Governor Mark Sanford Again

Governor of South Carolina Relents on Rejecting Jobless Funds
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Adam Nossiter
Published: December 31, 2008

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Just hours before the unemployment benefits fund was to run out in South Carolina, the state with the nation’s third-highest jobless rate, Governor Mark Sanford relented Wednesday and agreed to apply for $146 million in federal funds to top it up, after weeks of refusing to do so.

The governor’s position had drawn rebukes even from fellow Republicans in the legislature, one of whom denounced him as “heartless.” Newspaper editorial pages in South Carolina questioned why he was adding to the anxiety of the state’s 77,000 unemployed residents. Legislators here said they could recall no governor ever refusing to ask for unemployment funds.

For weeks Mr. Sanford, known for a philosophy in favor of a free market and against government aid, stuck to his stand, questioning the probity of the South Carolina Employment Security Commission and demanding an audit of the agency. He has said in that past that he did not trust the agency’s calculation of the state’s unemployment rate.

Its executive director warned that the agency would have to stop issuing benefit checks to the jobless after today if the governor did not back down and ask the federal government for the money.

Finally, on Wednesday morning, Mr. Sanford said at a news conference in his office at the state house that he would request the money. “We will not punish the unemployed for this agency’s incompetence,” he said. But the governor continued to insist that he would demand an audit of the unemployment office, though one prominent legislator, senate president pro tem Glenn McConnell, also a Republican, questioned the need for one, in an interview.

My Comments:
Nation’s third-highest jobless rate, even with all of the Federal jobs in South Carolina? How does this guy get elected? It's the South Carolina Employment Security Commission's fault that people are out of work?