By FITSNews || Under the failed “total state control” system of the S.C. State Ports Authority (SPA), the Port of Charleston’s competitive position has plummeted while the last remaining deep water port site on the Eastern Seaboard has gone undeveloped in Jasper County.
It’s a colossal failure that has cost our state billions of dollars in capital investment and tens of thousands of new jobs, and it all stems from South Carolina’s refusal to simply follow the free market lead of almost every other state in America.
Needless to say, these failures have made South Carolina’s port system a hot topic in the upcoming gubernatorial debate, with virtually every GOP candidate (and the Democratic front-runner) putting the issue at the forefront of their economic plans.
But what, specifically, are these gubernatorial candidates proposing to actually do? And more to the point, does it really matter what they propose given the constitutionally-neutered of the position they are seeking?
S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster’s 10-point “Path to Prosperity” merely says that as governor he would “improve and strengthen our state ports facilities.” Obviously, that means absolutely nothing – and McMaster’s advisors are joined at the hip with some of the very forces holding our state back as it relates to this debate.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett’s otherwise underwhelming “jobs plan” does include some language we support, but it’s unclear whether or not he would follow through on the all-important details. Specifically, Barrett says he would “support port expansions, particularly for Charleston, through expanded public-private partnerships,” although he fails to specify whether that means landlord-tenant agreements that open the door to the kind of capital investment that our competitors in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Alabama have scored for their states in recent years.
Also, Barrett’s “particularly for Charleston” reference is a gratuitous sop to the powerful Charleston shipping elite, whose petty regionalism continues to hold this state back (we can thank S.C. Senator Glenn McConnell for that).
Meanwhile, Democrat Vincent Sheheen says in his jobs plan that he will “appoint professional business leaders and port operations experts to run the port operations and maximize the transfer of goods in and out of our state,” which is a slap at S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, who for the most part has failed miserably to appoint free market fiscal conservatives to the Ports Authority board.
Like his Republican rivals, Sheheen’s plan says nothing substantive about how he will actually accomplish expanding port capacity, and if you think for one second that this status quo Democrat will appoint true free market advocates to the Ports’ board, you’re crazy.
Also, does it really matter what any of these candidates propose (generically or otherwise)? As with everything else in South Carolina, the General Assembly will continue to determine the direction of the port – which (again, as with everything else in this state) at this point remains a friggin’ nose-dive.
The answers to South Carolina’s port conundrum (which we’ve been trumpeting for years) are remarkably simple, people.
First, the Ports Authority board must vote to authorize landlord-tenant deals – which the legislature should then make part of permanent state law. Then, the Ports Authority should begin the process of turning over management of port infrastructure (which the state would obviously continue to own) to private companies, while soliciting bids for new infrastructure when market conditions permit.
Some say this would “pave the way for unionization” in South Carolina, which ignores the reality that the majority of port workers are already unionized (and have been for years).
Second, the state must immediately begin the process of developing a Jasper County port – an elusive goal its leaders have paid lip service to for decades. If this can be done cooperatively with Georgia, then by all means South Carolina should continue engaging in that discussion, but if not then the court fight (which the Palmetto State will win) must commence sooner rather than later.
It’s “go time.” In fact, it was “go time” two decades ago, but McConnell and Co. continue to deliberately drop the ball in an effort to “protect” Charleston.
Getting a new port constructed may be a decades-long process, but every day that we refuse to start the clock on the Jasper development (whether on account of Stalinist port management or Charleston snobbery) is a day that South Carolina continues rejecting the capital investment and jobs that all of its politicians claim to covet.
Incidentally, while Sanford, state lawmakers and port leaders have failed miserably to chart a course for the true maximization of our state’s port assets over the past decade, S.C. Senator Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) has been an aggressive champion for free market expansion in Charleston and Jasper. More than any gubernatorial candidate, Davis is the port leader South Carolina needs to follow if it is to turn all of these sound bites into substantive, job-creating state policy.
By The Colonel May 19, 2010 at 9:54 am
I realize the source (The State) makes the information suspect but…
April container shipments at the State Ports Authority rose nearly 29 percent compared to same month last year, according to figures released Tuesday.
The volume increase marked the fourth consecutive month of growth on the waterfront. Exports rose by more than 38 percent and imports by more than 25 percent last month.
Also, the SPA on Tuesday approved a contract to sell its property in Port Royal for $16.75 million but did not name the buyer.
The state Budget and Control Board now must approve the deal.
Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2010/05/19/1293168/ports-authority-shipments-increase.html#ixzz0oNovLQzB
What else do we need to be doing?
