Somebody Else Is Taking A Vacation (With Your Money)
While our founding editor and his entourage are dropping privately-earned Roosevelts at an undisclosed location up the coast, South Carolina taxpayers are picking up the tab for yet another episode of “Government Bureaucrats in Paradise.”
This time we’re referring to the recently-concluded S.C. Association of Counties “convention,” which was held at the luxurious Hilton Head Island Marriott Resort and Spa (oooh … nice) from July 30 – August 2.
Between sipping margaritas and working on their tans (all on your dime), these bureaucratic boondogglers received pointers in wasting still more of your money from S.C. Rep. John Spratt – who let’s face it, is a legend when it comes to pouring tax dollars down the drain.
Anyway, after Spratt’s address, these bureaucrats cut loose at an association-sponsored “dance” featuring the smooth sounds of the “Palmetto Groove Party Band.” And why wouldn’t they be in a dancing, grooving, partying mood?
After all – you’re paying for it, not them!
Sadly, wasting taxpayer money so that bureaucrats can take free vacations (during one of the worst economic climates in history, no less) is par for the course here in South Carolina.
In fact, earlier this summer we told you about the S.C. Association of School Administrators getaway, which was held at the high-dollar Kingston Plantation in Myrtle Beach. Amazingly, the educrat attendees who wasted money to attend SCASA’s event were actually offered a “watch in your hotel room” option, which of course was also paid for with your tax dollars by S.C. Educational Television.
Astonishing.
The keynote speaker at that boondoggle? S.C. Superintendent of Education Jim Rex.
Seriously, how much longer are we going to tolerate this B.S. from our so-called “public servants?” Given how “tight” we keep hearing that government budgets are these days, shouldn’t lavish retreats like this one at luxurious resorts on the coast be banned outright?
And more to the point, no matter what the economic climate is, should taxpayers really be in the business of subsidizing exotic vacations for bureaucrats?
We think not.
If you’ve had enough of this crap, why not call or write the S.C. Association of Counties and the S.C. Association of School Administrators today and tell them to stop wasting your money on taxpayer-funded vacations.
Also, teachers and rank-and-file county employees who are getting laid off or furloughed might want to call, too. After all, these vacations aren’t for them – they’re for upper level administration only.
Here’s the contact info for both taxpayer-funded groups:
S.C. Association of Counties
1-800-922-6081 (toll free)
scac@scac.state.sc.usS.C. Association of School Administrators
803-798-8380
molly@scasa.org
Go ahead! Give these bureaucrats a piece of your mind! You’ll feel better, we promise …
Tell them if they want to take a vacation, they can pay for it with their own money.
Oh, and that goes for the first class airfare of Gov. Mark Sanford, too.
Enough is enough!
Comments
By Harry on August 3rd, 2009 at 7:28 am
The Association of Counties is a business. Make no mistake about it, it exist to sell consulting, insurance and other goods and services to the counties and other organizations. It pays substantial salaries to its top ranking employees and has liberal benefits and fringes. It is rife with insider deals and contracts.
These organization (like SCEA) sound like benevolent groups trying to help the public. But I have dealt with them both and they are as cutthroat as any business.
They have large contingents of lobbyist, and these guys work mainly to perpetuate their organizations. If their members are helped, all the better, but that is a secondary consideration.
Keep it up Will. These guys are a big part of the problem.
By Concerned Parent on August 3rd, 2009 at 9:33 am
As a parent with a child in the SC public school system, I see firsthand the results of such wasteful and ludicrous spending.
Our state is struggling hard in these economic times.
Stop spending the state’s money in such a blatant, money-to-burn manner!
Chesterfield County Leaders, get your act together. You can do better.
By babafisa on August 3rd, 2009 at 10:44 am
Good article. Very well written
By Look out, I'm next on August 3rd, 2009 at 11:51 am
well Chesterfield, at least you got back to back state titles working for ya!
By madcock on August 3rd, 2009 at 2:50 pm
When will this idiocy stop!!! It’s horrible and unethical.
The public’s hard earned tax dollars should be used for what the founders intended: things like tax credits to subsidize the rich to send their little Marshalls and Muffys to exclusive private schools like Heathwood Hall, first class airline tickets for Nikki Haley, F-22 jets the Pentagon doesn’t want and can’t stay airborne, “abstinince only” sex education programs that teach kids that rubbers don’t work and if you get weak and have sex you deserve to catch an STD and get pregnant, and government health insurance for GOP congressman who decry government health insurance for the taxpayers as socialism.
And BTW, Fits, HOW MANY “privately-earned Roosevelts” would you have if you hadn’t spent years on the taxpayers dole as a servant of “King David” and “She Who Must Be Obeyed By Jim DeMint and Tom Davis”, and then parlayed the connections you made while feeding at the public trough into “clients?” I believe Ronald Reagan’s phrase for your ilk was “welfare queen.”
By Steve on August 3rd, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Sic,
If you are going to mention the locale and the dance, at least mention the 21 hours of Institute of Government classes, sponsored by the USC Institute for Public Service and Policy Research and the Strom Thurmond Institute of Clemson; the 6 hours of seminars on topics ranging from Labor Law Updates to forming Public/Private Partnerships for Economic Development; the breakout sessions for groups that covered a variety of topics ranging from planning for the upcoming Census (SC will hopefully get that 7th Congressional seat if we do well in getting citizens to respond)to Solid Waste Recycling; and the legislative update sessions with the large number of State Legislators who attended. They covered both sides of the aisle from Sen. Larry Grooms to Sen. Brad Hutto – Rep. Rita Allison to Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter. Also, the keynote speaker was not Rep. John Spratt (who had been invited) but was USC Professor Blease Coleman, who gave a quite interesting lecture on the history of Home Rule in SC and likely future developments in the relationship between state government and local government. We were not lying in the sun with boom boxes like you; we were in class gathering information to help better serve the citizens.
PS: Sent from my home computer, not my public computer, and on my own time.
By fitsnews on August 3rd, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Steve,
Thanks for at least not wasting taxpayer resources as you bombard us with this bureaucratic diarrhea.
-FITS
By Not Sayin', Just Sayin' on August 4th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Steve, why couldn’t this have been accomplished at the Columbia Metro Convention Center and near a hotel with rooms that cost alot less than $450 per night?
By Al on August 5th, 2009 at 10:46 am
In Anderson County, last year’s administrator and self-appointed King of the County, Joey Preston, took 40 employees with him to party at Hilton Head at this meeting. This year, since Joey Preston was outed, the new councy council sent 5 people and saved thousands of dollars. Preston was popular at the SCAC because he was a democrat and took tons of taxpayer money with him to spend on anyone for anything. The SCAC responded to the new Anderson Council by electing Preston’s last remaining devoted contact on council, Gracie Floyd (D), to the board against the objections of A. C. council chairman Eddie Moore because Floyd is nothing but an embarrassment to all of Anderson County with her actions. The SCAC is a democrat controlled liberal political organization that should be investicaged by the Attorney General.
By Commonman on August 5th, 2009 at 11:07 am
If it smells like an in state junket, walks like an in state junket, it probably is an in state junket. They were probably brainstorming about new and innovative ways to raise property taxes and place the blame on the state. Also, the cheap shot by madcock about years on King David’s dole is way off. Sic Willie was definitely not a high paid bureaucrat. But he was loyal, which is not a bad thing.
By cd on August 5th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I am good friends with several members of that band. They are great for weddings and parties. I am also aware that they are smart with their money and stayed in less expensive digs down the street.