How The Taxpayers’ Business Is Done

Several key Democratic votes were secured for South Carolina’s “Republican” leaders through a little-known proviso in the state budget affecting taxpayer-funded “Welcome Centers.”

Administered by the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, these centers are technically under the control of the governor – but surprise, surprise … lawmakers are once again acting as the sole “deciderers” of how this money is spent.

On the surface, it’s yet another example of the S.C. Legislature usurping control of the executive branch – i.e. greedy, meddling lawmakers dictating to a Cabinet agency what it can and cannot do with its budget at the most micro level.

But that angle – which has already been played out in the back-and-forth debate over Gov. Mark Sanford’s budget vetoes – doesn’t interest us as much as why a Republican-controlled legislature would go out of its way to protect a Democratic asset.

We know all about how South Carolina’s legislative leaders like to buy off politicians in their own party (they’ve been doing it for years), but does this “coin of the (State House) realm” also apply to Democrats?

Stay tuned for details …

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