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Ports Authority Blasted

BUT WILL LAWMAKERS FINALLY TAKE ACTION?

FITSNews - August 7, 2008 - South Carolina’s woefully-underperforming State Ports Authority took it squarely up the yin-yang yesterday during a meeting with Charleston-area lawmakers. At one point during the contentious session, a frustrated Senate Majority Leader Glenn McConnell even suggested that “the time has come” to look at privatizing the management of our port facilities.

Never mind that “the time” to do so was actually over a decade ago.

Anyway, according to Daily Journal reporter Molly Parker, Sen. McConnell instructed the Ports Authority to study the possibility of privatization and report its findings to him. He also said he planned to hold public hearings on the issue.

In another story on the meeting from the Charleston Post and Courier , McConnell outlined his reasons for concern:

“I’ve got longshoremen living in my district, and they’re looking for work,” he said. “I’m seeing empty docks.”

Of course he’s seeing empty docks. While the rest of the nation has expanded capacity to meet global demand, South Carolina has rejected billions of dollars in private investment due to its insistence on a “total state control” model of port management. As a result, the port of Charleston’s competitive position has plummeted and a long-overdue port facility in Jasper County has yet to be built. All this despite clear warnings from industry officials as to the consequences of our state’s failure to change its flawed approach.

As has been the case for decades, the numb-nuts running South Carolina’s port system were full of excuses at yesterday’s meeting …

In the Daily Journal , for example, Ports Authority CEO Bernie Groseclose tried desperately to defend his agency’s abysmal record by blaming … wait for it … the currency market:

The weak U.S. dollar is dragging down the demand for imports, Groseclose said, though he acknowledged that the business drop at the Port of Charleston has been more severe than at other ports.

Success at terminals in Savannah, Ga., and Norfolk, Va., is sucking business away from Charleston, he said.

Responding to McConnell’s privatization idea, Groseclose noted that the SPA and the Georgia Ports Authority work under the same model and that Georgia has been the fastest-growing port in the nation for the past two years.

The difference in Georgia, he said, is that, several years ago, the state dumped a significant amount of taxpayer money into the creation of distribution centers.

That makes it tough to compete, but “we’re anticipating this year an uptick in our business,” Groseclose said.

Whatever.

The “weak dollar” certainly doesn’t seem to be slowing down South Carolina’s competition (who face the same conditions), and as for spending taxpayer money on infrastructure, Groseclose conveniently neglected to mention that Georgia’s state budget - which is currently facing a $1.6 billion shortfall - is three times as large as South Carolina’s.

Taxpayers here simply cannot afford to subsidize infrastructure the way Georgia can, nor should they have to - particularly when private companies are eager to pick up the tab like they do in Alabama, California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

In fact, of the top 15 ports in America, only Savannah and Charleston continue to reject public-private partnerships - which interestingly enough is why our taxpayers are having to pick up a $182 million tab this year to build a port access road. Sure it’s needed, but the sad reality is this road could have been completed years ago (along with a new terminal) at no expense to our state had the Ports Authority only agreed to ditch its socialist business model.

Yet while McConnell and House Majority Leader Jim Merrill have both begun to recognize the sheer lunacy of our state’s antiquated approach to port management - other lawmakers still seem have their heads in the sand.

Also from the Daily Journal :

Noting that the Port of Charleston dominated the Port of Savannah from 1986 until recently, Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, cautioned against panicking just yet.

“I’m not so worried that the sky is falling and we can’t recover our status to the extent we want to,” he said.

Wake up, fatty. The sky is falling.

Charleston will never be able regain its competitive position without the addition of new facilities - which, coincidentally, our state will never be able to afford without entering into public-private partnerships.

Accordingly, South Carolina’s Ports Authority board - which is controlled by Gov. Mark Sanford - should immediately lift its moratorium on private investment, something it could have done four years ago if the governor had shown any testicular fortitude with his appointments.

It should also immediately fire Groseclose and the band of idiots who have been propping up this failed institution for years.

Finally, McConnell and Merrill should lead the fight in the General Assembly to ensure that public-private partnerships are the law moving forward.

Otherwise, our state will continue to squander one of the few competitive advantages we have …

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