There was a lot of talk in the House this week about what to do about the Supreme Court’s ruling that knocked many candidates off this year’s election ballots. But while a debate raged about what the House could do about it, we moved legislation restructuring government, and the Senate moved a key piece of our House tax reform plan.

Sometimes in politics, we spend all of our time worried about the political ramifications of a decision and trying to figure out who will “get credit” for what happened. Last week, we took steps to significantly restructure our state government – something you may never notice in your everyday life.

Last week, the House unveiled a plan for the most sweeping restructuring of government since Governor Carroll Campbell was in office back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We’re eliminating the quasi-executive, quasi-legislative Budget and Control Board, and giving 90 percent of its previous authority to the governor.

So, why does this matter to you?

First, it’s the right thing to do. South Carolina’s state government is dominated by the legislature, that is pretty clear. The Budget and Control Board (B&CB) had many powers, and provided many services, that should be in the Governor’s Office. As the Chief Executive of the state, the Governor should run the executive administration of the state.

We created a “Department of Administration” inside the Governor’s cabinet. Then we moved items like General Services – that maintain the grounds of the Statehouse, maintain the state motor fleet, and disposing of surplus property. We moved items such as Information Technology, Human Resources, the administration of the State Retirement System, and the like to the Governor’s Office.

So, I ask again, why does this matter to you?

This makes our state government more efficient and more accountable. No matter your political party, that is a goal for all of us. While restructuring these agencies, we were able to cut 10 percent of the FTEs (a salary unit) that were vacant or unfunded – immediately making the executive branch smaller.

Our Department of Administration proposal will now go back to the Senate, where it will most likely end up in a House-Senate conference committee. With six weeks left in the legislative session, we believe this legislation will become law this year.

You may never see the results of this restructuring in your daily life, but the actions of the House this week should make state government better. Since you fund state government with your tax dollars, this will benefit you since you own your state government.

This week, the House also gave approval to a bill that will provide tax incentives for companies that build data centers in our state. South Carolina and North Carolina are a hotbed for these because of our inexpensive power, abundant water, and – in the case of the Upstate and Western North Carolina – reasonably immune to natural disasters. We needed to pass the bill to match the incentives offered by North Carolina, where eight of these data centers have been opened recently.

A data center is a massive warehouse of computers run by companies like Apple, Google, IBM, Amazon.com, Facebook, telecom companies, and banks, among others. These centers do not bring a huge number of jobs but the smaller number of jobs are highly-paid positions. A media report on the bill this week said the ones that did open in North Carolina averaged 50 jobs paying between $50,000 and $80,000 each.

When these incentives are finally in place, we expect to see a number of these companies open facilities in South Carolina in the future.

One other major item of note this week: The Senate Finance Committee moved our conservative tax reform legislation that slashes the small business “active income” tax. This piece of legislation slashes the business income entrepreneurs report on their personal tax forms from 5 percent to 3 percent so they can invest in, and grow, their businesses. This should lower the average tax paid on these returns by about $1,000. This directly helps thousands of South Carolina families who either own small business or are self-employed. This reform will be implemented over 4 years. We’re proud Senate conservatives are in favor of this legislation and we hope it will be law soon!

Thank you again for allowing me to serve you in the South Carolina House of Representatives!

