GOVERNOR’S CORPORATE HANDOUT FUND GROWS BY 800 PERCENT
|| By FITSNEWS || A crony capitalist slush fund enabling South Carolina governors to dole out millions of dollars in “incentives” to select companies has grown by more than 800 percent under Nikki Haley. The governor’s “closing fund” – which received $5 million a year in 2011 – is currently budgeted for $45.3 million. That’s more than a nine-fold increase in less than five years.
According to reporter Rick Brundrett of The Nerve – a Columbia, S.C. new media outlet that works in concert with libertarian-leaning S.C. Policy Council – the S.C. Commerce Department fund “is authorized through obscure state budget provisos that lawmakers have to renew annually.”
Brundrett’s story also noted the panel which approves these corporate handouts “typically discusses secretly what taxpayer-backed incentives companies will receive, and often releases little, if any, specifics to the public.”
Three years ago, this website published a report exposing South Carolina’s near-total lack of transparency in assessing the effectiveness of its taxpayer-funded “economic development” handouts – which of course have labored to produce nothing but record low labor participation and shrinking incomes.
Hooray!
Last year, The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper noted the Palmetto State provided taxpayers with a “bare minimum of disclosure” regarding these payouts.
Wonder why …
If an 800 percent expansion of taxpayer-funded “economic development” efforts produced nothing but a smaller workforce making less money … we’d try something else, too.
RAPID REACTION
@fitsnews @beachtiger0412 Tea Party elected her. Now she is throwing the tea party under the bus in the name of her own political fortunes
— Salty Dog (@TopSouthern) February 9, 2015
19 comments
Nice to know how the Cockroaches are living the high life
Planned on calling my Proctologist later on day and schedule an appointment
My sphincter was feeling a little loose but after reading this post the damn thing is tighter than Mande’s cooter
It can’t be low taxes for everyone, because the pols have nests to feather.
Great.
Crony Capitalism=Corporatism, which is not free markets.
Communist!
lol…I really do dislike communism. But if people want to engage in it voluntarily I’m ok with that.
Join the Anarchy party today!
I like syndical anarchists even though the notion that they’ll take over gov’t and then abolish is seems funny/unrealistic to me.
At least they got half of it right.
:)
*it
Actually,”free Markets” have become nothing more than a mantra repeated endlessly by those who vote for the likes of Nikki Haley because she has an (R) by her name and then want to bitch about it because she acts like a Republican.
Sloganeering aside ,Nikki is simply acting like all the Republicans that came before her.
Face it “free marketeers,” Crony Capitalism is now what the word “Capitlaism ” actually means.
And by happy!
It’s Great Day in SC
Institutionalized bribery is a sad substitute for good policy. But the suckers go to the polls every other year and re-elect the same miscreants. All the sheep say” baaa.”
I warned you!!!
Another Haley Lie, another failure!
Told you so. It will only get worse!
The voters dont care and they love Haley. She appeals to both male and female voters. They love it when she makes the news, makes lowly state employees trimble in their shoes and poor people starve. Haley the goodess of greed
Haley will be very lucky if she lasts another four years without being indicted for criminal behavior.
Let us Hope!
Capitalism is good, Socialism is bad.
That depends on what “is” is.
What amazes me, anyone, anyone would still believe, even ONE word which crosses Ohaley’s or Obama’s lips.
They are one in the same and have been caught in soooo many lies!
It is entirely appropriate to consider and discuss the merits of such funding. However, I don’t believe this article fairly considers the complicated issues involved. Do we bury our heads in the sand in South Carolina as other states vigorously pursue the Boeings and BMWs of the world? The author indicates that the Closing Fund and related incentives have “labored to produce nothing but record low labor participation and shrinking incomes.” This is a gross generalization about a very complex issue. Such incentives clearly have played a large part in companies like Boeing and BMW coming to South Carolina and providing good, high-paying jobs for thousands of South Carolinians. We should continue to hold our elected officials accountable for spending public dollars in a responsible manner, but to dismiss incentives out of hand as having only a negative impact on the state at best paints an incomplete picture and at worst is intentionally misleading.
Fits has not reported on South Carolina’s unemployment report for the last two months. Fits keeps linking old Workforce participation data. In the last five months when the nations WPR fell 0.2%, South Carolina’s rose 0.5%. For the last three months, South Carolina’s workforce has been at consecutive record highs. For two months the number of South Carolinians with jobs has been at record highs.
As you can see by the charts and table linked here, Fits was reported the dip in the labor force but does not report the recovery clearly shown in the top labor force chart. At the top of the linked page you can change the beginning year to 2009 to coincide with Haley taking office . Then you can almost steady improvement since about the third quarter of 2009 except for a dip in mid 2014. This dip is the only SC economic news Fits reports. REPORT THE RECOVERY!!!
http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet
All this and insider trading too?