S.C. Governor Mark Sanford’s fight to keep $700 million in federal “bureaucratic bailout” funds from paying for recurring spending in South Carolina escalated Friday afternoon as the governor said he would not seek certification of these dollars – which represent about a quarter of the state’s so-called “stimulus” money.
“We will not be seeking the use of these federal funds for the way they put our state even further into an unconscionable level of debt,” Sanford said. “If our General Assembly chooses to make use of this federal money, we’d ask them to use existing state resources to begin paying down our state’s sizable liabilities. Now is the time to do so, because it will give us more flexibility in addressing future needs at a state level if this economic downturn is indeed protracted. We simply cannot afford to base 10 percent of our state budget on money that will disappear in two years’ time.”
Expect S.C. lawmakers – even those who have publicly supported the governor’s position – to move quickly to request the money, although it remains to be seen whether they will adjust their version of the state’s $21 billion budget (the largest spending plan in South Carolina history) to pay down debt.
Our guess on that? Not a chance in hell with RINO’s like these guys still managing the purse strings.
Sanford had previously asked President Barack Obama for a waiver that would have allowed South Carolina to use the money toward debt repayment, but Obama rejected that request while his Democratic National Committee launched a TV ad bashing Sanford for refusing the money.
As we noted in our story earlier this week, the back-and-forth over these funds has obviously helped Sanford’s standing for a possible 2012 candidacy at the national level – an opinion shared by Washington Post blogger extraordinaire Chris Cillizza.
In a column ranking the Top Ten “Republicans to Watch” nationwide, Sanford is now in fourth place – ahead of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
From Cillizza’s story:
The back and forth between national Democrats, who funded an ad attacking the South Carolina governor for rejecting some of the stimulus money, has nothing but upside for Sanford. It elevates him in the eyes of Republican primary voters and reaffirms Sanford as the unapologetic voice of true fiscal conservatives. Of Sanford, one senior Republican source said: “He’s becoming an establishment [Texas Rep.] Ron Paul who may end up being exactly right on the economy.”
In related news, we’ll have a story this weekend on how public time and resources are going to aid the efforts of local bureaucrats who oppose Sanford’s stance on the bailout funds.
It’s yet another example of how our state employees – particularly educrats – are doing everything except the jobs we pay them to do.
Check FITS tomorrow for that report …
By Natasha March 20, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Glad to see someone standing up to federal shenanigans by Repubs and Dems alike. This whole stimulus/bailout thing is awful. Just let these crooked businesses fail and rebuild. That’s what the market is about right? It has to adjust, but with the trillion or so dollars printing right now, is it all really going to help or just add to the problems of our economy? Can SC secede yet? Seriously…
By Tradd March 20, 2009 at 3:48 pm
No love from Boyd Brown.
By Snead March 20, 2009 at 4:16 pm
And this is yet another example that our state’s highest elected official is doing everything except the job he was elected to do.
By Gillon March 20, 2009 at 4:19 pm
The key phrase here is ‘has obviously helped Sanford’s standing for a possible
2012 candidancy at the national level.” I’m sure this is very satisfying to those 10.4% of SC’s population who are unemployed and the thousands of others in danger of losing their jobs in the state with the nation’s fastest growing rate of unemployment. What part of the meaning of the phrase “economic stimulus” does our governor not understand? God help them, because Mark Sanford surely does not care to.
By anonymous March 20, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Natasha Sanford, you can go back to sleep now.
By anonymous March 20, 2009 at 5:17 pm
There are No Security Guards at South Carolina Prisons, Mark “CRIME BOSS” Sanford likes it that way. UNBELIEVABLE
WATCH VIDEO:
http://www.wistv.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=3566100&h1=State%20legislators%20looking%20to%20install%20capitol%20police%20force%2C%20Jack%20Kuenzie%20reports&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=191200&LaunchPageAdTag=Political&activePane=info&rnd=92185077
********************************************************************
State legislators looking to install capitol police force
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10038060&nav=0RaPaqzq
By Old Bike Dude March 20, 2009 at 8:53 pm
sic why don’t you take Mark his fiddle. Our gov is getting noticed alright. Folks around the nation were used to poking fun at our school system. Now we have a gov who is the laughing stock of everyone with an IQ over 50.