First let me take this opportunity to thank Mayor Raines, and the Mauldin City Council for again hosting our second Town Hall meeting at City Hall this year. It was again a well attended, and very lively event!
Now on to the report!
Tax reform took a major step toward reality this week as the House Republicans ushered through three major pieces of our comprehensive tax reform package – returning $143 million to working families and small business owners.
This was “Crossover Week” in the General Assembly. Crossover is a May 1st deadline that means a bill originating in one body must be received in the other body by the Deadline to receive normal consideration for that year’s session. This establishes a set workload for each body going into the final weeks of the session. Legislation can be considered after the deadline, but the receiving body must take a 2/3 vote to be able to even take up legislation sent after the deadline. 
Crossover Week is a busy week as everyone in the House wants to ensure their legislation has a chance to at least be heard on the floor of the House. We debated more than 60 pieces of legislation this week, which resulted in three long days on the House floor.
But enough about “How a Bill Becomes a Law” and back to the tax reform laws approved this week.
We hoped to accomplish a little more on the tax reform front this year, but approving these three bills is a major step forward in our goal of statewide comprehensive tax reform. The Caucus built bi-partisan support for cutting taxes on small businesses, cutting income taxes, and streamlining our sales tax exemptions. This was excellent work for the first year of this process.
The three bills approved this week were submitted by the Republican Caucus Tax Reform Study Committee, which met throughout the off-session in 2011 to study the tax code and make recommendations that could become actionable legislation. Seven pieces of legislation were drafted (several had duplication for procedural reasons). The three that came to the floor this week were:
Slashing small business “active income”. This piece of legislation slashes the business income entrepreneurs report on their personal tax forms from 5 percent to 3 percent so they can invest in, and grow, their businesses. This should lower the average tax paid on these returns by about $1,000. This directly helps thousands of South Carolina families who either own small business or are self-employed. This reform will be implemented over 4 years.
Flatten the income tax. We collapse our five tax brackets (3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 percent) to two (3.75 percent and 7 percent), which makes the tax code more coherent while giving all South Carolinians a tax cut or no change in their liability. Those in the current 3 percent bracket will be held harmless so their taxes do not increase.
Eliminate special interest sales tax exemptions while preserving the ones that benefit families (such gasoline, food, electricity, water, medicine). The House Republicans targeted sales tax exemptions that have outlived their usefulness or outlived their original purpose. The original list of eliminated exemptions was much longer, but many groups proved their exemptions were not arbitrary. This bill is in direct response to the South Carolina Democratic Party chairman’s lawsuit that would result in all of the sale tax exemptions being eliminated, resulting in a $3 Billion tax increase.

From the first meeting of the study committee, we stated that major, systemic reforms don’t happen overnight, and the Caucus will continue to study and refine these proposals and re-introduce them next year.
The three bills now head to the Senate, and early media reports were skeptical of passage. I’m proud of the proposals the committee made, and I’m looking forward to continuing the fight until we get these common sense reforms signed into law. I hope conservatives throughout our state will make their voices heard for tax cuts.

Easter and Passover are both a solemn and joyous time for Christians and Jews throughout the world. The religious celebrations also coincide with the rough half-way point for the South Carolina Legislative session.

The House of Representatives will take two weeks of furlough – allowing our legislator parents and grandparents to spend time with their families during traditional spring break holidays, and saving the taxpayers $100,000. The traditional furlough is also a time to look back at what we have accomplished, and what we still have to achieve, in this session.

This year, the House has approved sweeping reforms to our state retirement system. Those reforms will allow the state to keep pension promises to state employees while ensuring the retirement system doesn’t become a black hole for taxpayers. The House also approved the Right to Work Act. This legislation identified more than a half-dozen places where our Right to Work Act could be strengthened to protect our workers, and protect individual liberty. Every South Carolinian should have the right to work and make a living for his or her family without being forced to join a union or pay dues. Union participation should be a matter of choice for any worker, but our workers must be protected from undue coercion or influence by unions or businesses.

The Speaker of the House filed legislation this week that will ensure we hold the First in the South primary – whether it is a Republican or Democrat primary. The bill costs the state nothing, but ensures the tens of millions of private-sector spending that follows the Republican and Democrat nominees for President.

Finally, the House Republicans are moving tax reform legislation through committee as we head into furlough. The Caucus’s Tax Reform Study committee focused on creating a fairer tax code. Legislation is working through the process that will eliminate nearly two-thirds of the special interest sales tax exemptions, flatten income taxes, lower the sales tax, reform property taxes, and lower burdensome taxes on small businesses. We expect to take up all of these bills before the end of April.

We also approved a balanced budget that returned $600 million to taxpayers, set aside money to expand our ports, and gave teachers their first pay raise in four years.

In 1994, South Carolina voters entrusted the House Republicans with control of the S.C. House of Representatives. And for the last 18 years, the House Republican Caucus has been the starting point for much of our state’s most significant reforms.

This year, we have made great strides on passing the conservative legislation that our constituents have asked us to pass.

We’re proud of our record, and we are anxious to get more than a dozen items we passed last year through the Senate in the weeks that remain, including: a state spending limit, shortening the legislative session, reforming how bureaucratic regulations are created, and critical new pro-life protections.
Thank you for giving us the support to get all of these items through the House. We look forward to working with Republican conservatives throughout our state to make all of these bills the law of our state.

I wish you all a happy and healthy Easter and Passover, and I hope you all enjoy springtime in our great state.

