By FITSNews || S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford will unload on a pair of controversial incentives packages during a scheduled press conference at a Tanger outlet center in Myrtle Beach on Tuesday, according to a source in the governor’s office.
Specifically, Sanford will speak out against a controversial $134 million incentives package that would enable the Sembler Company – a firm run by former national GOP fund-raising chairman Mel Sembler – to construct a 280-acre, 1.5-million-square-foot retail facility in the S.C. Lowcountry. The governor – who will be joined by S.C. Policy Council president Ashley Landess – will also reportedly train his fire on a smaller incentives package that lawmakers are putting together in an effort to lure a Bass Pro Shops facility to the S.C. Upstate.
Like the governor, we oppose both of these taxpayer-funded handouts. Sembler and Bass Pro Shops are more than welcome to come to our state, but they shouldn’t get tax revenue from local businesses (especially retail businesses) that they will be directly competing against.
Also, the timing (and location) of Sanford’s press conference is raising eyebrows.
First, it’s unclear exactly what the governor – who has already pledged to veto special legislation for retail incentives – hopes to accomplish. Neither handout seems to be going anywhere in the S.C. General Assembly, as S.C. Senator Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) has effectively blocked Sembler from receiving anything other than a local option sales tax for infrastructure. Meanwhile, lawmakers looking to give Bass Pro Shops its unfair competitive advantage were forced back to the drawing board last month when the S.C. House of Representatives sent its tax break bill back to the Ways and Means committee.
So why is Sanford speaking up now? And why is he choosing a Tanger outlet center as his location for doing so?
As FITS has reported previously, Sanford is dealing with a host of conflicts as it relates to these mega-developers.
He’s taken money from one of them (Stan Tanger) and borrowed a plane from the other (Mel Sembler). Accordingly, he’s been substantially less than pure ideologically (and less than consistent politically) during the behind-the-scenes maneuvering on both bills – which has led critics to allege that he is privately angling for a future payoff.
After all, Sanford will be unemployed in nine months time and obviously needs the money – and if we’ve learned anything over the last year it’s that his word isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
By CNSYD April 5, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Until this article I was against the Sembler incentive package. But now that I see Tom Davis against it I am all for it.
By Admiral_Komack April 5, 2010 at 5:23 pm
“So why is Sanford speaking up now?”
Dude, why do you think Mr. “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina” is speaking up?
Mr. Irrelevant wants to be relevant, but…he’s still irrelevant.
By ###999 April 5, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Sanford tried to micromanage the timing, valuation, solicitation and RFP for the State Ports Authority’s Port Royal Terminal to point it into the hands of his “friends.”
Fortunately, the new board member he chose, a Georgetown-based real estate developer, was so intensely hated by the rest of the board that Sanford’s scheme went “off the track.”
I presume Tom Davis was in on the deal along with Glen Kilgore.
Sanford, get back to Argentina where your “heart” throbs.
I suppose it’s your heart.
By Gillon April 5, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Well, as speaker James Carvile said to him at the recent Hibernian fest in Charleston: “Things could be worse, Governor, you could be John Edwards.”
By Scott April 5, 2010 at 8:58 pm
One only wonders how Ashley Landess and the SCPC (a 501 (c)3 organization), can advocate for or against a particular piece of legislation…and why the SCPC still continues to swoon for attention from Sanford is beyond me.
They are – or at least used to be – better than that.