Truth in Spending Speech

The following is the script for my speech at the press conference today.
• Thank you all for being here today and thank you Ashley & the South Carolina Policy Council for taking the lead in setting this event up.

• Recognize other members of the delegation present.

• I especially want to take this opportunity to thank those who have taken this public step to stand up for a concept that most people see as common sense; this thought that people have a right to know where and how their tax money is being spent.

• As Theodore Roosevelt said in a speech given in 1910, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deed could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,…… who spends himself in a worthy cause…..”

• Thank you for stepping into the arena.

• This year, I, along with Senator Larry Grooms, introduced the “Truth in Spending Act” that would require all state agencies and departments, counties, municipalities and school districts to post their expenditures on-line for you to see.

• I ask you who are gathered here today; Do you want to know how your taxes are being spent?

• In a June 14-17, 2007 poll of 1000 adults across the nation by American Solutions for Winning the Future, 69% (71% GOP, 68% Dem, 73% Ind) favored Congress posting details of earmarks on a publicly accessible web-site 72 hours before they can be voted on.

• Yes, citizens want to know how there hard earned tax dollars are being spent.

• Thomas Jefferson once said “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”

• During these difficult financial times much has been made about the reductions in the state budget, and while the General Fund portion of the state budget $5.7 billion is $1 billion less, many of you may not know that the overall budget for the state increases by $730 million.

• And while state public safety and prison needs are funded on a shoestring you will be happy to know that Spoletto will get their $100,000, The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition will get their $100,000, and an additional $1.38 Million in tourism promotion funds will go to specific mostly coastal Chambers of Commerce.

• Will the “Truth in Spending Act” solve this problem?

• Probably not. I do know that getting a budget at noon and voting on it at 2 does not work.

• And I also know that you as the taxpayers of this state have a right to know, and that right should not be hampered by a Freedom of Information Act process that is time consuming and expensive.

• I know that it is necessary for the preservation of our liberty that you be informed!