… CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS WENT UNMET
In the aftermath of “Floodmaggedon,” we’ve written on the woeful state of South Carolina’s infrastructure – roads, bridges, dams, etc.
Is this chronic state of disrepair due to a lack of funding? No.
As we repeatedly pointed out during the gas tax debate, lawmakers supporting higher taxes have approved billions of dollars in new spending on South Carolina’s worst-in-the-nation government-run school system, its duplicative and inefficient higher education system, bailouts for wealthy corporations, shady ‘economic development‘ deals and … lest we forget … dozens of exorbitantly expensive and totally unnecessary highway projects.
As a result, the state’s annual budget has ballooned to a record-setting $26 billion (a number you never hear about from the mainstream media) – while funding for roads and bridges increasing from $1.1 to $1.8 billion annually over the last four years alone.
That’s an eighty percent increase, people …
Despite these investments, in 2013 an estimated 11.3 percent of state bridges were structurally deficient while 9.4 percent were deemed functionally obsolete. Roads were in even worse shape. Meanwhile 162 of the state’s 550 regulated dams were classified as “high hazard.”
How is this possible when state government has consistently grown faster than inflation and population growth?
Anyway, as we’ve noted the ineptitude hasn’t been confined to the state level …
In the city of Columbia, S.C. – which got far less rainfall than other areas of the state – “Floodmaggedon” has produced deadly chaos. It has also created a public health crisis as the city’s long-neglected water and sewer system has been severely compromised.
For the fourth straight day, more than 400,000 citizens are under a boil water advisory – with no end in sight.
Meanwhile far too many of those citizens who lost everything were struggling to get by before the rain fell and the waters rose.
Obviously we’re not saying even the most judicious use of taxpayer resources could have prevented all of the death and destruction wrought by this storm – but our infrastructure and our people could (and should) have been much better prepared.
We’re not the only ones who think so, either.
“South Carolina has been solid red for as far back in history as the eye can see, and the GOP hates investing in infrastructure,” Shannon Barber wrote for Occupy Democrats. “There are many reasons for this, but, at the top of that list is the fact that they are bound to their corporate masters, working tirelessly to secure tax cuts for the rich and tax breaks for corporations, without any plan to make up the lost income that should have gone to pay for infrastructure improvements.”
At all levels of authority in the Palmetto State, core functions of government are being habitually neglected so that politicians can chase pet projects or dole out cash incentives to select corporations. And when government does perform core functions – it routinely allows politics, not real needs – to dictate where the dollars flow. And nowhere is this politicization more evident than in government spending on roads and bridges.
Government exists to protect life, liberty and property. When it seeks to go beyond these core functions, bad things happen.
“Floodmaggedon” is obviously a disaster no amount of wisdom, stewardship or preparation could have prevented.
But the price we are going to pay for it – in lost lives, property and tax dollars – is going to be far higher than it should have been.
151 comments
“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” – Queen Marie Antoinette
“Qu’ils aillent siéger dans le nouveau stade” – King T-Bone
Hmmm, you may be right…
Looks like Nimrata ate all the cake.
I thought we had renamed him Mayor Shitwater.
Is there any truth to the rumors circulating that Hugh Leatherman and Jean Toal are both experiencing erections lasting longer than four hours, because of the glut of Federal money that will soon be available for needed infrastructure repairs? Just thinking about the money available for cronies in the road paving and related fields is said to have caused this troubling condition.
Jean Toal???? How so.
sheeze a man baby!
I believe she birthed a child.
hoax baby!
What Stumpknocker said, below. Plus, as the Queen Mother of corruption in SC, she gets a cut of the proceeds.
Ah don’t worry, New Jersey, New York, Pennsy, CT, MA, OH, IL, CA, WI, MI and RI will pay for it. It’s all free. Just ask Lindsey.
I’ve listed all week to the “no one could have predicted this” argument. So how about this from the Union of Concerned Scientists several years back.
“As storms increase in intensity, flooding becomes a larger concern. Flash floods, which pose the most immediate risks for people, bridges and roads, and buildings on floodplains, result in part from this shift toward more extreme precipitation in a warming world.
