The Governor made a brief stop in Newberry yesterday to give local residents a homework assignment.

As part of a two-day, 10-city “Harvest Tour” to “plant seeds,” Gov. Mark Sanford, Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and House Representative Nikki Haley of Lexington made a stop yesterday at Gardner Insurance Agency on Main Street.

Sanford encouraged the local contingent to help the state set spending limits, restructure government, increase governmental transparency and inspect ethics laws.

Sanford says the state has increased spending by 40 percent over the past four years. He pointed out that this is more than the growth of the economy.

The governor is asking for legislation to limit spending to growth in the population, plus inflation.

“You can't grow government at 40 percent when wallets are decreasing,” said Sanford.

Eckstrom used an analogy of a person looking at their checkbook to see where spending is going. But says the state's spending is so voluminous that it is hard to see the bigger picture of where the money is going.

Simplicity and transparency in government spending has been a talking point for Eckstrom for some time. Under Eckstrom's watch, he has unveiled a Web site www.cg.sc.gov for citizens to view state spending.

Eckstom also said the government needs to plan for hard times and not spend all of its money in times of surplus.

Sanford also encouraged the passage of a bill to create a Department of Administration, which would handle many of the current functions of the Budget and Control Board.

The move would shift to the governor budget responsibilities held by the executive branch in 49 other states.

Last session the bill passed the House, but died in the Senate.

In a bid for governmental transparency, Sanford and others are also calling for more on-the-record voting-the elimination of roll call votes.

Haley says that of all the bills passed by the House just 8 percent were recorded, and only 1 percent in the Senate.

She asked how a citizen can make an informed vote if they don't know what a person in the legislature is doing.

Haley also asked community members to contact their legislators asking them to sponsor the bill and to write letters to the editor to ask for a roll call.

Sanford wrapped up the “planting” by requesting disclosure of all campaign contributions within 48 hours of the candidate receiving them, in the two weeks prior to an election. The governor is also calling for the creation of “objective campaign finance enforcement” for the House and Senate. Sanford said there is too much job hopping between government regulators who then leave civil service to lobby issues in areas they regulated.