By fitsnews May 19, 2010 at 10:21 am
Colonel,
A decade ago Charleston was the fourth-busiest port in America. Today it’s not even in the Top Ten.
“What more could we be doing?”
A lot …
-FITS
P.S. – Assuming those numbers are accurate it would also bolster the need for enhanced capacity via private investment, unless you think the Columbia jokers are in a position to stroke a check for it.
By The Colonel May 19, 2010 at 11:06 am
Every major port in the US was down the last year (except Savannah), Charleston has plenty of capacity and the ability to increase it. a 2,600,000 million TEU capcity is in excess of their best year ever production (1,987,000 TEUs in ’05)
Adding a facility in Jasper County doesn’t help Charleston and probably doesn’t help SC in the near term because of the cost of building infrastructure to get in and out as well as offering nothing that Savannah doesn’t already offer.
Charleston needs two things:
To get control of the hodge podge of roads and rails into the port and make them work for shippers
To make it financially worth while to use the port (partly costs of getting in and out, partly fees)
By Varga May 19, 2010 at 11:19 am
I do not disagree in general with your positions and arguments regarding the Ports Authority. However, I do not think the Jasper solution is as easy as it may seem. My main point is that if you will check the deed records you will find out that the proposed site is owned by the State of Georgia, not the state of South Carolina.
By fitsnews May 19, 2010 at 11:26 am
Varga-
Hence the prospect of protracted litigation to condemn the land in the event a favorable deal with Georgia cannot be reached.
Again, either way it is a ball that lawmakers should have started rolling YEARS ago.
-FITS
By james May 19, 2010 at 12:03 pm
I think the focus on Jasper is wrong–the Charleston facility just needs to be sold and privatized.
By colleen May 19, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Question is who is the buyer? Any one know?
By Alisons May 19, 2010 at 4:53 pm
varga — check the deed records, as you suggest. you will find that the georgia department of transporation conveyed the jasper port property two years ago to a bi-state joint venture comprised of the georgia ports authority and the sc state ports authority.
By Eric P. May 19, 2010 at 5:57 pm
FITs, all your facts are correct. Left unmentioned however is the fact that no governor has every “managed” the SPA or even “coordinated” the SPA with the exception of Beasley and his Commerce Secretary, Robert Royall, who was SPA chairman for 9 years. Royall had to “tame” and “keep under control” the rabid anti-private sector SPA executive director, Don Welch, which was easy in that Royall felt the same way. Royall and Welch were called “Mutt and Jeff” on the waterfront — a mutual admiration society of egomaniacs. It is for this reason that BMW recently began importing many of its US-Southeast Coast vehicles through the Port of Brunswick, which allows Wallenius Line (a private company — GASP) to do things that our SPA will NOT allow private companies to do.
Namely, operate a Vehicle Processing Center, operate their own marine terminal, stevedore their own vessels, and handle the lines to “tie up and let go” (yes, there are companies that do THAT too). The SPA sent “letters of interest” to major steamship lines (Ro-Ro carriers) to solicit their interest in developing the Veterans Terminal at the Navy Base and got NO INTEREST.
Many BMWs are now being sent to North Charleston Terminal because Union Pier is operating beyond capacity.
Anyway, another little-known fact, which Billy Coleman of Greenville (former SPA Treasurer) will confirm is that when Welch retired, the Board decided to promote from within two SPA executives who hated one another — Bernard Groseclose and Duane Grantham — as CEO and COO. Grantham is 5 years older and had more steamship experience than Groseclose (who has never seen under the hood of a forklift truck), and eventually quit to work for Warren Lasch and CIP at the Navy Base. THAT turned into a disaster and while the Board was having donuts and coffee, ignorant of everything, the SPA’s fortunes went south. Maersk quit, for example. Market share plummeted. Groseclose was fired.
That energized many citizens and waterfront people to provide recommendations to Larry Grooms, whose bill, passed this year, has taken control over SPA governance and given it to the legislature, who will “vet” all future Board vacancies for the governor’s signature. This is a good thing in the eyes of many, bad in the eyes of others.
The SPA continues to be out-of-control, irresponsible and untouchable. I understand that Mark Sanford put two people on the board that he didn’t even know — because they were “campaign donors.” One was Harry Butler, who was universally reviled by the board, the staff and the waterfront.
The Jasper County facility will be a boon to the state of Georgia because most of the longshoremen, clerks and checkers, container mechanics, et cetera, will all come from the Savannah local. This plays right into the hands of Gov. Perdue. The “Kim Philby” of this operation, representing South Carolina, is political lapdog Bill Bethea.