It’s Back

In this time of economic uncertainty, you would think that Senator Hugh Leatherman’s monument-building army over in the wanna-be metropolis of Florence, S.C. might consider cooling its jets a bit.

After all, is this really the time to be pumping more cash into non-essential spending – including the most infamous of all South Carolina boondoggles?

Amazingly, Leatherman and his buddies think it is.

That’s pretty ballsy, especially considering that state funding for the notorious Green Bean Museum was about the only thing South Carolina’s ass backward General Ass-embly didn’t blow money on during their recent spending orgy – although Jim Rex did try to slip it a little cash through a “school choice grant,” of all things.

So if funding this abomination was a bad idea when cash was flush, what does that make it now?

Apparently, a steal at twice the price.

Not only did the Green Bean Museuam receive $400,000 from Florence County in October to enhance its “structural integrity,” but there’s a $3.9 million grant “obtained by Sen. Hugh Leatherman” for another museum that could conceivably spin some additional dollars its way.

Oh, and Florence County has also raised its hospitality tax specifically to provide “recurring revenues for the Florence Museum and the Lake City Bean Museum,” according to the Florence Morning News, a.k.a. the “Flo-Mo.”

Technically, Leatherman’s $3.9 million grant is for the construction of a new Florence Museum of Arts, Science and History, which is frankly about as necessary right now as a friggin’ green bean-induced fart.

But due to some curious governmental reorganization, sources we spoke with in Florence said that some of that money could wind up going toward the Bean museum – particularly if the County is able to get enough money from its tax increase to match the state grant.

From the Flo-Mo:

The $3.9 million grant obtained by Leatherman toward the construction of a new museum is a 2-for-1 grant, which means it’s only a viable grant if two other organizations commit $3.9 million …

“The issue now is where the county will get the remaining part of the match,” he said. “Whether that be from recurring revenues from the hospitality tax, grants from other foundations or public entities, bonds or existing funds or a combination of all of them.”

In other words, whichever turns out to be the most effective way to stick it up the taxpayers’ asses.

Of course, assuming they get that money, they’re already plotting to deprive S.C. taxpayers of still more cash in 2009. To wit:

Florence Museum Executive Director Andrew Stout said he expects to work closely with the Florence County Museum Board, along with the Florence Museum Trustees, to help secure state funding for the project in 2009.

“I also expect to explore any other funding sources available to construct a museum facility worthy of our collections,” he said.

“Worthy of your collections?” Good God. You live in Florence, dude.

We’re not world-renowned curators or anything, but our expert opinion is that you could take a blowtorch to every single inch of this worthless museum and nobody except these revenue-guzzling Leathermanites would be upset about it.

Seriously, people. This is the sort of sh*t that drives us up the damn wall – and it’s precisely the sort of sh*t that has to stop if this state is ever going to pull itself out of the dark ages.

There’s really no other way to say it, people – Leatherman and his Florence mafia must be stopped.