Lawmakers rip Sanford on economic development
COLUMBIA — Saying they were frustrated at what they called the lack of economic progress in the state under Gov. Mark Sanford, Republican leaders in the House and Senate announced their own plan Tuesday to boost jobs and increase the state’s average income.
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House Speaker Bobby Harrell and Sen. Hugh Leatherman, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the goals of their plan are to attract jobs in the state’s knowledge-based, high-tech sector, reduce the state’s chronically high unemployment rate and increase the per-capita income, which remains at 82 percent of the national average.
A spokesman for Sanford said the outline smacks of politics. “Let’s recognize this for what it is, first and foremost,” said spokesman Joel Sawyer. “It’s election-year politics. Whether the Legislature actually follows through with creating yet another committee to study committees is anyone’s guess.”
Harrell and Leatherman said lawmakers have passed at least 20 pieces of legislation in recent years aimed at kick-starting the state’s economy, but they haven’t been adequately implemented.
They said their plan would better focus the state’s resources, better implement the legislation, coordinate more effort on attracting knowledge-based jobs and collaborate more with private industry.
Their plan calls for a public-private “Knowledge Sector Council,” which would ensure the state’s efforts and investment of tax dollars are “focused, synergistic, coordinated and maximized,” according to a three-page letter sent by legislative leaders to business officials.
Sawyer said if legislators were so concerned about economic development, they shouldn’t have cut the Commerce Department’s budget by $10 million this year.
“What we don’t think we should be doing is setting up some sort of council of wise men here in Columbia who are going to sit around a table and pick winners and losers,” he said.
“The economy is going to grow based upon innovators and entrepreneurs out there who own businesses and who are doing real work and who are going to innovate.”
The plan, which its backers describe as more of a blueprint, contains few other specific details, other than to borrow the concept of dividing the state into economic clusters and to explain that focusing on knowledge-based jobs would be the key to the state’s overall future success.
The legislators said they had no specific timeline or specific markers to indicate success, other than surpassing the national average for per-capita income and attracting more knowledge-based jobs.
They were joined by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper and newly selected University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides, as well as William Mahoney, CEO of the South Carolina Research Authority. They held their press conference in front of the Employment Security Commission offices in Columbia to draw attention to the state’s high unemployment rate.
Officials with Sanford’s office said they weren’t invited and didn’t attend.
Department of Commerce Secretary Joe Taylor said despite lawmakers’ comments, 2006 and 2007 were “record-breaking” years in attracting new jobs and capital investment, with more than $4 billion in capital investment and 15,666 in new jobs last year.
He said despite a troubled national economy, 2008 “appears to be another banner year” for the state, including announcements by Monster, Heinz, Home Depot and a $750 million expansion by BMW.
Taylor said while not all the new jobs being added fall into the category of high-tech, “A good job is relative. To a man with no job, any job is good.”
He said the state has outperformed its neighbors in attracting business.
Legislators said they were unsatisfied with economic development efforts under Sanford’s watch, comparing the results of past GOP governors to Sanford.
Harrell and Leathermen said they had expressed their frustration in recent years with Sanford and Taylor and attributed much of the state’s claimed success to the work of local economic developers.
“The past few years of inaction and missed opportunities has shown us that if we truly want those high-paying jobs created, we must not only provide the means but also the execution,” Harrell said.
“Especially now, given the current state of our national economy and our high unemployment rate, we can no longer wait for that leadership to present itself.”
Leatherman was more blunt.
“After observing the actual results over the past several years, it has become painfully clear that this administration simply doesn’t care about creating jobs for our people,” Leatherman said.
He said neither Sanford nor Taylor appeared at an economic meeting in Japan last year with other business and government leaders from the Southeast. He said the Japanese hosts felt “snubbed.”
Taylor said he sent several members of his staff to the Japanese meeting, including his deputy who speaks fluent Japanese.
Sawyer said he believes criticism aimed at the administration is “somewhat bizarre” given the success the state has enjoyed in attracting businesses in recent years.
He said South Carolina’s job growth since Sanford took office ranks 16th in the nation.
by Tim Smith
7/30/08