What Is Larry Grooms Smoking?

He may not be the target of an investigation by Richland County (S.C.) Sheriff Leon Lott just yet, but more than a few Palmetto political insiders are asking the same question these days:

“What in the world is S.C. Senator Larry Grooms smoking?”

Once a champion of fiscal conservatism and market-based principles, this Lowcountry Senator has suddenly and inexplicably decided to roll over and play Marxist, acquiescing to the will of powerful Senate President Glenn McConnell on an issue that has exposed him as not quite the conservative he was cracked up to be.

Specifically, Grooms (R-Berkeley) has sponsored a bill that would effectively put the General Assembly in control of the embattled S.C. State Ports Authority (SPA).

Not only would this legislation impose new government mandates over the agency, it would also strip future governors of their ability to remove SPA board members at will, thus eliminating accountability at an agency that sorely needs it right now.

In pushing Sen. McConnell’s latest perpetuation of the status quo, Grooms has gone on the offensive against a common sense counterproposal by Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) and former Majority Leader Jimmy Merrill (R-Charleston) that would eliminate the board altogether and replace it with a true port CEO appointed by future governors.

In attacking Davis and Merrill’s proposal, Grooms now finds himself in the unenviable position of criticizing many of the things he claims to support – i.e. less bureaucracy, more accountability, a limited role for state government and the merits of the free market economy.

From today’s Greenville News:

(Davis and Merrill’s bill) would … create an easy path to privatization. The SPA would become little more than a landlord, selling assets and leasing publicly owned property to private, profit-driven companies.

Wait … private companies are profit-driven? Really?

The last time we checked, that’s a good thing, as companies that aren’t profitable either go out of business or rely on massive taxpayer-funded bailouts to sustain them.

This is why 93 out of the world’s 100 largest port facilities already use landlord-tenant agreements (including 13 of America’s 15 largest ports). In fact, neighboring states like Alabama, Florida, Texas and Virginia have created thousands of new jobs over the last few years using precisely this method of port management.

In the meantime, South Carolina’s Stalinist state-owned port system – led by political gadfly Bill Stern – has fallen off a cliff. Despite warnings from industry to change their outdated mode of port management, they have instead steadfastly clung to a “total state control” model that has all but slammed the door shut on thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in capital investment.

As a result, Charleston dropped from the nation’s fourth-busiest port to its eighth-busiest port over the past few years and last December lost its biggest client – all while politicians and SPA board members conspired to block private investment and stonewall a new deep-water port facility in job-starved Jasper County.

Of course, despite the fact that he’s endorsing the permanent ensconsement of such an anti-jobs, anti-invesment, anti-free market system, Grooms wants to make sure you know that …

I own my own business and make no apologies for being a pro-business, limited-government, fiscal conservative.

Please, Senator. Whatever you’re smoking … put it down.

The sad part is that we’re pretty sure Grooms doesn’t believe any of the horse manure he’s been shoveling in support of this bill.

For whatever reason, he’s carrying the water for McConnell, who has once again proven a master of “smoke and mirrors” when it comes to reforming yet another tragically-flawed state government institution.

Of course, sources tell FITS that McConnell’s chickens may be coming home to roost quite soon as it relates to “political meddling” in the affairs of the SPA, a story we hope to bring you early this week.

Also important to note in all of this is Gov. Mark Sanford’s utter failure to listen to the advice of those who encouraged him to appoint true free market conservatives – not political donors – to the SPA board.

Sanford’s conduct is further proof that the board should be abolished.

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