SC Chamber Of (Cough) Commerce Backing Innovista

By FITSNews || In news that will come as a shock to absolutely no one who is familiar with the true leanings of the Palmetto State’s “business community,” the S.C. Chamber of Communists … err, “Commerce” is backing S.C. Speaker Bobby Harrell’s failed government-run economic development plans to the hilt.

Specifically, Chamber President Otis Rawl is reportedly lobbying state lawmakers to support the candidacy of Harrell favorite Mack I. Whittle, who is running for reelection to the USC Board of Trustees.

Whittle, FITS readers will recall, is the Greenville, S.C. banker who received a $12 million taxpayer-funded “golden parachute” as part of the TARP bailout back in October of 2008.

Whittle’s financial institution has continued to collapse ever since – prompting another “business leader” and USC trustee, liberal financier Darla Moore, to abandon ship last December.

Yeah … and these are the people we want running “economic development” schemes with our tax dollars?  Of course that’s the point … nobody should be running “economic development” schemes with our tax dollars.  Under any circumstances.

Anyway, sources tell FITS that Rawl’s assistance was personally requested by Harrell, who is fighting to keep trustees on the board who are willing to pour more money into “Innovista,” the mother of all taxpayer-funded sinkholes.

Always eager to cozy up to legislative leaders, Rawl willingly obliged, and has been pressing lawmakers to vote for Whittle or face retribution from his organization.

One of the greatest government-funded failures in South Carolina history (which believe us is saying something), Innovista has wasted at least $150 million tax dollars, with additional state funding and a $154 million bailout from City of Columbia, S.C. taxpayers on the way.

What has been produced with that investment?  Certainly not the “thousands of high paying jobs” and “hydrogen economy of the future” that Harrell and USC president Harris Pastides promised.

At best, Innovista has produced a few hundred taxpayer-funded positions and a paltry $5.1 million in private investment …

As we noted earlier this week, FITS will count any vote in favor of either Whittle or fellow trustee William C. Hubbard as a vote against the best interests of South Carolina taxpayers.