South Carolina state Senator Greg Ryberg announced in the state’s General Assembly that after requesting the information from the state’s revenue department he was informed that 12 members of the General Assembly had failed to file tax returns at least once between 1999 and 2007. In light of this revelation, Ryberg has introduced three bills in the state’s legislature that states that anyone who has failed to file a tax return or failed to pay their income tax liability or penalties in full for any of the last ten years would be barred from being elected to any public office in the state or from being appointed to any office by the governor. From his speech to the General Assembly: South Carolina deserves, it has a right to expect, that their elected officials not only follow the law but stand above reproach in their financial dealings…The idea that any member of the General Assembly would hold the laws of this state in so little regard that they simply ignore them when they find them inconvenient truly offends me. One wonders how far a similar bill would get in the US Congress. Probably not far, considering the many tax problems encountered by Obama’s appointees (don’t forget Sebelius) and high profile lawmakers like Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel.