By Fleet Landing Flounder Fillet March 20, 2009 at 9:41 pm
The motivation for Sanford’s highly publicized exchange with the Obama administration is remarkably transparent: stay relevant for a presidential bid in ’12. I think it’s good for federalism that governors assert their powers to prevent the encroachment of central government. Likewise, it’s good for conservatism that governors thumb their noses at congressional pork with strings attached. However, this shameless self-promotion will have no effect on Sanford’s presidential aspirations–these are already dead-on-arrival.
By Statesman March 20, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Why should we take the money? The money will go to a state, whether it is SC or another. SC will repay it no matter which state takes it. What should be done with it? It is only available to create or preserve jobs.
My children can comprehend both, why can’t Mark?
By Freddie Mac March 20, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Natasha: you are right
Snead: the guy was elected to execute the laws made by the legislature. Which the legislature will never let him do, which leads me to:
Anon: why the hell does the General Assembly need a capitol police force? they can take it out of their overpaid, lazy senior staffers’ salaries and their parties and mailings.
Gillon: if government spending on social programs stimulated the economy, this state would be the richest in the country. It doesn’t, didn’t and won’t work, period.
You can hate Sanford all you want, but he’s right. And you all know the bad boys at the Statehouse are making big dollars sucking money out of the private sector and throwing it at their consultant friends. That’s their idea of economic development, folks.
By Natasha March 21, 2009 at 2:37 am
yeah, my vote is to secede, refuse the money and refuse to pay taxes to the scary federal government. Keep it for the state of SC.
By webskeptic March 21, 2009 at 9:02 am
Wake Up People! Mark Sanford is standing against the Federal Government meddling in our affairs. I agree with him that taking the money has too many strings attacted. Mark: stand your ground and keep our state sovreignty! The faster that H424 is signed into law — the better!
By Mab March 21, 2009 at 10:52 am
In this morning’s edition of *La Socialista* you have to wade through two articles, a couple pages of Sanford-bashing, and tales of the masses whining for money that doesn’t exist, to finally get to the truth of the matter:
“There is a quiet awakening going on right now.” ~ Nicole Tribble, p. A8
A quiet awakening that Sanford is right.
Matter of fact, that Russian professor who says the US will collapse by 2010 because our whole financing system is a pyramid scheme…maybe he IS on to something.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ecclesiastes 9:17
Better to hear the quiet words of a wise person
than the shouts of a foolish king.
!
By crowley March 21, 2009 at 11:19 am
Will Folks you are nothing but a “Sanford fluffer.”
By BIN News Editorial Staff March 21, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Will it be “Sanford-Palin” or more likely “Palin-Sanford”?
None of this foolishn cr@p makes any difference, and sic(k) willie knows it. But is sure stirs up mutant life forms. :)
Like a sprayed roach…
By BIN News Editorial Staff March 21, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Sorry for the typos. Every time we visit willie’s blog these days we detect the odor of roach spray. It gets in our eyis and amkes it hard to tpe.
Keep spraying, Bob. We will open a window.
By Mab March 21, 2009 at 1:48 pm
BIN’s regurgitation is in reference to Bob McAlister’s dribble, which he laps up like a yard dog.
Like a dog returning to its vomit.
By Bob Beardon March 21, 2009 at 2:15 pm
No disrespect, but to all the above who support Sanford’s stance, for the life of me, I can’t figure your thinking. Here’s one: Sanford, take your millions from the sale of your beachfront manse and use it to pay down the debt. Ha! He is just another rich person who is trying to protect his own.
He is not a leader, and he does not help our citizens. Those of you(reference above), who continue to sing Sanford’s praises, bet you are safe in income, secure in your big houses, and driving your bug SUV’s. How about considering some of the poor people in this state for once in your big,fat Rebublican
life.
By Malcolm March 21, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Bob,
The money isn’t free. That’s what no one is talking about. You take this money now to fund these programs and the state agrees to fund them next year out of our pocket. We are operating in a deficit now, so what makes anyone think we will have the money next year to fund these programs we don’t need. It is pretty scary to me to let the federal government decide the state’s spending for them.
