Rep. Micah Caskey selling his amendment in the House./@TigerMuniSC
Yesterday afternoon I ran into my representative, Micah Caskey, on my afternoon walk, and asked what he’d been up to on such a fine Wednesday.
He was glad to tell me, as he’d had a good day doing worthwhile work for us all. He told me briefly about it, and followed up with more info today.
You know about Henry McMaster’s stupid Sanctuary Cities bill, the pointless solution to a non-existent problem. We have no Sanctuary Cities in South Carolina, a fact that no one disputes — but in order to pander to the Trump crowd, the governor would force South Carolina municipalities to file a bunch of red tape proving they’re not sanctuary cities, or lose state funding upon which they rely.
So Micah got the House to amend the bill to strip out the reporting requirements. You see, Sanctuary Cities are already against the law in South Carolina. Micah’s amendment would allow the state attorney general to take legal action against any municipalities suspected of the heinous crime of being nice to illegal aliens. (Currently, only a resident of the relevant municipality can can file a lawsuit to enjoin the city from adopting such policies.)
Micah did a nice job selling his amendment, bringing along this Powerpoint presentation to explain the actual facts of the situation, and what he proposed to do.
So basically, he managed to strip out the stupidest part of a stupid bill, minimizing the damage of what he termed the Incremental Growth of South Carolina Government Act.
Here’s how he summed up the change:
Original Bill
- Paperwork shuffle (ICR)
- Grows government
- Adds to SLED workload
- No due process
- Violators lose LGF
Caskey Amendment
- Empowers AG to enforce
- Due process ensured
- Protects rule of law
- Violators lose LGF
“LGF” means “Local Government Fund.” “ICR” means “Immigration Compliance Report.”
Nice job, Micah. This is a good case of, as you put it in your presentation, “Common Sense Trumping Politics.”
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By the way, here’s the upshot: With Micah’s amendment, the bill has passed the House and is headed for the Senate, where, as Rep. Caskey puts it, “it will likely die a silent death.”
It couldn’t happen to a nicer bill. But just in case it comes back to life, like Dracula, Micah has pretty well driven a stake in its heart, killing the worst part of it…
Oh, and by the way, I haven’t seen any coverage of this. Have you?
I’ve only looked at The State and the Post and Courier, so it may have appeared somewhere else…
And will the AG also be going after localities for plastic bag bans and other similarly rebellious acts?
Here’s what I love about this, which may be lost on others.
We live in a time when politics is often divorced from reality, particularly in Trumpworld.
Too often, people give up on having any faith that reason can prevail.
But Micah hasn’t given up. So he put together his highly logical Powerpoint presentation, explained why the governor’s proposal made no sense, and proposed a workable way to minimize its harm.
And people went along, because he made sense.
And that just doesn’t happen enough any more…
Maybe the politician should take up something a lot more critical than a sanctuary city debate. Anyone read the article in the Post Courier about the tons of bombs and poison gas dropped in the waters off the South Carolina coast after WWII? Some of them are starting to become very problematic and extremely dangerous. Just like the small island off Puerto Rico, Vieques, these discarded armaments are starting to decay and create serious health problems for the residents and visitors to the small island. The same will happen to South Carolinians sooner or later and if it starts, not only will it create havoc with health problems with coastal residents, it will destroy a large portion of the state’s income from tourism on the coast and potentially ruin the fishing, shrimping, and oyster harvesting.
The problem is that this went into the 1970s, done in the middle of the night without warning or letting the residents of the state know about it. Pretty sure some of our politicians not only knew but gave their blessing to the federal government and military to use South Carolina’s coastal water for a toxic and very dangerous dumping ground.
To hell with proposing and making an issue out of any town or city becoming a sanctuary city, look at what is really important and if this is not important enough, then this state’s political leaders on BOTH sides are downright stupid, ignorant, and self-serving.
South Carolina’s coastal areas were at one time the countries most important flyway for migrating foul and provided some of the best fishing and hunting grounds on the East Coast, rivaling the Chesapeake Bay. Now the offshore is coming close to being overfished and eating coastal seafood is problematic already. The once abundant ducks, geese, and other flying foul could literally darken the skies during migration but now they are very scarce. It took a concentrated effort to replenish the wild turkey population and if our coastal waters are to be saved, it will take a concentrated effort as well. I totally object to offshore drilling and wind farms until the discarded bombs and chemical weapons are removed and rendered harmless.
Don’t we have the right to expect the government to correct the damage and do so as soon as possible? It is not my normal position to tell anyone they are not being responsible citizens but if anyone doesn’t object to this, then you are not a true South Carolinian. If our coastal waters are contaminated beyond repair, most of our other problems will be of secondary importance. Maybe Senator Graham and Scott should be inundated with calls and letters about this problem because it is very real.
https://www.postandcourier.com/news/tons-of-explosives-chemical-weapons-dumped-offshore-south-carolina/article_17e76f0a-41b1-11e8-9391-4f2600445524.html
While I want to be “outraged” at this off-shore dumping, it does pale in comparison with the millions of tons of commercial garbage (including who knows what toxins) which SC welcomes from across the country to “our” landfills. It’s hard to get mad at the Federal Government when we willingly do it to ourselves year after year after year. And then off course, there is the second most radioactive site in America sitting on the Savannah River. Talk about an inherently dangerous threat to practically the entire state … if any event causes an airborne release we are all downwind from SRS.
All you listed is “outrage” worthy. I only added another one to the long list of “crap” this state takes in or tolerates. Indeed South Carolina has become a dumping ground for whatever other states don’t want to take care of. Our so-called conservatives are anything but conservative when it comes to protecting South Carolina and the quality of life in this state. But we can sleep well at night knowing our esteemed governor and our state government is protecting us from becoming a “sanctuary state”.
I have been pi$$ed off about everything you listed but the latest one was the last straw for me. If the people of this state want to live in a toxic waste dump, then continue to vote in people like our current governor and other state representatives who could care less as long as they perceive none of this affects them personally.
Some may not appreciate equating what is happening in South Carolina with Christianity but it has everything to do with anyone claiming to be a Christian. We are charged with protecting our environment and taking care of the bounty and blessings God has given to us. Voting to allow the poisons of all manner to be brought into our state and then shouting “hallelujah” from the “amen” pew on Sunday morning is a contradiction.
The rant list could go on and on but suffice it to say, sooner or later we will have to pay for the lack of effort and responsibility of the people we elect to represent us at the state level. We are already paying for the bad judgment at the federal level.
Not disagreeing with you at all, Bart, but on this: “continue to vote in people like our current governor…”
At least we can comfort ourselves that the people didn’t vote him into the governor’s office to start with…
Agree he wasn’t voted in but it was my intent to make my point clear that we shouldn’t vote in anyone else like our current governor. That is my omission and lack of clarity. I guess the article in the Post and Courier irritated me to the point of becoming more frustrated and angry at the attitude of so many of our fellow South Carolinians because “whut happens at the beach ain’t nun of my biznez” attitude. All I can do is voice my opinion and concerns to the elected representatives in Columbia and in Washington by writing, calling, and if certain situations were different, join a protest or march to further voice my displeasure.
I didn’t mean to correct you. I just wanted to note that we can take comfort from the knowledge that he wasn’t elected. We have so little to comfort us these days; at least there’s that…
Didn’t take it as a correction, just a clarification I should have included. Thanks.