UPDATE: Wolfe Reports continues its critique of the governors' anti-culture vetoes with a spirited defense of public broadcasting. If SC ETV was as good as some of the public networks and individual stations in other states he cites, I'd be more enthused. But it's good to keep the issue boiling.
Wolfe Reports has an excellent summary of Governor Sanford's making South Carolina the capital of H.L. Mencken's Sahara of the Bozart. Cotton Boll Conspiracy has weighed in recently as well, here and here.
As Wolfe documents, among the 107 line item vetoes the governor has issued for the state budget, a surprising number slash- or zero out- funding for the arts, history, museum and archive support, research, academic programs, libraries and the like. In the scheme of finding $300m in savings, the cuts are tiny but their effects are large.
"They're not essential to core state functions," the governor says over and over. Apparently, only law enforcement to arrest people and jails to house them (Sanford fought fee increases to fund the courts,- the home of that annoying requirement that the State prove a case against someone before locking them up), state employees- well some-, and the legislature (the two houses gave themselves 52% and 53% budget increases to slush around in) are core functions.
But the recurring theme in the governor's arts cuts is, over and over, "there's money somewhere else, from somebody else." Foundations. Individuals. The feds.
He must know, however, that foundations are themselves reeling from enormous losses in their investments from the market crash Sanford and his allies said would never come if their libertarian policies were allowed to flourish on Wall Street. Foundations make grants from the income off their investments. Less income, less to give out.
Ditto individuals. North Carolina Public Television got its state allocation cut 12% and is fundraising like mad to cover a $6m shortfall it says is largely due to a falloff in individual member contributions.
History sells South Carolina. It informs public policy and even elections. Faulkner wrote that history isn't history yet. It isn't even over. Consider the nice irony, spanning a century of history in this state, of a son of the late Senator Strom Thurmond running for Congress against a black man- the latter getting more votes in the primary.
The governor notes, a number of times in his veto messages, that various cultural institutions whose funding he cuts bring tourism dollars to the state, then intones, again and again, times are tough. Everyone suffers.
Cutting off funding to operations that generate revenue to the state's economy would seem to be foolish, largely because it is foolish. And in the context of economic development, it's idiotic.
I noted a long time ago- and repeatedly since- that the state needs to get past its 1950s policy of bribing big companies to come here with promises of cheap land, cheap labor and all the tax breaks one could want until a better offer comes long from somewhere else. In the meantime, the state needs to bridge the gap with policies that attract knowledge workers: the high-paying jobs of this century. A state makes its job attracting smart people when it offers them nothing but hot weather and golf courses.
Here's a long post on how badly the state is fumbling that mission. The legislature grandly announced a commission to encourage that sort of new thinking. It promptly sank from the radar.
When will these people ever learn? Never mind, they've defunded learning and imposed unpaid furloughs.
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