|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Over the past ten years, your one hundred and seventy elected South Carolina State House officials – and your governor – have wasted $20,000,000,000 (a lot of zeroes) of your tax dollars, dollars you could have used for groceries, clothing, rent and gasoline.
What else could $2 billion a year pay for? How about 5,750 miles of two-lane asphalt road, or pay raises of $10,000 for every public school teacher in South Carolina. That’s right, we have 12,000 public school teachers, and it would cost $120 million a year to raise their pay by that amount.
Maye you would like to give every law enforcement person in South Carolina a $10,000 year raise. That would take $520 million a year.
After these raises, we would still have enough of your tax money left over to completely rebuild 3,885 miles of two-lane asphalt roads.
I believe that education, public safety, and infrastructure (roads) are the three “core functions” of state government. That is why I chose pay raises for teachers, pay raises for law enforcement and road improvement to illustrate my point.
How have your one hundred and seventy State House officials (and your governor) wasted that much money in ten years?
***
Earmarks (your hard-earned money spent on pet projects, mainly for the most powerful legislators) account for $700 million per year. You know the list: Wine festivals, BMX rallies, city beautification projects, railroad beautification projects, and undisclosed “economic development projects.” The list is massive, your money – in amounts ranging from $10,000 to $25 million – spent on a variety of things that are not core functions of our state government.
During the last ten years, our legislators have spent $10 billion on a failed nuclear power plant in Fairfield County. That strange little legislature-controlled entity known as Santee Cooper partnered with SCANA to approve billion after billion to fund an albatross that every sub-contractor working on the project knew was flawed. The Santee Cooper board (controlled by the legislature) continued to testify to powerful but ignorant legislators that “all is well, we just need an additional billion or so.”
In my two years as a legislator, I have paid attention. I’ve heard legislator after legislator say, “we have to trust the experts.”
I started and ran a successful business for thirty-five years. If I had followed the advice of the “experts,” who had their interests, not my best interests at stake, I would have probably gone bankrupt. We all know (common sense) that if something sounds “too good to be true,” it probably is. Due diligence seems to be a foreign concept to most legislators.
Consider the $1.2 billion bust that our legislators fell for in 2019. Most of you know that our legislature and our governor, with “expert advice,” spent $1.2 billion to build a practice facility in Rock Hill for the Carolina Panthers. The only major voice who spoke against that boondoggle was a man, Will Folks, of FITSNews. He saw it for what it was, a bad “crony capitalism” deal.
***
RELATED | PANTHERS’ SCREW JOB OF SOUTH CAROLINA
***
The only major “crony capitalism” deal that came to the legislature in my first term was the $1.3 billion Scout (“Wokes”wagen) electric vehicle deal. I have said more than a few times that the South Carolina Commerce Department, a few wealthy individuals, and special interests (represented by lobbyists), are currently running the state of South Carolina.
During the Scout Motors debate, a legislator pushing for the deal asked a legislator opposing the deal this question, “Are you telling me that you trust your constituents more than you trust the experts from the commerce department?”
The legislator speaking in opposition to the crony capitalism deal replied, “I could not have said it better myself. I absolutely do trust my constituents more than the ‘experts’ at the commerce department.”
Proudly, I was one of only twelve legislators who voted against the Scout deal. When a company (VW) whose annual revenue is $338 billion is “incentivized” to the tune of $1.3 billion (including $400 million in cash) to create 400 jobs, I think it is a lose/lose for South Carolina taxpayers.
It is time for South Carolina voters to do what the nation’s voters just did! Stop the insanity and quit voting for lawmakers who trust the “experts” more than they trust you, you, the “common sense” taxpayer constituent.
WE the PEOPLE CAN!
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Joe White is a retired businessman and proud member of the S.C. Freedom Caucus who represents South Carolina House District 40 in the General Assembly.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
3 comments
Sounds like RINOs at work, not true conservatives! I’ve not met a RINO who demonstrated simple common sense. Our voters continue to elect legislators and other government officials who are in the political game of increasing their own wealth at the expense of taxpayers!
Truth. People better start paying attention. These rinos are fleecing SC taxpayers
A solid third of the SCGOP are either former democrats (like the former Hugh Leatherman) who realized they couldn’t get elected with a (D) next to their name or crony capitalist moderates. Another third are generally reliable, true conservatives. The other third are just cowards and opportunists who can be manipulated by the left or right and really don’t have much of any real foundational sense of belief. And then you have the actual democrats, who in this state are not as full-on commie marxist as the DNC, but nonetheless are generally socialists.