Regions previously thought to be safe from floods are increasingly threatened by them; agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the US Geological Survey (USGS), among others, are working to gather information that can be used to redraw flood maps to help anticipate vulnerable areas.
npr reported that we have had 5 of these 1000 year events since 2012 and here in south carolina we have schools of thought, the global warming crowd and the wrath of God crowd
5 in three years. Seems they ain’t 1000 year events any more.
yep God is really pissed off for letting gays serve openly in the military, maybe if we did a little gay persecution he would cool down and so would the planet.
Witch burnings (and/or other heinous torture of anyone believed to be one)! That’s where its at! Just waiting on the right charismatic, evangelical, figurehead to get that going again. That will surely appease Him!
They were never “thousands year events”, they were “one storm in one thousand storms” chance events.
and calculated along with average # storms per year or decade or any time period gives you…? Or average # of storms per category per year.
Tell that to Nikki. She was using that worst storm in a thousand years again yesterday. Never miss a chance to lie, if it gets you off the hook I guess.
To count the events have to be in the same type event in the same location. South Carolina may be too big to be an insane asylum, but it’s big enough to have several 1000 year occurrences of different types of events in different parts of the state in several years.
actually that is 1000 year events nation wide, just a question, the bible you thump, is it the gay king james bible, the king that fucked his first cousin, or the Geneva bible that the first christians came to america to escape religious persecution?
You are experiencing religious persecution of a different kind. You are experiencing it as a perpetrator of persecution of religious people?
don’t get me started, i was called into the head masters office for not walking up to the front of the gym to get saved, i think i was 13, but my faith in Jesus gave me the strength to stand up to the adult authority figures telling me that my family was going to hell because we were not saved, i’m church of england, and the born again crowd loved to punish anyone that did not follow their dogma
I’m the born again crowd and never experienced anything like that. Dad asked me if I wanted to be baptised. Never mentioned hell. I said yes. Asked if I knew what it meant and to explain. He left the decision up to me. Never any pressure. I regret your experience. I never put up with a literal “pound the pulpit with the Bible” type.
I use the name only because Folks uses it too broadly.
hey i have some baptist friends, but they are drinking baptist
I’m not a drinking Baptist, but I hang with them. No judging.
cool, i can’t take back what i said about king james or the bible the pilgrams brought over because that is the truth, but if you can hang out with drinking baptist, you are fine in my book
and by the way, i’m still struggling with henrey 8th starting my church, it ain’t easy being a christian
The Old Testament is God showing man how screwed he is and the reason he had to send his Son Don’t try to follow it.
Don’t watch television preachers. Don’t believe what the media says about Christmas. They only cover “man bites dog” stories. Freaks. Even that Kentucky county clerk.
The Baptist total immersion baptism is better. You see though the girls dresses when they get wet. Otherwise it makes little difference to me . Baptists, Episcopalian. . etc.
lol
Up vote.
the pilgrams at great risk to their family’s lives came here to escape you, and that was not enough for you shits, you had to come over here too, to spew your hatred.
My mother’s ancestors were all Pilgrims and Puritans. Haven’t gotten beyond one generation before the Civil War on my father’s side. All Americans.
but you don’t even know what bible they lived by, i’m sure they are rolling over in their graves.
All Americans? Which Tribe?
Poubelle Blanche
Poubelle Blanche
i bet you lie to your children about what is really up with your shitty interpretation of the bible, bet you tell them the pilgrams where all born again king james christians, you fucking liar, and i say fucking liar because you would even lie to your children.
Maybe but since Katrina the USA has had fewer hurricanes.
When is OBAMA sending the private sector down here to do this fucking job?
any particular reason Obama would want to anything for south carolina?
Somebody has to do things around here.
It is no fun to do the basics of government. It is lots of fun to dole out goodies to everyone, especially when you use other people’s money.
Cased closed.
thats kinda silly coming from a shut down the government over anything party member
“South Carolina has been solid red for as far back in history as the eye can see, and the GOP hates investing in infrastructure,” Shannon Barber wrote for Occupy Democrats.”
