Now This Is Super Sneaky
Remember that shady group of “higher educrats” that ripped off $8 million from South Carolina entrepreneurs last year?
You know, that clique of ambitious research university bureaucrats that teamed up with House Speaker Bobby Harrell to divert funds that should have gone to the private sector?
For those of you who’ve forgotten this little chapter in S.C. political treachery, here’s a refresher.
And here’s Harrell’s effort to pump even more cash into the scam.
Well, all of these machinations hit a road block two weeks ago when S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford appointed a whistleblowing reformer to lead the S.C. Research Authority, as is his prerogative to do.
Needless to say, Harrell and his status quo sycophants hit the roof, and today they fought back … their way.
Did they try to make the case publicly for why this money should be stripped from the private sector and put into more fruitless taxpayer-funded government fantasies?
Of course not.
Because that case is a loser.
What they did was try to sneak the following amendment onto a proviso in the state budget …
Wait … what does that say?
Amend the bill further, as and if amended, Section 89, GENERAL PROVISIONS, page 537, after line 22, by adding an appropriately numbered paragraph to read:
/ (GP: South Carolina Research Authority Officers) For the current fiscal year, the Governor’s appointee to the board of trustees of the South Carolina Research Authority shall not serve as chairman of that board, but continues to serve on the board if otherwise eligible. The positions of chairman and vice-chairman of the board of trustees must be filled for the current fiscal year by appointments made by the executive committee of the South Carolina Research Authority in the manner the executive committee determines appropriate. /
That’s right … Harrell and his higher ed goons are effectively stripping the governor of his appointment power, and they’re doing so by sneaking an “amendment” onto a “proviso” in the budget.
In other words, they’re burying it someplace they hoped nobody would look.
As shady as this is, it’s not surprising. After all, Harrell’s higher ed scam imploding all around him.
In order to keep the gravy train going he’s obviously figured out that he needs to start being sneaky about it …
Comments
By Heather on May 14th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
This is great reporting, and why we need obetter nline posting in real time of all the peices of the budget and cooling off periods for lawmakers and watchdogs to consider them
By me on May 14th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
how these people stay in office term after term amazes me when we see this type of story every year.
By Marvin on May 14th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Enough of these crooked politicians who flaunt the law to take care of themselves. It costs working taxpayers a fortune to support these horrible leaders’ unethical scams.
Are you all willing to fight this right now? Will you join an activist group that is fighting this? Will you call your legislators, and tell your friends to do the same thing? Will you write a letter to the editor, or even run for office to stop this nonsense? I for one intend to make sure my elected officials hear from me, and I will tell my friends and family to do the same.
No one, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, should be okay with what those guys are doing. I’d like to hear from folks like Gillon and Baker as to what they think about this stuff. Let’s put a stop to this garbage while we still can. Weigh in on this blog and tell us what you will stand up and do tomorrow. We may not all agree, but most of us (except people like BIN who are getting paid by these people)are thoughtful, honest folks who pay attention to state government. We should do more than just talk about fixing it.
By liz on May 15th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Lots of scams are imploding.