B.S. Spending June 30, 2008
Posted by fitsnews in : SC Politics , trackback
LAWMAKERS SLIP THEIR PORK IN RIGHT AFTER THE ELECTIONS
FITSNews - June 30, 2008 - Ever since we blew the lid on South Carolina’s utterly ridiculous “competitive grants program” last year, the scrutiny faced by this legislative slush fund went through the roof. Simply put, it has been one of the few scandals over at the State House that the mainstream media has actually seized upon. Yeah, color us shocked on that one, too.
Anyway, given all the attention, don’t think for a minute that it was an accident when the program’s top two slush-buddies - House Ways & Means Chairman Dan “Egg-tooth” Cooper and Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman - selected Friday June 27, 2008 as the day they would release the latest batch of bullshit spending.
Think about it, people. They posted this trash less than 48 hours after the last votes were cast in the 2008 Republican primary season …
And of course they picked a Friday, since nobody reads the paper on Saturdays.
Anyway, totaling $10 million, South Carolina’s first round of 2008 “competitive grant” awards are once again a hodge-podge of local goodies that have absolutely nothing to do with growing our state’s economy.
Seriously, can someone explain to us how spending $30,000 to fund “general operating expenses” at a privately-owned Dorchester County Children’s home is related to economic development?
We’ve got nothing against taking care of kids, but to call that a “competitive grant” is ridiculous.
But that’s just the beginning of the child care spree - there’s another $60,000 for a Children’s home in Clinton, S.C., $75,000 for the Sunshine House in Anderson, S.C., $45,000 for a new YMCA facility in Cherokee County, $74,551 to re-floor the YMCA gym in Laurens, S.C., and $65,000 to construct a child therapy center in Greenville.
Sadly, these are among the more justifiable expenses in what is otherwise an assortment of complete and total pork barrel garbage.
We’ve got the Sons of Confederate Veterans getting $5,000 to “educate” people about the “Battle of Anderson,” while the town of Liberty, S.C. gets $5,000 to reenact the “Battle of Central.”
Then there’s Rep. Cooper’s $100,000 haul for the “Great Southeast Balloon Festival” in Anderson, S.C., which is in addition to the $80,000 being spent on the “Freedom Weekend Aloft” balloon festival in Simpsonville, S.C.
There $20,000 for Sen. Leatherman’s hometown “Pecan Festival,” but we’ve also got $15,000 for the Pine Ridge, S.C. “Neighborhood Festival,” $12,000 for Spartanburg’s “FestiFall,” $18,000 for Conway, S.C.’s “Round the Fourth Festival,” $10,000 for the Lexington County Peach Festival (oh, and $30,000 to place some nice new trees along the side of the parade route in downtown Lexington). There’s also $8,000 for a rodeo in Swansea, and $20,000 for Greenville’s “Scottish games.”
Need a little Christmas cheer? Well, there’s $10,000 for “Christmasville,” an “outdoor walking art tour” in Rock Hill, and $10,000 for the Holly Hill, S.C., “Christmas Prelude” parade.
Of course it’s more than just festivals …
This batch of “competitive grants” also spends $24,000 to upgrade the “downtown circle fountain” in Barnwell, S.C., $30,000 to construct a Blacksville Heritage Museum, $30,000 to build a new garden in the town of Central, S.C., $35,000 to “Save the Chapin (S.C.) Theatre,” $28,000 to build a new “skate park” in Spartanburg, S.C., $15,000 to develop a “SC Rock Art Center” in Pickens County, $40,000 to build a “multi-functional sports complex” in Moncks Corner, S.C., $25,000 to repaint a water tower in Johnsonville, S.C. and $5,000 to “purchase (the) town mural and clock” to celebrate Elgin, S.C.’s centennial.
And let’s not forget the $20,000 lawmakers spent to refurbish tennis courts in the town of Coward, S.C. - a fitting name for the porkers who released these grants just two days after the elections.
