The Greenville News has no link to it. They have a number of links in the story, and all lead to ads for Ford and various stock trading services.
Miley & Associates, which actually did the study, has a website under "reconstruction."
The Alliance For South Carolina's Future's website is at best rudimentary. It lists a board of directors by name but with no description who they are or what their interests might be.
Anybody know any of this lot?
Bill Stern, Chairman
Bob McAlister, Alliance Co-Founder
Ed McMullen, Alliance Co-Founder
Larry Wilson
John Russell
The only illustrations on the site are a big pic of a Dreamliner and the Boeing logo.
Charleston Regional Business Journal reports the organization has morphed through several identities over the last year and a bit:
According to records from the office of S.C. Secretary of State Mark Hammond, the organization was formed in April 2009, but it has undergone two name changes this year. It was first registered as S.C. Action for Jobs, according to records, and the name was changed to Conservative SC on Feb. 19. That name was changed a few days later, on Feb. 26, to Alliance for South Carolina’s Future.
Under "About the Alliance" you get this illuminating comment:
The Alliance for South Carolina’s Future is a pro-business, non-profit 501-c-4 established to promote economic growth across the State of South Carolina.Both tabs are closed to comment.
Bob McAlister's a longtime conservative media guy who used to be a regular contributor to the very conservative blog SC Conservative, which became the social conservative networking site ConservativeSC, which, interestingly, has the same Dreamliner pic and caption as the Alliance For South Carolina's Future site.
FITS News has linked McAlister to the Richard Quinn & Associates consulting firm in another PR effort in which former Palmetto Scoop editor and Quinn employee Adam Fogle was the placeholder.
Ed McMullen, the other co-founder, appears to be a Columbia-based PR-lobbying firm head who led the SC Policy Council, a right-leaning think thank for 18 years.
Another director, Larry Wilson, seems to be tied in with various USC-related entrepreneurial efforts including the drive to develop hydrogen fuel cell technologies.
Bill Stern is also the name of the SC Ports Authority chief, but that's as far as we can get. Nada re John Russell. .
The News story does indicate the report was prepared by a former chief economist to former GOP governor Carroll Campbell.
Boeing distanced itself from the study's methodology and conclusions but said it thought the net result of its presence would be positive.
The study itself, a pdf. file attached to the Alliance site, seems mostly to argue for lowering corporate property taxes in NC/SC border counties as a means of attracting more business, then juggles all sorts of numbers to argue Boeing will generate business and revenue all over the state. Arguing benefit to the Upstate, for example, the study cites one company based in Greenville that will have something to do with construction of the North Charleston plant.
This press release story has already generated 225 media news hits on Google. Given the sketchy, murky background of the venture (where did the money come from?) and that it's the only thing the Alliance has on its plate, you gotta wonder what the agenda is behind this big wet kiss to Boeing.
This group's agenda is to show that doling out massive tax incentives reaps big rewards in terms of jobs and investments. Therefore, the legislature was right to do so and should continue to do so when the opportunity presents itself.
ReplyDeleteThe motivation for the individuals involved with Alliance for S.C.'s Future is that if everyone buys into this sham, they will get to be involved in promoting future projects such as Boeing.
These guys see a golden goose and are simply greasing the skids with a dubious report so that they can get in on the ground floor for the next big company that's the beneficiary of our 1950s brand of economic development.