Yeah as far back as a twenty year old can see, Shannon must be all off twenty – we switched parties in the early nineties just two decades ago. The Dems had more than a hundred uncontested years to screw the state up, it’ll take more than twenty to fix it, not that our RINOS will actually do anything useful.
here is a gut check Colonel, the democratic party’s mantra of two decades ago and before was vote republican nationally and democrat locally, the point i’m making and the truth you are bastardtizing is democrats of that time in south carolina you where referring too where republicans that where still too pissed off to admit it because that was the party of lincoln.
Let’s all move to Detroit.
Haiti
That new Ibeza for Geezas resort I’ve been hearing about.
I keep asking this question and I never get an answer – who were all the dems that became repubs?
Well, there was Uncle Sperm…most of the living old dog legislative leadership
strom thermond?
That’s one, in fact the only national SC dem that changed and that was in 1964.
well you don’t have to ask the question anymore, but wait a minute, you already knew the the answer, so the question was just a bluff to cloud the truth, well you have taken the gut check test and you get a big fat P, Colonel Pussy.
So one man did all this party changing and did all this red state evilness? Your tale makes for good fiction and in some states is even partially true – South Carolina ain’t one if then.
slither away colonel pussy, your spineless ilk will pat you the back, but you have failed the gut check
Who knew Strom Thurmond was super man?
the point is, you have an agenda and are trying to move it forward, ok fine, but the best lies have a grain of truth in them or more. i called you out for skewing the truth, and i believe you know that you are doing it, but you have doubled down and become a liar.
Agenda, hmm, didn’t I point out that the RINOs wouldn’t do anything useful either? Yes, yes I did.
There are VERY few real conservatives in state government anymore.
rinos my ass, this has nothing to do with the point, you get caught bullshitting owe up to it, this is the issue, i know you are bright, hell i agree with a lot of your posts, but when you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, fess the fuck up and move on
“…who are ALL the dems …” Don’t you get it, you claim there was this mass migration and yet you come up with one bane, one. Is that the best you can do? Yes, it is because he’s about the only one. Other states had some at the national level but the “mass migration” never happened.
ok we both know when LBJ backed the civil rights movement southern democrats left the national party, it just took time to redefine themselves and i know you know that, are you ready to argue george wallace is your garden variety democrat of today?
I’m primarily taking about South Carolinians. Vicupstate has a good list above (I’d forgotten about Beasley) and he gets to the real issue – the voters changed, primarily because they were tired of being screwed by democrats.
dodging again, is being the leader of the nutcases worth your self respect?
Hey, pay attention, the righty nut-cases don’t like The Colonel. Not a bit. To them, he’s the total RINO. Damn near a Marxist.
My opinion, he’s a moderate conservative. Now considered to be a horrible thing to be, apparently. He’s a mainstreamer, but a bit of an iconoclast. And he’s pretty reasonable on most issues.
that means nothing, the nut cases eat their young
It means what you said does not hold water. In the grand scheme of things, of course, that may be “nothing.” But it was stated directly to your point, and your point was not on point. lol
Explain GT then.
Only an expert in abnormal psych could do that.
Nope, just hit a great discussion going, I can probably list as many party changers as anyone but again compared to the rest of the south it was not a huge migration.
Okay, now that I’ve stirred it up a little, I’m going to bed, I spent the whole day pulling sheet rock of walls down in Lake Catherine, I’m to old for that shit.
kinda spooky, you have to have seen me around, i will be camped out there work wise very soon
Men’s group from church. My oldest will be doing rebuilding beginning next week
right there at the tennis courts, bill coggins is a friend of mine
Glad the blog couldn’t entertain you after a long, hard day. One does from weary after toying with the serfs, don’t they Sire? You must have been tired cause you jerked off the blog instead of yourself or the dog.
Meaning the majority were white, and they were sick of blacks getting more benefits from the political system than they did.
Ding, ding, ding.
Tired of being screwed by Democrats? and exactly how were they being screwed. This is crap. I grew up in this state, in a politically connected family. Everyone knows that following the Civil rights legislation of the 60s the Republicans began their Southern Strategy. They began to play on the prejudices and fears of white southerners to get them into the Republican party. They were phenomenally successful. Particularly among poor rural and small town white people who felt angry and threated by black people being in their schools and competing with them for jobs.
