Governor’s office takes stimulus money

I am curious to know what the Governor’s office is doing with the $13.9 million in stimulus money that it took.

Anybody? Bueller?

And the Lt. Governor’s office took $419,000? Can we get an accounting for this 14 million dollars?

State schools hire lobbyists

Let’s see, South Carolina tax dollars being spent to pay individuals to lobby for state institutions of higher learning. I can certainly see where federal and state money is getting harder to come by these days, but I also wonder why the board of directors are not stepping up and taking on that role. Isn’t that one of their tasks traditionally? Perhaps instead of spending eighty to a hundred thousand dollars a year on a lobbyist, these institutions should tell their board members to get it in gear, or step aside and make room on the board for people who can get the job done. Why, with the savings, the schools could probably pay for three or four more professors.

Joe Wilson

Maybe next time he could throw a shoe. Maybe he could run naked through the chamber.

Maybe Mr. Wilson’s representation of our state should be reconsidered.

Gubernatorial Candidates

I have looked at the websites for all of the candidates for our next governor and so far I see no one who wants to lead this state.

What will it take for someone to put their mouth where their money is and tell us what they will do to lead our state? We are nine years into the 21st century, but we pretend like it is 1952.

Someone please step up.

Pay Day Lending

Let’s get a few things straight.

The pay day lending industry in our state are bottom feeders. They charge upwards of 400% interest on their loans. They fray the base of our society and make our state weaker.

When I read that they have a strong lobby within our state’s legislature I am sickened. Any politician defending these bottom feeders should be run out of office and out of our state too, as far as I’m concerned.

Loaning money in our state should be capped at 30% above prime, a return any real investor would be more than happy to get. The present plan to unnecessarily expand government by implementing a state run pay day loan tracking database should be scrapped.

Megadumps

It is good to see our elected officials taking steps so that South Carolina does not become the trash dumping ground for the whole eastern seaboard.

DHEC has passed new regulations making it more difficult for these megadumps to be built here. I would like us to go further and make it absolutely impossible for them to be built here. Let’s think to the future shall we, or at the least we should have some basic self respect.

South Carolina is no dumping ground. At best these places would be a short term revenue generator for these counties, and in the long run would ruin whole areas with toxic pollution in the ground and in the ground water, making it more difficult for these areas to generate wealth for themselves in the future.

DHEC says it can’t unapprove the megadump in Marlboro County. Sure it can. Or how about the legislature pass a law that simply says we do not accept any trash from outside our borders? They could still build it and Marlboro County could be the dumping ground for our own state’s trash, but that would be it. By the way, the company wanting to build this particular dump is not even a South Carolina based company.

I’ll say it one more time: South Carolina is no trash dumping ground. Period.

State debt, Government

Well, with all the expansion of government spending and cutting of taxes over the last decade in our state, I just assumed that South Carolina had paid off any outstanding debt at the state level.

So imagine my suprise when our governor asks the federal government if we can use 700 million dollars of federal money to pay off state debt.

It is time for the South Carolina legislature and the governor, whoever maybe in office, to get better at managing our states affairs. Much better.

South Carolina citizens demand a lean yet strong state government, aimed at providing excellent services and infrastructure, with a  tax structure that does not overly burden, but that keeps us ahead of the game, meaning paying off our debt(ourselves) and eventually funding our own rainy day, or sovereign fund. Government waste and fraud have to become  things of the past by necessity.

We can neither afford a fat, bloated government loaded with pet projects and other unnecceary spending, nor a weak underfunded central government which is unable to keep its own britches from falling around its ankles. With all the push me-pull you antics going on, what we’ve ended up with is a wasteful, bloated government that still can’t keep its pants up, and that should be unacceptable- to the governor, to the legislature, and to the people.

The Fourth Estate

It’s a funny thing about internet news outlets, how easily they can be filtered. It would be much easier to deny access to an internet site than newspaper that goes out to homes on paper.

This is why I lament the trouble that the newspaper industry finds itself in.

The term “fourth estate” was coined by Edmund Burke, who looked up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons and said, ‘Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all.’”

The press is critically important to a  free society, and while the internet is currently a gushing tap(at least in this country, it is very much controlled in others), it would be very easy to shut the spigot off.

This is one of the reasons I keep the subscription to my local newspaper. Other reasons include that it’s good for starting fires and it cleans glass without leaving lint.

Roll Call Voting (again?)

I read today in the Post & Courier that our state senate president, Glenn McConnell has said that roll call voting is a waste of time and money.

Perhaps we should say that any bill that does not demand roll call voting is the real waste of time and money.

Let’s just get this done and move on to more pressing matters, shall we?