It is time to start making necessary cuts. Reduce the size of the government.
By Freddie Mac March 21, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Okay, Bob. Let’s talk about the poor people. Let’s talk about what the “economic development” strategy touted by the legislature has done for them. By their own admission, their “knowledge-based” government-driven economy will do nothing to help the hundreds of thousands of high school drop-outs. Instead, it is all about attracting “high-paying” jobs. Which, by the way, it has not even done that. At all. In fact, we’ve spent more government money than in the history of the state, and our unemployment is through the roof.
You know what works for poor people, Bob? Small, South Carolina businesses being able to expand and create freakin’ jobs! The kind that last. Government spending hasn’t done a thing to solve poverty in this country, and especially not in this state. All we will do with this “stimulus money” is put families further in the hole. We can’t pay for this stuff, Bob, especially not with one-time money and expect it to be there forever. When taxes go up, income goes down and so does economic growth.
Sanford may be rich, but is Dick Harpootlian poor? How about John Spratt? He’s worth around $8 million. What exactly is your point? At least Sanford wants to give others a chance to make money the stable way — in the private sector, rather than putting everyone’s kids on the hook for a trillion dollar debt and forcing our lowest income families to pay higher taxes while the legislature funds festivals and parades and a bunch of college presidents’ salaries and perks. Talk about elitism, dude. Why don’t you ask how much consultants and lawyers are making off of state government? They ain’t starving, Bob. Trust me on that. And the working poor are paying their share of those salaries. But you don’t really care about that, do you, Bob? You just want to feel good about being on the “poor man’s side.” You aren’t.
By anonymous March 21, 2009 at 4:41 pm
MARK SANFORD SPELLING SONG:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6329328762201502804&ei=uk7FSa7XBobSqQL4zfWDCw&q=mark+sanford&hl=en
By anonymous March 21, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Employment Commission: Sanford “Misleading” Public
VIDEO:
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/employment-commission-sanford-misleading-public/353871974
By Soweto March 21, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Some South Carolinas are dying of hunger, loosing their homes and because one stupid person they’re loosing what is meant for them to better their lives.
By Dude March 22, 2009 at 10:41 am
will this is the Treasurer’s spending on his TV ads for February alone. It’s more than $350,000, and doesn’t include $14,000 for printing services. You need to show these details on your next post
It’s available on this website – https://ssl.sc.gov/SpendingTransparency/MonthlyExpenditureMain.aspx
CABLEVANTAGE LLC 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $14,950.55
CHARTER MEDIA 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $15,000.00
COMCAST SPOTLIGHT INC 2/11/2009 EARMARKED $16,950.00
HARGRAY INC 2/11/2009 EARMARKED $14,864.00
TIME WARNER CABLE 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $13,722.00
WCBD-TV 2 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $38,000.00
WCIV-TV 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $14,930.00
WCSC-TV INC 2/12/2009 EARMARKED $35,050.00
WIS LLC 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $25,000.00
WLOS-TV 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $12,030.00
WLTX-TV 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $24,500.00
WOLO-TV 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $15,000.00
WPDE TV 15 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $15,000.00
WSPA-TV 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $36,000.00
WYFF TV 2/9/2009 EARMARKED $50,000.00
By Gillon March 22, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Freddie Mac. I’m not following you on something. Under George W.Bush, taxes were cut to historic lows–lower than they were under Ronald Reagan. They weren’t even raised to pay for the ill-advised Iraqi War, a first in American history when taxes were not raised during wartime. And yet you say,”when taxes go up, income goes down, and so does economic growth.” Taxes obviously have not gone up in the last eight years, yet income and economic growth have tanked. What gives?
By anonymous March 22, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Update on the Guv
You’ve probably read that Gov. Mark Sanford has put his Sullivan’s Island beachfront home (actually in his wife’s name) up for sale. Says he needs to scale down now that his kids are heading off to college. The Gov and the First Lady don’t need six bedrooms and five baths anymore.
