Echo Chamber – Budgetary Insanity

WILL S.C. LAWMAKERS EVER LEARN?

FITSNews – April 20, 2008 – Only if you’re a member of the S.C. General Assembly (and by definition mildly-retarded) does it make sense to cut programs that create revenue so you can preserve programs that don’t.

But that’s exactly what the S.C. Senate did last week, cutting $12 million in tourism advertising and $7 million in economic development funds so that it could maintain an $18.5 million legislative slush fund of questionable economic development value.

How questionable? Well, here is just a smattering of some of the “competitive grants” awarded out of this fund last year …

- $100,000 to Anderson County to support the Great Southeast Balloon Fest

- $98,000 to the Auntie Karen Foundation to produce a 30-minute TV pilot program to promote Jazz to young viewers

- $240,000 to support festivals in Florence County

- $98,000 to the Fountain Inn History Museum

- $50,000 to the Garden Club of SC to create a “Serenity Garden” at the SC Oncology Center

- $10,000 to the town of Gaston to support a Collard Festival

- $100,000 to the town of Gifford to renovate and buy office furniture for the Town Hall

- $129,000 to renovate the Laurens County Museum

- $10,000 to Lexington County for the “Doo Da” parade and funfest

- $100,000 to Mount Pleasant for the Sweetgrass Basket Pavilion and Parking Facility

- $20,000 to the S.C. Philharmonic for a “Cherish the Ladies” concert

- $100,000 to the Sumter County African-American Cultural Society to “support the acquisition of additional facility space.”

- $200,000 to the Upstate YMCA to replace existing bath houses at Camp Cherokee

For a complete list of all the useless crap that this slush fund went to pay for last year, click here.