Two major reform items moved through the House this week as conservatives approved historic changes to shore up our retirement system and began hearings on our comprehensive tax reform plan.

The first item was an overhaul of the state retirement system, a move that will save taxpayers $8 billion over the next 30 years while slicing more than $2 billion from the retirement system’s deficit. These changes ensure the system will be there for state retirees – workers like police and teachers – while also ensuring the state retirement system doesn’t become a black hole for taxpayers.

The changes made to the plan include:

• Employees must pay one percent more out of their paychecks, with an additional one percent from the employers.
• Employees must pay more money to buy “service time” to retire early.
• Employees cannot use vacation days, sick days or overtime pay to calculate retirement
• Benefits will be calculated using the last five years of salary, instead of three.
• New hires must work 30 years before they are eligible for retirement, up from 28; police officers and firefighters can still retire after 25 years.
• New hires are not eligible for the TERI program, which allows workers to retire and then return to work while collecting benefits.
• Lawmakers may not retire and draw benefits while still serving in the Legislature.

The changes would affect all of the more than a half-million members of the state retirement system and the police officers retirement system. Our retirement system faces serious long-term problems, and we were proud that Republicans and many Democrats joined with many of the state’s employees and retirees in coming up with a solution that requires shared sacrifice.

Nevertheless, some Democrats tried repeatedly to keep the status quo in place, despite the future negative cost to taxpayers and huge potential negative impact on state finances.

Also this week, members of the House Ways and Means Committee began work on the Caucus Tax Reform package so we can get the bills to the Senate in time for that body to pass the plan before the end of session.

The bills that moved out of subcommittee this week were:

• Flatten the income tax. Collapsing six tax brackets (0, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 percent) to two (3, 7), which gives 4 out of 5 South Carolinians a tax cut or no change in their liability.
• Slash small business “active income tax” rate. We slash the rate they pay from 5 to 3 percent so they can invest in, and grow, their businesses.
• Cut the business property tax rate from 10.5% to 6%. The top business property tax rate is a problem for businesses of all sizes. The 10.5% rate is an obstacle in recruiting major manufacturers. It’s a problem for medium-sized businesses trying to expand without the political power to get exemptions. It also hurts small businesses with expensive equipment – such as small manufacturers, construction companies, and companies with large technology investments. The net revenue reduction is approximately $56 million.
• Drop the property tax assessment rate on commercial and rental property from 6% to 5%.

I look forward to getting these bills out of committee next week and on the floor when we return from our Easter furlough – a traditional break that saves the taxpayers $100,000.

The South Carolina House of Representatives passed a balanced, conservative and responsible budget today by a historic 115 – 0 vote.
I am very proud of the fact that this budget is 1% below my House passed spending limitation, and the Governor’s spending limitation.
The budget also fully funds the reserve account increase mandated by voters almost two years ago now ahead of schedule.  This is important for maintaining our ability to weather downturns in our economy.
The budget provides for $600 million in tax relief.  Of that, $549 million goes to a property tax relief fund with $77 million in SUTA tax relief for every single South Carolina employer.
This is done while giving state employees a much needed 2% raise.  Why is it a much needed raise?  State employees have not been given a raise in 4 years.
We were also able to fund an increase in the base student cost to $2,012 for next fiscal year.
And on a matter very important to our industry in the upstate we were able to set aside funds for our match for the deepening of our Port.
Other budget items of note:The total General Fund budget (recurring and non-recurring) is $6.5 billion.The total budget from all funds (general fund, federal, and “other”) is $23.3 billion.There is $549 million in the budget for property tax relief for homeowners.The budget includes $77 million in unemployment tax relief for businesses.Funded Medicaid at current levels.Budget growth falls nearly 1% below the spending cap approved by the House last year. More than 50 agencies are funded at or below last year’s levels.Since the GOP took control of the House in 1994, we have cut the number of funded state employee positions by 15%.

COLUMBIA – The House Republican Caucus wants to change how everybody in South Carolina pays taxes. Rep. Tommy Stringer and the Caucus Tax Reform Study Committee filed a package of seven bills Monday after eight months of study.

