Murrells Inlet Rotary members and guests welcomed S.C. Governor Mark Sanford Tuesday during the club’s regular meeting.

This is the first time the governor has visited the local Rotary.

But this was one of many recent governor visits to Rotary clubs in the state.

“We are honored to have Gov. Sanford here,” said Mark Hawkinson, president of the Murrells Inlet Rotary.

During his visit to Captain Dave’s Dockside Restaurant overlooking the inlet, Sanford outlined his goals for the next legislative session.

These include working together for reform, restructuring of agencies and creating spending caps for the state economy.

After apologizing to the group for his recent indiscretions and “letting you all down,” Sanford said now that it is clear he is not running for president people can finally take his positions on issues seriously.

“I think we have some opportunities now that we haven’t had in a long time,” Sanford said.

He said that it is not how hard people in the governor’s seat or in the legislature push that makes change, but how hard people push for change.

“Like no other time in my life, I understand that now,” Sanford said.

His goals

His first goal is restructuring some aspects of our state government.

He started with the department of administration, which is now run by a budget control board.

Sanford asked the Rotary members if they could name the members of the budget control board.

None said they could.

“How much accountability is there in a group when people don’t know the names of the members,” Sanford said. “The buck has to stop somewhere.”

He said South Carolina is the only state in the nation that has this type of system.

The governor and the lieutenant governor should run on the same ticket, Sanford said.

Another goal is to put a cap on government spending.

“Whether you are on the left or right, I think we can agree that sustainable spending is a good idea,” he said. “We need to link the growth of spending to the underlying growth of the economy.”

“We need to force the priority setting process like a family or a business,” Sanford said.

The last goal Sanford mentioned was to reform the Employment Security Commission, which he did not have time to go into detail about.