via Sanford gives in on stimulus, will seek funds for S.C. | McClatchy.
WASHINGTON — Gov. Mark Sanford will comply with a midnight Friday stimulus deadline and become the last governor in the nation to seek millions of dollars in federal economic-recovery funds for his state, aides said late Thursday.
Governor Mark Sanford, South Carolina
Sanford will continue contesting $700 million in education and law enforcement money for South Carolina, but his 11th-hour move to meet the deadline buys time for schools fearing mass teacher layoffs and draconian cuts.
So Governor Stanford has finally admitted, by his reversal of plans, his refusal of the stimulus money was more about him than about the good governance of the state of South Carolina. No? His early public posturing against the stimulus put wind under the wings of other red state Governors such as Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Sarah Palin of Alaska. He now has filed a last minute compliance on Friday (weekend news cycle) in hopes that no one, especially Republican Governors, will notice his abandonment of the political posturing that he surely hoped would help his brand in 2012.
Or did he?
It seems as though he still has some point of contention with the $700 million figure that is earmarked for schools including teacher’s pay, modernization, and new buildings. Sanford wants to pay down part of South Carolina’s debt with that money, something the Obama administration has twice told him he could not do. Sanford’s last minute request locked in his state’s overall share of the stimulus, some $8 billion. But he may stay in front of the cameras and posture for a while more touting his fiscal credibility and sound judgment by denying his school system the direly needed funds. He will continue to berate Obama’s stimulus as too spendy, and while the state lays off more teachers he will proudly proclaim his sound fiscal judgment.
From McClatchy:
Even if Sanford and the legislative leaders can reach a compromise, it’s uncertain how any of the $700 million could be used to pay down state debt after Orszag’s [White House Budget Director Peter Orszag] explicit instruction, in two letters to him, that the law doesn’t permit such use.
This is a fight that he has lost from the get-go. Administration officials have told him the law doesn’t allow him to divert the funds. Even wrong, his stance against Obama wins him cool points with the right-wing base and he will surely remind everyone how he stood firm against Obama’s stimulus in the primary elections in 2012.
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