The asking price is $3.5 million, probably $1.4 million over market value, according to a friend and Sullivan’s Island resident who follows these things. He speculates that Sanford may have a buyer lined up, who will gladly pay the full price to help Sanford finance his political ambitions. Maybe so, maybe no. It will be interesting to see who the next resident at 1725 Atlantic Avenue will be.
…just $1.4 million over market value
By forced to contribute March 22, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Sanford is going to ignore the money that we have to REPAY ANYWAY. Mark, give me a little. I would like to keep my job and be able to buy a small home or keep paying my rent But, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, I am going to pay for the jobs and homes of those in California, Mass.,Florida, Nevada, and in whatever state does get our piece of the pie. I think I would rather eat my piece of the pie, even if a tart lemon pie is not my favorite. Some of us don’t have millions in the bank/real estate/investments. We need the help. By the way, how can we start a campaign to impeach this media hungry idiot??????
By Freddie Mac March 22, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Gillon: Pretty sure corporate tax rates were lower under Reagan. But more to the point, you are considering just the federal level, not state and local and just general tax increases. Can’t ignore fees, fines and elimination of deductions that have been phased in over the years, or the so-called “revenue neutral” tax increases that are never neutral, but don’t get counted as a general tax increase.
South Carolina has increased fees and taxes on businesses quite a bit over the years — our fee structure is one of the fastest growing in the nation. Small businesses are getting killed here, at state and local level, and most people don’t realize it. Throw in huge college tuition increases and “user fees” for government services — all of which have gone up — and then factor in the sneaky increases at the local government levels and you have some pretty serious increases. Ask the folks in Richland how they felt about their reassessment — that is not technically a tax increase, but in reality it is. Same with those extra costs in phone bills and utility bills. Lots of those little increases that don’t “count.”
Bush cut some taxes, but government spending also went through the roof via Congress and you cannot possibly blame the mess in the mortgage industry on tax cuts. That is 100% the result of forcing lenders to give loans to people who shouldn’t have gotten them.
By lou March 23, 2009 at 7:27 am
Can we speak of the furloughs at the prison facilities too???
Guards have to take mandatory time off.
Nurses at the prison are being made to take furlough too… and they are replaced with 80 DOLLAR AN HOUR AGENCY personnel to take care of the 24 hour a day 7 days a week prison population.
Lets save MONEY$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
By Gillon March 23, 2009 at 10:36 am
Freddie Mac: Thanks for a very thoughtful reply. The crux of your letter, as a interpret it, is that the American people and especially the citizens of SC, have had a gigantic hoax perpetuated upon them. They have been told by their elected leaders(and in the great majority of the time those in control on the federal and state level have been of the Republican, conservative persuasion) that their taxes have been lowered over the last eight years, but in reality because of fees, fines, elimination of deductions, tuition increases, reassessments, etc., these “cuts” have been negated and we are no better off, or in worst shape, than before. So I guess the real winners are those officeholders that we elected and then re-elected because “they would cut our taxes, and keep our taxes low.” Maybe we had better try some new leaders or new political philosophies. We have on the federal level, but as usual, the citizens of SC so far “have learned nothing, forgotten nothing.”
By Freddie Mac March 23, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Gillon: Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Democrats and Republican alike have been on a spree, especially the last few years. At the state level and the local level. Both parties. All you have to do is look at the collections in revenue to see it. I don’t think the taxpayers are dumb enough to believe all those Republicans who claim to be “conservative” anymore. Only a handful of them have truly fought irresponsible spending. The rest are responsible for it, and many of them don’t even realize it.
Kennedy cut taxes. Reagan cut taxes. Unemployment went way down. SC has done nothing more than give some tax breaks to a few special industries at the expense of the others, especially small businesses. What do we need to do? Lower taxes across the board, eliminate all the special exemptions and incentives. Restructure government so the legislature doesn’t control everything. Apply spending caps so tax dollars fund what government is supposed to do, and not anything that it isn’t. Until then, Gillon, you are absolutely correct — everyone promises to be fiscally conservative, but when they get to the Statehouse (or Capitol Hill, for that matter) they forget what that means.