These expenses - and dozens of others included within these ridiculous spending lines - are an affront to the taxpayers’ sensibilities under any circumstances, but they constitute nothing short of a slap in the taxpayers’ face during a declining revenue period.
To think we’re cutting budgets for prison guards and state troopers and fretting over having enough gas money for police cars and school buses while we’re funding this bullshit is truly depressing.
Stay tuned for more as we pour through this latest “Batch-O-Bullshit …”
Comments»
Why depressing? This is what the election cycle is all about. When is the next popfest coming around? November…remember the names, remember the games, and vote the incumbents out. The way to real necessary change is not rhetoric but action. They haven’t gotten the message yet, continue to replace them and they will. Even politicians can learn fear when confronted with an informed electorate.
How about a managerial audit of the Governor’s office? Talk about wasting money. Or, how about his esteemed militay service? How did he get that age waiver and what has he done for his country? Why was he not deployed with his unit? When he joined he was running for Governor so that should not preclude his service. I think this is a bunch of BS too. So, what do you think?
#1:
Is that you, Rick Beltram?
Leatherman is nothing but a Democrat that ran as a Republican because of his district. The state as a whole sent Sanford there the rest of them are elected from their home area and that is why they send the pork and Sanford cannot accomplish a thing. If South Carolina doesnt change this legislative process we will wallow at the bottom of this cesspool called government forever.Party no longer pseaks for anything and I think we need to form a group in South Carolina and start some recall elections. Center on them one at a time. I think Spartanburg showed what could happen when people get fed up and the Leathermans in the legislature need to have their Crowns stripped from them.
do you think the people in those cities think it’s pork? No. It is the same problem in DC. That the locals want it and until there is a unified approach to ending it the exigencies of local politics will win. That requires statewide leadership. Something sorely missing here and in Washington.
#3 No, and why do you assume that a slug asskisser like Rick Beltram would write something like this? Rick’s concern is powerbrokering/ass kissing to get ahead in his tiny kingdom. Would he ever push for change at the ballot box to elimenate the slugs in Columbia if there weren’t something in it for him? Change in this form elimenates/exposes slugs for what they are and the deals they broker.
FITS: Just to clear up one item: The $60,000 for the “children’s home in Clinton” is to be used for building improvements on the Thornwell Children’s Home campus to prepare for the move of the state FFA Headquarters from Myrtle Beach to Clinton - a project we have been fighting for from an economic development position since Fall 2007. This will not only locate jobs to our area, but will bring thousands of people to Clinton each year for meetings and events. Unlike most of the spending items you mention, we went after this money for, in my opinion, the right reasons. Rep. Jeff Duncan
Yeah Will - just so you’re clear, the money isn’t going to some children’s home! It’s going to renovate a FORMER children’s home campus to make way for the state chapter of Future Farmers of America! Man…and to think you mistook it for something crazy like helping needy children. Do they bring in boatloads of jobs like…um…the FFA?
Didn’t think so. Stupid kids. You sir, have been served!
I see that “Not So Bright” is visiting the site again, Will.
Dunno if you’re attributing correctly Jeff, but I’ve got to admit that is sort of what it sounded like you were saying.
[...] FITSNews - July 6, 2008 - It’s been said that all we do around here is criticize people without offering any solutions of our own. Of course that’s bullshit, but it’s always nice when our friends in the South Carolina mainstream media see the light of what we’re saying. [...]
[...] that Cooper is getting beaucoup Democratic love for his efforts to waste as much of your cash on totally useless crap as he possibly can - oh, and that the petty regionalism which holds our state back is alive and [...]
[...] interesting stuff while he’s gone, including another potentially huge scandal connected to S.C. lawmakers pet project slush fund … possibly even bigger than this [...]
[...] Anyway, here’s how this time-honored big government charade works … when the economy is good, lawmakers like Hugh Leatherman, Dan Cooper and Converse Chellis spend every last cent of the money you send to Columbia. Sure, they make a big deal about passing a random “tax cut” here or there, but they always raise another tax in order to keep things “revenue neutral” (i.e. to keep the pork flowing). [...]