“This is tax reform that gets to the heart of the Republican Platform: ‘support a tax policy designed to help the economy grow, not stunt the taxpayer,’” said Rep. Tommy Stringer, R-Greer, the chairman of the study committee. “Lower taxes and a more efficient government are THE core tenants of our beliefs and years of tinkering around the edges have created a state tax code that is dense, unwieldy, and unfair to many taxpayers. We aim to take a major first step toward reform with this legislation.”

The package consists of seven major reforms:

1)       Cut the business property tax rate from 10.5% to 6%. The 10.5% rate is a problem for recruiting major manufacturers. It also hurts small businesses with expensive equipment – such as small manufacturers, construction companies, and companies with large technology investments.

2)       Eliminate two-thirds of the special interest sales tax exemptions while preserving the ones that benefit families (gasoline, food, electricity, water, medicine). This is achieved with a corresponding sales tax rate decrease to offset the increased revenue collections.

3)       Slash small business “active income”. Our small businesses need help. We will slash the business income entrepreneurs report on their personal tax forms from 5% to 3% so they can invest in, and grow, their businesses. This should lower the tax paid on these returns by about $1,000.

4)       Flatten the income tax. We collapse our six tax brackets (0, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 percent) to three (0, 3, 7), which makes the tax code more coherent while giving 4 out of 5 South Carolinians a tax cut or no change in their liability.

5)       Review all sales tax exemptions every 5 years. Nearly all of the sales tax exemptions given by the General Assembly had a viable and defendable purpose at one time. We call for this review by re-creating the Joint Tax Review Committee that operated in the House and Senate many years ago.

6)       Drop the property tax from 6% to 5% on commercial and rental property.

7)       Eliminate the corporate income tax. This is achieved by cutting the rate by 1.25% per year over four years.

“This package is not ‘revenue neutral,’ and if everything except the commercial property cut is included, this is a $220 million tax cut,” said committee member Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken. “This package is ‘revenue negative’, which appropriately reflects both our insistence that the tax code is unfair and the core Republican principle that we are overtaxed.”

Rep Dan Hamilton, R-Greenville, said: “This is the first step in a long process. We need conservative activists, the Tea Party, and anybody who believes in the Republican Platform to help us. The legislative process is messy and sometimes maddening, but if we conservatives across the state come together, we can live up to the call of the Republican Platform to create “a Tax Policy which promotes prosperity.’”

Video Message: School Choice & Tax Reform

This week was a historic one for education in our state. The House Ways and Means Committee moved a new school choice bill to the House floor.

School choice has been a divisive issue in South Carolina for years. This year, more than 60 Republicans have sponsored the bill (only 63 votes are needed to approve legislation) and several other Republican Caucus members have said they support the bill.

House Ways and Means Chairman Brian White told the media this week that this legislation represents a home-grown solution to a difficult issue.

This year’s bill, allows parents to take a $4,000 tax deduction per child for tuition paid, $2,000 for home-school expenses, and $1,000 if you send your child to a public school outside of your home district. There is no phase-in for parents who already qualify, and everybody can claim the deduction beginning next year.

It also allows people or companies to claim tax credits for donating to nonprofits that give scholarships to poor, disadvantaged, or disabled students. But the legislation also caps the total amount the state can credit – the total amount can’t exceed $10 million for scholarships awarded to students, and $15 million for students who qualify for school lunch programs (a measure of poverty in our schools).

To combat the argument that private schools are not accountable to the state, the legislation also includes a requirement that private schools that accept the state money must post standardized test results online.

The cost of the plan is a fraction of previous years’ proposals, but because it is not law yet, it has not been figured into the House budget that we will debate next week. We will put the cost into the budget if it is approved by the Senate.

As we prepare to debate the state budget next week, there was one other item that caused a stir when the governor made some erroneous comments about tax relief in the proposed House budget.

This year, there is more than $540 million in tax relief, and since voters gave control of the House to Republicans in 1994, we have approved more than $20 billion in tax cuts – and those are only the tax cuts that have made it through the state Senate.

Next week, the Caucus will unveil a tax reform package that goes far beyond anything proposed by the governor. It is a comprehensive plan that eliminates two-thirds of the special interest sales tax exemptions, lowers the sales tax, flattens the personal income tax, and cuts corporate property taxes. It is my hope that we can work with the Governor in our efforts to make our tax code fairer to the individual taxpayer and more productive for job growth.

