Educrat Union Seeks $300,000 In “Stimulus” Legal Fees
The S.C. Association of School Administrators – a bureaucratic union that derives its very existence from publicly-funded dues – is now demanding $300,000 in legal fees from the South Carolina taxpayers for its role in the recent lawsuit over federal “stimulus” dollars.
According to documents filed with S.C. Supreme Court earlier this month, SCASA is requesting more than $150,000 worth of “cost reimbursement” for its legal fees – an amount which would be doubled under the “multiplier” recommended in a companion brief filed by USC law professor John P. Freeman.
The petition filed by SCASA argues that S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford acted “without substantial justification” in opposing a portion of the federal “bureaucratic bailout” funds allotted to South Carolina, and that the organization should be compensated for securing the money on behalf of all South Carolinians.
Frankly, this is a case of “Dewey, Screwum and Howe” if we’ve ever seen one.
In addition to the sheer ridiculousness of paying a “non-governmental” entity our tax money for protecting its own interests, sources familiar with the stimulus lawsuit say that SCASA’s counsel wasn’t a player in the outcome of the case. Specifically, the organization’s counsel never even raised the “key argument” of the lawsuit in court – which held that operative phrase in federal law was the “state desiring” this money as opposed to the “governor desiring” it.
Most observers agree that the S.C. Attorney General’s office most effectively articulated that highly-debatable point in court.
“SCASA’s lawyers sat at the end of the table and watched,” a source said.
Anyway, that isn’t stopping them from making the money grab.
“This has been an important and unusual case against an uncompromising and well-represented adversary,” Professor Freeman writers in urging that SCASA be awarded the $300,000.
“I guess $700 million wasn’t enough for them,” Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer told FITS.
Phone calls to SCASA’s law firms – including Columbia’s Childs & Halligan – were not immediately returned.
SCASA, as you’ll recall, overtly uses public funds to lobby lawmakers and spread its left-leaning political propaganda.
Also, after bemoaning the so-called “lack of resouces” available for public schools, SCASA held a Myrtle Beach getaway last month for its members – most of whom traveled with their families to the luxurious Kingston Plantation on the taxpayer dime.
Comments
By Toyota Kawaski on July 9th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
To bad they cant get money from Sanfraud
By Thad Viers on July 9th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Shock!
By Kobayashi Maru on July 9th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Let’s see if I can get this straight: on the one hand, it’s wrong for SCASA to use “taxpayer money” to fight the governor to bring $700 million in stimulus funds (taxpayer money) to our State? On the other hand, it’s OK for the governor to use clear taxpayer dollars to go to court to try and keep our state from pulling in stimulus funds that we’re going to have to pay for anyway?
I’d say it’s a bargain to spend $150,000 (or even $300,000) for $700 million coming to our state, as opposed to the governor’s failed idea of South Carolinian’s tax dollars being used solely to pay for $700 million to other states.
Kudos to SCASA! Personally, I think the cost for this mess should come out of the governor’s hide.
By BIN News Editorial Staff on July 9th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
And kudos to Kobayashi Maru! Great post! Thank goodness for the SCASA and others working in the best interests of all children in S.C.
sic(k) willie and Howie’s voucher clowns never miss a chance to take a cheap shot at public education. Attacking children; they’re worse than the Borg.
Howie’s voucher clowns know vouchers are dead in SC. Doubledog dead now that voucher-clown-in-chief sanfraud is permanently in the political dog house.
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