Herbkersman's 'homework' comes after he fails test

State Rep. Bill Herbkersman wants us to believe he's done his homework on a special tax incentive for The Sembler Co., and his support is a result of careful consideration.

But that "due diligence" came after Herbkersman sponsored the tax incentive last year and voted twice for it.

The Bluffton Republican has failed this legislative test, and no after-the-fact homework can make up for it.

Herbkersman couldn't defend either his sponsorship or his votes when asked about them last month. He said he was "bamboozled" on the subject. And now he wants us to believe he knows what he's doing.

He says he has "digested" the company's plan to control stormwater runoff from the 280-acre site and consulted with independent engineers.

He has "personal assurances" from Sembler management that the plan will be executed and "tweaked" where necessary.

He vows "serious and aggressive oversight" from the state if the company falls short. And he has visited a "flagship" Sembler property in Florida.

Too little, too late.

Herbkersman's stated concerns on this tax incentive came only after people in Beaufort County complained to him. As long as no one was complaining, everything was fine. Herbkersman's fellow members in the House, Reps. Richard Chalk and Shannon Erickson, also voted for the measure when it was included in an omnibus tax bill and voted to keep it in the bill when the Senate stripped it out. They, too, voiced concerns well after the fact.

But they didn't sponsor the measure, as Herbkersman did, and they don't serve on the House Ways and Means Committee, where the tax bill originated, as Herbkersman does.

Does he just say what he thinks people in the room want him to say?

That seems to be how Herbkersman ended up sponsoring a bill last year at the request of a town just outside Beaufort County. (He wouldn't name it publicly). The bill would have allowed police to issue "warning" tickets that came with an $80 fine (as good an example of an oxymoron as we've seen in a while.)

Allowing officers to write warning tickets for motorists going up to 10 mph over the speed limit would have encouraged police departments in rural areas near tourist destinations or major highways to pull over people going slightly above the speed limit in an attempt to generate revenue, Herbkersman told us -- after he had sponsored it.

If he thought that, why didn't he just say "no" to the people who asked him to introduce the bill?

That's going along to get along. We need leadership in the Statehouse, and we're not getting it from him.