Each of the bills in our tax reform package will require much help from citizens across the state, as well as our governor, to get through the state Senate this year.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge, at least, the situation in the Senate.  Yesterday Lieutenant Governor Ken Ard resigned after being indicted by the State Grand Jury.  This situation has cast a dark shadow on the state, and the office of Lieutenant Governor for the last year.  While all the changes in the leadership of the Senate are yet to be fully realized, I hope this will bring some closure, and will provide a lesson for others.

Thank you for letting me serve you in Columbia. There are busy weeks ahead as we debate the state budget. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at 864 963-0337 at home or at my office in Columbia at 803 734-3045 or at GarrySmith@schouse.gov if you need any assistance.

There are two weeks before the House takes up the state budget that I wrote about last week.

This week, the House worked to clear committee agendas and the House calendar of other legislation before we take up the budget.Below are a few pieces of legislation of note from this week:

STATE PORTS: South Carolina House Republicans and Democrats alike overrode Gov. Haley’s veto of legislation overturning a water-quality permit to deepen the Port of Savannah.The overwhelming vote, 111-1 in the House and 39-0 in the Senate, was a strong rebuke to the Governor. As Rep. Jim Merrill said from the House floor: “Once again, (Haley) is working more on behalf of Georgia, when it comes to this permit and this issue, than she is on South Carolina.”At issue was the water-quality permit for the Savannah port that was issued by the Haley-appointed board of DHEC. The permit clears the way to deepen the port, which will cause major environmental damage in Jasper County – where South Carolina would like to develop a new port – and puts our Port of Charleston at a competitive disadvantage with Georgia. This was a terrible decision and a decision based on politics, not the facts on the ground.

RETIREMENT SYSTEM REFORM: This week, a plan to reform our underfunded state retirement system was introduced in the House.  This is one of the planks of our Caucus Agenda for 2012 that we introduced a few weeks ago. The plan cuts the deficit in the retirement system by more than $2 billion and decreases some benefits for state and local employees. Employees have to pay 1 percent more from their paychecks and saves taxpayers $8.3 billion over the next 30 years.The plan also requires new employees to work 30 years before retiring instead of 28 and uses the last five years of salary to calculate benefits instead of using the final three years.

RETIREMENTS: Republicans got word late this week of the retirements of two major leaders in our party. The first is the announcement that House Judiciary Chairman Jim Harrison will not seek re-election. Jim’s district includes parts of the city of Columbia and Richland County. He is the second longest-serving Republican in the House, and one of only five remaining Republicans who were present when the GOP took control of the House in 1994.He was elected Chairman of the Judiciary Committee immediately after Republicans took control of the House in 1994 – taking over for the future Democrat governor, Jim Hodges.Jim has a distinguished record of public service to our state and our nation, and every member of the House respected him for that service. In addition to his service in the House, he is retired colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, and he served in Operation Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia, Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti, and Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia. I’m disappointed that he decided to retire, but our state is better for his service.

I received word late Friday that Senator Greg Ryberg of Aiken also decided not to seek re-election. He is a stalwart conservative in the Senate and has worked hard to push some of our state’s biggest reforms through that body. He was always a friend to the House and will also be missed.

Thank you for letting me serve you in Columbia. There are busy weeks ahead as we debate the state budget. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at 963-0337 or at GarrySmith@schouse.gov if you need any assistance.

Arguably the most important bill the House debates each year is the Appropriations Bill – the legislation that spends your hard-earned tax dollars.  This week, the House Ways and Means Committee approved the first version of the 2012-2013 budget. The highlight of the budget is an increase of the “base student cost” to $2,012 in 2012, sending more money down to our state’s classrooms – an increase designated to give teachers their first pay raise in four years.As our economy steadily improves we were committed to passing a budget that met a few critical tests: One: live within our means;Two, making reserves a priority; Three, funding core missions of State government; Four, investing in programs that have proven successful in helping put people back to work, and Five, improving our State’s infrastructure. 

