“S” is for South Carolina Commission on Government Restructuring

“S” is for South Carolina Commission on Government Restructuring. In March 1991 Governor Carroll Campbell appointed the thirty-eight member Commission on Government Restructuring to devise a blueprint for enhancing the powers of the state’s weak chief executive. The commission's report, issued in September 1991, called for a dramatic shift to a cabinet form of government similar to that used in forty states. However, the determination of lawmakers to maintain their power and agencies to maintain their independence combined to scuttle the plan in 1992. As key business leaders continued to insist on a government overhaul, a weakened version of the plan passed the following year after efforts were dropped to place restructuring in the constitution. On July 1,1993, Governor Campbell was given a cabinet of thirteen departments, with the ability to hire and fire at will eleven of those agency’s leaders.