from office during their terms (S. 97, S. 181); and
- Decide every 20 years, starting in 2012, whether to rewrite the S.C. Constitution through a constitutional convention. The last constitutional convention was in 1895. (S. 188, S. 189).
All of the proposals would have to be approved through constitutional amendments, which require a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate, and a majority popular vote in a statewide election.
Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, has prefiled similar joint resolutions (S. 67, S. 74) dealing with initiative, referendum and recall rights. On the House side, Rep. Nathan Ballentine, R-Richland, is sponsoring a joint resolution (H. 3008) that would give voters statewide initiative and referendum rights.
The Legislature reconvenes on Jan. 11.
“Why can’t we give power to the people?” Rose, an attorney, told The Nerve when contacted last week. “Why don’t we let the people decide?”
Said Ballentine when contacted this week by The Nerve: “People are saying, ‘We want common-sense things done in the General Assembly,’ and we’re not getting it done. It’s a problem that the 170-member General Assembly is not doing the will of the four million-plus people in this state.”
But John Crangle, an attorney and director of the nonprofit government watchdog group Common Cause of South Carolina, isn’t a fan of the latest legislative proposals.
