Sanford Says We “Probably Can’t Accept Some of the Money” From Stimulus

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is still going through the 1,700 page federal stimulus plan so he hasn’t made a final decision yet about whether he’ll request the money for the state. But he does say, “I think expectations are probably higher than the reality of what these monies will do. And I think in some cases it’s going to come with such strings attached that we probably can’t accept some of the money.“

South Carolina’s share of the stimulus money is about $8 billion. One example of the strings attached to the money is unemployment benefits. The stimulus plan requires states to offer unemployment benefits to part-time workers who lose their jobs, which the state doesn’t do now. The state has already had to borrow millions from the federal government to be able to keep paying benefits. “If you can’t pay for the current benefits, can you really afford to expand benefits? So there are some Catch-22s in the bill like that,“ Gov. Sanford says.

He fought the bill before it was passed and continues to believe it will cause more problems than it will solve. “What I think it means for South Carolina is what I think it means for the nation as a whole, which is a mistake. I think it means, frankly, deepening and, over the long-run, worsening the economic crisis we’re in. And I think it means debt and deficits for our kids and grandkids. I don’t think a problem that was ever created by too much debt will be solved by issuing yet more debt,“ he says.

U. S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also fought against the stimulus plan. But now that it has become law, he says the state should accept the money. His reasoning is that, if we don’t take the money, it’ll go to other states but South Carolina taxpayers will still be paying it back.

Gov. Sanford disagrees, saying it’s not current taxpayers who will be paying this money back; it’ll be our children and grandchildren. But even if it’s our children paying it back, he’s still not certain we should take it. “I can’t assume where my boys are going to live. At the end of the day they’re Americans before they’re South Carolinians. And so any decision that I think is going to be borne and paid for by them, I think that you need to look at through an American perspective rather than simply a local perspective.“ 

So if he’s against the stimulus plan, what’s his plan for improving the state’s economy? “Well, we laid out a couple of different pieces of that plan. We think it makes a lot of sense, for instance, not to raise taxes in this environment but certainly to re-look at the way taxes are currently divvied up or spent,“ he says. His plan includes lowering taxes on businesses so they can expand and create jobs and offering individuals an optional flat tax of 3.65 percent, without deductions, instead of 7 percent with deductions.

He says what’s important to turning around the state’s economy, and improving its third-highest-in-the-nation unemployment rate, is to improve the soil conditions for business.

He won’t say when he’ll make a final decision about requesting the stimulus money, but says there’s a 45-day window before state lawmakers can ask for it instead.