Republicans positioned themselves as the party that will protect you from the lazy black people trying to take your money. I mean do we really have to repeat Lee Atwater’s description of the Republican Southern Strategy again. Now they are returning to their old playbook. This time with Hispanics.
I’ll take this one. Wallace was a political pragmatist, but remained a Dem at heart until the day he died. He was all about the pork, and tax, tax, tax, spend, spend, spend. So he’s not a good one to use to make your point. Race may be a major defining issue in this debate, but it isn’t the only one.
George Wallace, what a politician, the Huey P. “Kingfish” Long of Alabama.
Yes, he was. He and Johnson were very much alike, in many ways.
This is sort of a standard response of Republicans like The Colonel ,as well as Fits.See the REAL Republicans could really work wonders,but the Republicans who run SC just aren’t REAL Republicans.They are”Republicans”(Fits language)or RINOS(per The Colonel)
It’s all silly of course but somehow it enables them to live in this fantasy world.
Things would just be GREAT if REAL Republicans were running things.
Who are the REAL Republicans?Well they are whomever people like Fits and The Colonel say they are!
Understand?
yeah, what he said
People who complain about a lack of REAL Republicans are usually the asshats voting for the non-REAL Republicans.
A REAL Scotsman would never…
All the young women the old horn-dog geezer boned might have had some idea. Haw!
You’re clouding the issue by trying to make it all about governors and members of the US Congress. That’s not all the SC politicians in office, by any means.
In South Carolina a large number of Dems have changed parties since the late ’80s. I’m speaking mainly of local politicians who are the county or district legislative delegations in the state legislature. It is also true of county and city council members. The change is, almost always, from Democrat to Republican. Since these politicians are the ones who are likely to be candidates for Congress, not acknowledging that they have switched parties is disingenuous at best.
And then, of course, you have special cases like Tom Rice. Dude comes from a family literally crawling with life-long Democrats, but he himself did not even bother to register to vote until 2009, when he’d already been selected to be the guy to use his selection as Horry County Council chair as a stepping-stone to repping Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce (not the people of the district) in DC.
The contention that Dems mainly have switched parties since the civil rights era is a sound one. It’s actually pretty silly of you to protest it.
Once again, your “long list” includes one name. There were of course more and even some who went the other way, but South Carolina never experienced the “mass migration” at the state or national level. Flood Spence changed but Hollings will die a democrat.
Do the voters not count?
btw, SC RINO Supreme Leader Hugh Leatherman started his political career as a Democrat. He’s not alone, among the “old guard” in SC.
Not only did South Carolina experience it, so did every other state of the Old Confederacy.
You really should know better. Maybe you do, but refuse to admit it.
I voted for Carter in ’80. I changed parties on Reagan’s inauguration day.
Wasn’t that the dumbest vote you ever cast? I did the same damn thing.
good man, oh yes, poor president oh hell yes
He’s a nice old dude. A true Christian.
But yeah, he sucked balls as POTUS. Handed it to Reagan on a silver platter.
I was living in Atlanta at the time, he had actually been a pretty good gubernor.
Agreed. That was back when I believed what I heard on the news.
no it was not a dumb vote, as you said he was a good gubna, there was no way to know he could not take up a notch as potus, you voted for a good man, potus was just over his head
I voted for Dukais – that was the dumbest vote I ever cast.
Winner! Several years ago I was running a charity go-cart race event and had arranged for “Cousin Authur Ravenel” to make an appearance (this was during the gubernor’s race). We were going to let him drive the “pace cart” to start the race but he refused to do it since he’d of had to wear a helmet and “…didn’t wanna look like that idiot Dukakis…”
what are your thoughts on rhett wolfe?
The only Rhett Wolfe I know of was a realtor who died two years ago?!?
oh my, he followed his wife, he was an ignigma to me, we had a falling out about 6 years ago, speachless
The only thing I know about him was that he was a real estate broker (I have way too many lawyers and real estate salesman for friends) and he played tennis. That’s how I knew him, through the local club tennis scene, my wife plays, I don’t, I prefer sports that involve firearms.
