Thanks A Lot, Bill Stern
PORT OF CHARLESTON LOSING GROUND THANKS TO NUMBNUT COMMUNISTS RUNNING S.C. STATE PORTS AUTHORITY
FITSNews – January 15, 2007 - The Port of Charleston has dropped from No. 4 to No. 7 in the nation according to the American Association of Port Authorities‘ 2005 rankings, and South Carolina’s largest port is poised to lose even more ground when the 2006 rankings come out.
How come?
Well, it could be because Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia have all announced massive capacity expansions in recent years using private investment while South Carolina’s port leaders have basically sat around with their thumbs up their asses.
No surprise there, though.
It could also be because S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford (who claims to favor free market port expansion) is too much of a coward lacks the political will to replace anti-free market board members like Bill Stern, Tumpy Campbell and Harry Butler, each of whom would prefer we stick with the Karl Marx model of port management.
Predictably, the response of the “business community” and the “political leadership” in South Carolina to this situation is completely ass-backward. Instead of leveraging private capital like they do at 13 of the nation’s top 15 ports, these morons would rather spend your tax dollars instead. Even the “fiscally conservative” Sanford is willing to blow $100 million in his budget on a new port access road, a figure the Legislature is likely to double.
Here’s the only problem with all that taxpayer-funded generosity. In addition to expanding in Charleston, we also need to build a port in Jasper. But we can’t use private money in Jasper because somebody else owns the land and we have to condemn it (i.e. for public use) before we can build on it. The restriction against private investment doesn’t apply in Charleston, however.
So the obvious question is this – why are these idiots going to eschew private capital and spend hundreds of millions of public dollars in Charleston (where they aren’t required to do so) when they know good and well how desperately that money is needed for the Jasper site (which requires public funding)?
Must be Bill Stern’s idea of an “MLK Day present” to the thousands of African-Americans in Jasper County.
The State Ports Authority recently promised to bring the “full faith, resources and credit” of the State of South Carolina to bear on building a Jasper port.
Except it wasn’t recently. It was two friggin’ years ago. And nothing’s happened – well, except South Carolina falling futher behind the rest of the nation in yet another critical category.
Thanks a lot, Bill Stern.
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