The House Republican Caucus has a distinguished record of passing conservative legislation over the past 15 years. During that time, Rep. Annette Young worked overtime to promote reforms that matter to the people of Dorchester County. Rep. Annette Young provides the people of Dorchester a powerful voice in Columbia. She listens to the needs of her constituents and is a forceful advocate for Summerville and Dorchester County in the halls of the State House. In recent years, she has worked hard to approve lower income taxes, lower property taxes, and eliminate the grocery tax – all pieces of legislation that helped restrain government spending by returning money to the people who earned it. She has also served as a leading voice for streamlining our government and reducing inefficiencies by supporting measures to provide more accountability for the Department of Motor Vehicles, she chaired the committee to reform the Department of Transportation, and voted to give the governor direct control of more state agencies. She has also consistently supported constitutional amendments giving the voters the right to decide whether the governor should appoint many of our constitutional officers. This is just a small part of Rep. Young’s longstanding reform record. That is why I was surprised to hear some make claims that Mrs. Young fought against reforms in the Employment Security Commission (ESC) Restructuring bill, a bill in which I was the lead sponsor. Her objections were not to the reforms we were trying to bring, she only wanted to wait for the official Legislative Audit report of the Commission to make sure our reforms were targeted by implementing the reforms they recommended. I introduced and pushed for the ESC bill because I believe it needs to be controlled by our governor, the same way the Department of Commerce is controlled by the governor. I fully understand and respect the concerns Rep. Young raised and plan to work with her to implement positive reforms to the ESC next legislative session.