Meanwhile, the House has also been jockeying about with DOT reform. It’s a little harder to tell the good guys from the bad with the game-playing going on in that chamber.

Rep. Tracy Edge (the main guy pushing the latest incarnation of PPIC today), put up an amendment Tuesday to abolish the transportation commission and make the DOT a Cabinet agency. He spent only a couple of minutes arguing for the amendment, and it certainly sounded cynical: If we’re going to reform the department, let’s have REAL reform. This is, after all, the man who recently told The Sun News "I have a hard time seeing that the system was bad for Horry County, so why change it?" And his amendment was offered right after he and others lost their attempt to let local legislators continue to select commissioners, rather than letting the full Legislature select them.

One other note: The amendment was inartfully drawn; it does not make clear that the governor can remove the secretary, although that is strongly implied. That probably wasn’t deliberate — merely a reflection of the author’s insincerity.

No one felt threatened enough by the amendment even to ask a question, much less speak against it. Rep. Cooper merely moved to table it, and the House complied. The vote is below, from the Journal.

Rep. EDGE explained the amendment.
Rep. COOPER moved to table the amendment.
Rep. EDGE demanded the yeas and nays which were taken, resulting as follows:

Yeas 71; Nays 36
Those who voted in the affirmative are:

Agnew                  Alexander              Anthony
Bannister              Battle                 Bowen
Bowers                 Branham                Breeland
R. Brown               Cato                   Chalk
Chellis                Clyburn                Cobb-Hunter
Cooper                 Crawford               Dantzler
Frye                   Funderburk             Govan
Gullick                Hamilton               Harrell
Hart                   Hinson                 Hiott
Hosey                  Howard                 Huggins
Jefferson              Kelly                  Kirsh
Leach                  Limehouse              Littlejohn
Loftis                 Lowe                   Lucas
Mack                   Mahaffey               McLeod
Miller                 Moss                   J. H. Neal
J. M. Neal             Owens                  Parks
Perry                  Pinson                 E. H. Pitts
Rutherford             Scarborough            Scott
Sellers                Shoopman               Simrill
Skelton                D. C. Smith            G. R. Smith
J. R. Smith            Spires                 Taylor
Thompson               Umphlett               Walker
Whipper                White                  Whitmire
Williams               Young
Total–71

Those who voted in the negative are:
Anderson               Bales                  Ballentine
Barfield               Bedingfield            Bingham
Brady                  Brantley               Ceips
Clemmons               Cotty                  Davenport
Delleney               Duncan                 Edge
Hagood                 Haley                  Hardwick
Harrison               Hayes                  Herbkersman
Hodges                 Jennings               Kennedy
Knight                 Merrill                Mulvaney
Neilson                Ott                    G. M. Smith
Stavrinakis            Toole                  Vick
Viers                  Weeks                  Witherspoon

Total–36

Related Posts

• Micah Caskey’s thoughtful words on gas tax bill
• Thank for the leadership, Speaker Lucas
• Speaker Lucas is right to trash the Senate GOP roads plan
• The Senate, as is its wont, resists reforming DOT
• SC DOT: One example of how SC constantly underfunds basic functions of government
• Breathtaking euphemism: Cutting health care payments in SC
• Also, there’s the fundamental issue of accountability
• Haley wants to drop one thing Sanford did right
• Anton Gunn on why B&C Board didn’t need the money
• Does Sanford really want us to be counted?