1. The so-called “Competitive” Grants Programs – $35,300,000
We always thought of government pork as just an analogy but were shocked to learn that this program, a legislatively-dominated favor factory, has given our hard-earned tax dollars to pay for ACTUAL celebrations of pork such as… “The Pigs on the Ridge Festival” Fairfield County “The Piggie on the Rock Festival” Union County “Squealin’ on the Square” Laurens “Chitlin Strut” (note – chitlin’s are pig intestines) Salley We are all willing to pay taxes to fund the core functions of government but are just not sure that these items quite fit into that definition either. The grants program has also recently used our taxes to pay for many other boondoggles including… “Freedom Weekend Aloft” Anderson “Hilarity Festival” Chester We’d keep going as there are countless other examples but frankly, we’re tired of this “hot air” and don’t find any of this “hilarious” because legislators are turning our hard-earned taxes into, in the words of The State newspaper,” the kind of legislative pork that they’d just as soon not have to debate in public.” The paper goes on to say that this program had “all the appearances of a secret legislative slush fund” that “should be abolished.” We couldn’t agree more.

2. Cost Overruns at the State Farmer’s Market – $ 15,000,000
Richland outbid Lexington County to be chosen as the location for the new state farmer’s market. However, engineers made mistakes about soil conditions and now taxpayers of the state are on the verge of being forced to subsidize one local county’s bid to trump another’s. This is especially galling for citizens of Lexington County in that their tax dollars are essentially being given to Richland Country to help outbid their own county.

3. Hugh Leatherman’s Personal Spending – $ 8,970,129 (Francis Marion Center for Performing Arts, Florence Museum, Pee Dee Ballistic Shoothouse, Johnsonville Library, Lynches River Environmental Discovery Center)
While Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman didn’t get his extra $950,000 side of taxpayer-paid beans for his museum, he still got take-out on his main course – a heaping plate of $8.9 million of pork. Nearly half of that amount is for the Performing Arts Center which received an additional $7 million of our money in last year’s budget. While that is certainly quite a performance, Senator, we don’t think the hard-working taxpayers of South Carolina were calling for an encore this year.

4. Anderson County Parks – $800,000
House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Cooper sure loves the swine too. Apparently the $250,000 in state taxes that he recently secured for an Anderson sports complex named after his father (Dolly Cooper) wasn’t enough so he’s back up to the trough for another $800,000 in state taxpayers’ funds for more ball fields back home.

5. “Cultural Centers” (Aiken, Bennettsville, Chapman, Colleton, and Gaffney) – $4,035,000
Why are state taxpayers being forced to foot the bill for these Taj Mahals to local culture? And why are we building one in Bennettsville for Clinton crony Marian Wright Edelman, one of the leading Socialists of the last century? Her “Robin Hood Foundation” wanted to rob the rich to pay the poor; this boondoggle project just robs ordinary taxpayers.

6. Pork of “Historic” proportions – $695,000
Whether it’s “Historic Mineral Springs Park”, “Historic Duncan Park”, the Historic Randolph Cemetery, the Quaker Cemetery, or the Dr. Mays Historic Site and Museum, this budget certainly has a sense of History. Too bad that it’s taxpayer dollars that are history as a result.

7. “Revitalization/Renovation” projects – $2,960,000
The Sumter Item bragged recently about the second consecutive year that Central Carolina Technical College was getting $2M to “revitalize” a single building in downtown Sumter. That’s separate from the $360K the city is getting from the Department of Commerce to “revitalize” the entire downtown. Also, St. Stephens is getting another $100K to “revitalize” its downtown, while Westminster gets another $500K to renovate it’s City Hall. We wish taxpayers pocketbooks could be “Revitalized and Renovated” that thoroughly.

8. Department of “Porks” and Recreation Earmarks – $2,660,000
Some for Horry County, some for Charleston County, some for the interestingly named “Dorchester County Youth Senior and Tourism”, some for the infamous town of Atlantic Beach, some for Marion County, soon enough it all adds up to real money. Also, why would we spend state tax dollars on the Mount Pleasant Waterfront Park after Charleston County just raised their sales tax to bring in over $100 million for green space? If we have a PRT “Competitive” Grants program (to the tune of $3M) why can’t projects like the Camp Croft State Park Bridge, the Fingerville Community Park, or Byerly Park in Darlington compete there for their funding?

9. “Little League Sports Complex on Bryant Road” – $ 70,000
What is it, we wonder, that makes Bryant Road so special, and so universal, as to deserve state funding without even naming the city it’s in? And why is the state in the baseball business? We love baseball as much as anyone, but that doesn’t excuse leaving state dollars on the field. Perhaps they intend to rename the field Krispy Kreme Field after the generous Senate sponsor?

10. “Erosion and Sediment Control at Congaree Pointe” – $150,000
It seems that Senator Darrell Jackson’s flock wants to develop some of their land, which is fine, of course. Not content with the fallout from the Farmers Market scam, now Senator Jackson wants to spend state tax dollars on the church’s development project as well. It seems the “render unto Caesar” principle has been lost here…

11. Piedmont Technical Pottery Degree program – $150,000
Why do we suppose failed gubernatorial candidate Tommy Moore decided to fund this pet project? Is there a political statement here about all of us as jars of clay? Perhaps this broken degree program is just a metaphor for shattered ambitions for higher office. Either way, it’s a waste of hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

12. Security Detail for the Lieutenant Governor – $90,000
None of the other seven constitutional officers require this security detail and they have full-time positions. This boondoggle of a perk was ended by Bob Peeler 16 years ago; why do we need to bring it back now? Or is this still just a thinly veiled attempt to provide a job for a powerful Democrat Senator’s family member? After seeing their taxes used to increase spending by 40% over the past three years, it seems that taxpayers of South Carolina are the ones most in need of security these days, and the details aren’t pretty.

13. Anti-business provisos 26.7 and 63.44 (related to Parks Recreation and Tourism and the Budget and Control Board)
While there are no direct dollar amounts associated with these items, they have the potential to save taxpayers more money than any other on the list. Real fiscal conservatives would write a budget that encourages – not discourages – the use of the private sector in our state.

In just the last couple of years these two agencies have signed new contracts with companies that make use of their expertise in areas like tourist advertising and public relations for our state, reservation systems for our state parks, and even creating and running the state’s entire internet portal. The results have been much greater citizen service at a much lower cost – an example is an instant jump in South Carolina’s ranking in terms of digital services offered to our residents from 43rd to 17th with no budgetary expenditures. Proviso 63.3 also singles out the Budget and Control Board to obtain legislative approval before letting unnecessary employees go in yet another affront to the taxpayers of our state.

It is anti-business, anti-free market, and downright anti-American to require these two agencies – and only these two agencies – to run the often slow and too often impossible gauntlet of legislative approval in order to improve their services by partnering with the very private sector that produced the $1.5 billion in new revenue being spent this year.