This Is A Stick Up!
Since S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell and his higher ed cronies have been so successful ripping off entrepreneurs to fund their big government visions, why not up the ante?
That would appear to be the motive behind a proposal to add $25 million in “capital commitments” to SC Launch – a nonprofit entity that’s supposed to be investing its money in home-grown entrepreneurs and small businesses here in the Palmetto State.
There’s just one problem – higher ed goons under the thumb of Harrell’s big government Svengali have commandeered the board of SC Launch, and last year forced it to turn over $8 million to our state’s research universitities.
So basically, an entity that awarded dollar-for-dollar tax credits to stimulate investment in our state’s small businesses and entrepreneurs ended up stimulating an additional investment in government instead.
Now Harrell – along with co-sponsors Dan Cooper, Harry Cato, Michael Thompson and Doug Jennings – is back for a bigger bite at the apple.
He knows that his higher ed minions control the SC Launch board, having recently forced out its pro-private sector leaders.
He also knows that increasing the capitalization of this fund is basically just extending a $25 million line of credit that the Universities can draw from whenever they want it.
Oh, and in the unlikely instance any of this cash actually sees a South Carolina small business or entrepreneur, it will only go to those companies whose activities are “aligned with the objectives of the South Carolina Research Authority.”
Because what would central planning be without … well, central planning.
This is one of the many cogs in Harrell’s “pillars and pyramids” scheme, which aims to put government in charge of creating jobs in this state by producing (surprise!) more government.
Of course, since Harrell & Co. got some bad press the last time they successfully ripped off small businesses and entrepreneurs to fund their higher ed boondoggles, they decided not to pre-file this bill or to hold a press conference to announce it.
Instead, they waited until the middle of the legislative session to quietly drop it into the hopper, hoping nobody would notice.
Oh, and since the bill technically doesn’t spend taxpayer dollars, it can be passed without an “on-the-record” vote – although it’s doubtful anybody will be against “tax credits for South Carolina entrepreneurs and small businesses.”
Unlike tax credits for poor kids in failing schools, right?
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Comments
By GnuBerry on March 30th, 2009 at 1:22 am
I’m sick of the higher ed cronies, higher ed goons, and higher ed minions, doing these higher ed boondoggles.
By Back in the USSR on March 30th, 2009 at 6:50 am
There is no denying Harrell’s socialist slant. It must be fun to rub elbows with academia and throw our money around on various schemes that have no accountability and then call yourself a Republican .
How dumb are we, the taxpayers? Pretty dam dumb.
By I Higher Ed on March 30th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Why doesn’t someone go through and trace where all of the money for SCRA comes from? Wouldn’t that make all of this a bit clearer?
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