We achieved all of these while staying within the spending cap passed by the House last year.Education is a priority for the House. Majority Leader Kenny Bingham said in a statement this week that we funded the base student cost at $2,012 because it was a bold commitment with our limited resources. We wanted to highlight that education is important. We are still below the base student cost required by state law, but we are moving the state in the right direction and mandating this increase goes to rewarding the crown jewels of our schools – our teachers and support staff.The budget sets aside $180 million to dredge the Port of Charleston – one of our state’s largest economic engines. That amount is the state’s portion of the project once it is approved. We believe the money we set aside for the port is a commitment to the Federal Government that we are serious about this expansion. The House Republicans hope this commitment will speed the process of deepening the port.The House also included funding 50 new state law enforcement officers and expanded healthcare coverage to underprivileged children. It also increases the size of the state’s reserve funds faster than the constitutional mandate voters approved in 2010.This spending plan falls well below the spending cap approved by the House last year. The House is committed to passing legislation that restrains the growth of government to levels that are sustainable.  While the newest version of the bill is not yet law, the House Ways and Means Committee has made it a priority to live within the parameters set by that legislation.One other major item in the House this week was the Senate’s approval of the Department of Administration legislation that the House sent to the Senate last year. As I write this, most members of the House have not had a chance to review the 99-page amendment the Senate included, but the House does have some concerns about initial Senate plans to eliminate the Budget and Control Board (good) while replacing it with EIGHT new agencies (bad). But I will reserve judgment on the legislation until I have had time to review the final version of the bill.Thank you for letting me serve you in Columbia. There are busy weeks ahead as we debate the state budget. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at 963-0337 or at GarrySmith@schouse.gov if you need any assistance.

Eighteen years ago, South Carolina voters entrusted the House Republicans with control of the S.C. House of Representatives. And for the last 18 years, the House Republican Caucus Agenda has been the starting point for much of our state’s most significant reforms.Our agenda has included property tax reform, tort reform, campaign finance reform, the creation of charter schools, illegal immigration reform and workers’ compensation reform, among many others.Last year, we unveiled an agenda that we expected to take two years to complete. As it turned out, we were able to complete it in 19 Wednesdays, or “Wicked Wednesdays” as the Democrats called them. This year, we’re tackling a smaller number of bigger, systemic reforms critical to the future of our state.The top item on this year’s Caucus agenda is systemic tax reform. Rep. Tommy Stringer, R-Greer, chaired a Caucus tax study committee last fall and legislation from that committee will be introduced in the next few weeks. The committee focused on creating a fairer tax code and examined each of the sales tax exemptions on their merit. It then looked across the tax code for ways we could be fairer to taxpayers and stimulate the economy. The legislation being written will eliminate nearly two-thirds of the special interest sales tax exemptions, flatten income taxes, lower the sales tax, reform property taxes, and lower burdensome taxes on small businesses.One agenda item was completed this week with approval of the Right to Work Act. This legislation was filed last month by Chairman Bill Sandifer, identified more than a half-dozen places where our Right to Work Act could be strengthened to protect our workers, and protect individual liberty. The bill was pre-filed with the entire Republican Caucus signed on as co-sponsors.Every South Carolinian should have the right to work and make a living for his or her family without being forced to join a union or pay dues. Union participation should be a matter of choice for any worker, but our workers must be protected from undue coercion or influence by unions or businesses. The current Administration in Washington is engaged in a direct assault on private businesses locating in our state, as evidenced by action against Boeing and its threats of a lawsuit because we protected our workers’ right to a secret ballot. I’m proud that we got that bill through the House and on to the Senate.The next item on the agenda is shoring up the state retirement system, which threatens not only tens of thousands of state retirees and their families, but also threatens the wallets of millions of taxpayers.Several members of the Caucus sat on an ad-hoc committee, chaired by former House Majority Leader Jim Merrill, that searched for solutions to the retirement system problem. The state retirement system faces a major unfunded liability problem, and the extent of that problem depends on who is calculating the numbers.What is clear is this: We made a promise to state employees and many of them understand we must make major changes to the system to keep it solvent. We also have a responsibility to the taxpayers to ensure the retirement system doesn’t bust the state budget for years to come. We are nearing completion of a plan that will fulfill our promises, and it will require sacrifice from everyone.The House GOP also wants to cement the First in the South Primary status for both parties – a position that gives our state a uniquely strong position in selecting the eventual Republican and Democrat nominee for President.Finally, the House Republicans will push the Senate to approve the 14 items from our 2011 agenda in that body.If the Senate acts, we still have time to approve 14 items that we sent to the Senate last year. Included in these are important reforms for conservatives: a state spending limit, shortening the legislative session, reforming how bureaucratic regulations are created, creating a Department of Administration, and critical new pro-life protections. Republicans across the state urge the Senate Republicans to break the logjams and pass these items quickly.