Wife just walked in and said it was a year ago August rather than two years.
get a dart board, if you get proficient with that, guns become crazy eazy
Can’t throw darts for shit, missed “President’s Hundred” by two points. I’m highly proficient with firearms, primarily at your (the taxpayer’s) expense.
Love it when you RINO’s come clean!
RINO?!? I was working on Cousin Arthur’s campaign – he was hardly a RINO.
“Criminals beware of Arthur Ravenel”
dude I appreciate ya….but you are a RINO…talk a good game but ALWAYS side with the socialists on Fits…and THEY love ya for it! :)
Whatever.
The Buzzman stumpknocker • an hour ago
Hey, pay attention, the righty nut-cases don’t like The Colonel. Not a bit. To them, he’s the total RINO. Damn near a Marxist.
My opinion, he’s a moderate conservative. Now considered to be a horrible thing to be, apparently. He’s a mainstreamer, but a bit of an iconoclast. And he’s pretty reasonable on most issues.
____________
See what I mean? You give aid and comfort to the ‘enemy’, 24/7.They love ya!Boz has stated he is as a ‘lifelong’, very LIBERAL Democrat. This WONDERFUL blog is 95% lovers of infanticide,gay marriage lovers and Christ haters.
Boz is THE lying disgrace in Horry County,in my opinion.Falsely accused the mayor of MB of drunk driving while alleging that NUMEROUS public/private citizens in that county are felons.
You are better than this?
I’m a conservative in that I hold to traditional values. I’ve given up on most politicians. No one who knows me would consider me a moderate on anything.
RINO? You mean moderate Republicans?
Yes, all those posters who advocate for central planning, and gov’t control of the means of production and distribution. all of them. As opposed to those Constitutional conservatives who support using the Constitution to frame our governance, well, only the parts they like
Well, on the bright side, I ensures I never voted for a Bush. And in 1988 that was the smartest Bush.
Please.You would vote for ISIS. Why is that a big deal?
How’s thinks in MB?
Dumbest vote I ever cast was Dubya in 2000
Voted for Carter? LMAO!
Tom Rice had NOT registered to vote until 2009?How do you know that, stalker?
Prove it!
Starting in the 1950s,Roger Milliken helped build the South Carolina Republican Party, which had been in the minority for decades.[1] Milliken helped convince South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond to switch to the Republican Party,[1] and Milliken raised the money for the “Senator Thurmond Speaks for Nixon-Agnew” commercials that formed part of Nixon’s Southern Strategy of attracting white Southerners to the Republican Party in the 1968 Presidential election.[
Not true. See my post above.
He was a hot contender back in the day.
“Thermo” = hot
God is going to punish you for that horrible attempt at punning.
I know,… and I really do deserve it.
:-(
Albert Watson, Strom Thurmond, Floyd Spence, Arthur Ravenel, Marshall Parker, Ralph Ellis, Stan Livingston, Hugh Leatherman, J. Vern Smith, David Beasley, Luke Rankin, and a lot more state and local level ones, but those are the ones that come to mind first.
and most importantly …
the hundreds of thousands of voters that voted for them and switched parties with them (some earlier, some later but virtually all did).
I really hate to agree with you but those above mentioned names are right. In 1964 conservatives who couldn’t support LBJ switched parties . Some were good honest types like Thurmond , Spence and Ravenel , good conservatives, then there were the RINOs that saw which way the state was going and jumped on the bandwagon without really changing their way of thinking. Leatherman and Beasley stand out in that group. In those days the GOP was getting a foot hold in SC and would take just about anything that wanted to change parties.
T he party switch was in the 60’s.
But the miscreants are the same. They just changed hats.
Please see my above post, quoting anything she says is asinine.
Latest Bulletin…. Entire City of Columbia Falls Into the Congaree River… A sleepy Mayor Shitwater was overheard to say… “We’ve had a set back… but we’re schtill schtrong…
In oligarchies and autocratic societies public investments are ignored for short term profiteering of the ruling class. That’s why Russia’s infrastructure was incapable of sustaining an event modest threat as the Soviet Empire collapsed. The majority of russians and even certain members of the ruling class had enough. The problem: they didn’t really change out the old political class and Putin runs Russia for the oligarchs now.
The ruling class in SC will not relinquish power easily and attempt to profit from this disaster. Watch who will profit from the FEMA money! The same guys responsible for this infrastructure crisis – the decay is hard to stop. SC is defacto a second-world country.
Only more influx from northerners and south of the border will change this -takes a long time – not fast enough for any meaningful change here in the next 10 years.
I think Haley and the state lawmakers should have to drink Columbia Shitwater and drive the roads of death every day.
shaken not stirred
Actually, they do. They’re just too dumb to notice.
A one chance in 500 of occurring in any year, wide spread rain envent. Probably, at least one fourth of the state experienced that one in 500 per year event. Other areas of the state probably experienced a 50 year event.
Many dams are designed so that if they fail it is not suddenly so that people have time to flee. The Taccoa Falls Ga. dam failure in 1977 killed 39 people. Surveyors now monitor major dams measuring their slightest moves at regular intervals.
550 regulated dams in SC. 14 dams have failed. There will be a few more in the low country. Is that a bad?
Some of the dams that failed were private dams on private ponds. Those should be the responsibility of the property owner to maintain at a safe standard. Some of the dams that failed were up to code but no one could have anticipated the amount of rain that fell.. The rainfall totals in many areas exceeded the levels of Hugo. We basically had a category 5 hurricane without the wind.
never the less, it still blows
Did Hollinshead Creek flood. That would be great news. I met a guy once who lives over there. A real jerk. Kept trying to look down my blouse.
Hey, if there’s something there worth looking at, can you blame him? Take it as a compliment on your well-put-togetherness.
:-D
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$1.1 to $1.8 = 80% increase???
((1.8-1.1)/1.1)x100%=63.64%
When he speaks of the SC Public School system, he speaks from experience.
I’m envious. I relish finding fits errors.
I agree funding isn’t the issue but the increase from $1.1M to $1.8M is around 64% not 80%. You’re proving that the increased funding in education isn’t paying off in SC.
Another day in Capital Shitwater. …great love it……..time to vote these morons out of office!
“Government exists to protect life, liberty and property. When it seeks to go beyond these core functions, bad things happen.”
“Which is why bad things are happening all the time.”
So, should the government require higher design, construction and supervision standards for any dams that are rebuilt in Columbia or is that too much central planning by evil socialists? What insurance requirements for those dams, if any should apply?
Don’t rebuild them, give a portion of the reclaimed land to the adjoining homeowners, and keep a portion for a green belt of sorts and just let the streams run au naturale.
The state government has been used by politicians as a personal plaything, career stepping stone, cash register, job creator for relatives, and bank account for a long long time. It continues today. Sic catalogued it — duplicative and wasteful higher education systems, corporate welfare, bribes to companies to relocate here, highway project shenanigans, and much much more. How does it happen? There is no “downside” to bad government, The people elect and re-elect the same old malefactors. Corruption, cronyism and incompetence are rampant There is no accountability at the polls. Look at Haley’s administration — incompetent, ethically-challenged, and riddled with cronyism. The price paid? Re-election with 56% of the vote. It is the fault of the voters. People get the government they deserve.
“Shannon Barber is a self- described queer feminist and activist for racial equality, LGBT rights, women’s rights, and secular rights in America. She is a lifelong lover of words, though her educational background is in computer science. She currently writes for 2 liberal websites, and keeps her own humor blog for lesbians. She hopes to change the world, one mind at a time.”
Well this writer sure makes our own Taylor look plain Jane. It is nice to know that a resident of the Pacific Northwest is an expert on SC history. The rich irony here is where she is from, the budgets ran by her fellow Queers is spent not on infrastructure but progressive giveaways, and they are broke.
A report came out several years ago that touched on SC failing road system. But nooooooo … the lawless corrupt felons in the General Assembly absolutely refused to do much of anything about it while tax payers money was being STOLEN.