A vote in the SC House seems to have become a proxy for an internal split in the state's Republican establishment.
The House voted 71-47 to deny Amazon.com a sales tax exemption for the distribution center it is building in Cayce. 42 House Republicans voted to kill the deal, which was negotiated in the waning days of the Sanford administration. Governor Haley said she wouldn't have done the deal herself but wouldn't oppose it if the legislature passed it.
Process Story, a consultant/blog, underscores the conflict. In one post they finally pull up the rock under which a South Carolina liberal conspiracy is revealed to be running the state even though it holds no statewide office or legislative majority.But it was their fault the tax exemption failed.
Except for all those Republicans.
PS, whose principal makes his living shilling for legislative Republicans, must have a big 'ol dog in this hunt.He's added a whole string of caveats and explanations and colloquies to explain away what is really a pretty simple story.
That story is that the ruling majority in South Carolina has no idea whatever how to attract business to the state.
The Amazon deal was a classic, 1950s style econ dev deal: free land, various tax breaks, even an exemption from the state's arcane laws banning people from buying things on Sundays. Give up enough and get a big box factory in which, in this case, people put stuff in boxes and ship them. 1249 jobs, to be exact.
That's a ton o' jobs given that one her 100days in office celebration of herself, the governor is touting the creation of 849 jobs on her watch, not counting her appointment of her husband to help Henry McMaster pick a new head of SLED.
You can get an idea of the incoherence of the ruling class' economic development plans from the media reports.
Opponents of the deal included Teabaggists, social conservatives, small businesses, and big businesses like Wal-Mart that the small businesses ordinarily get wigged out by.
So, one might ask, what's the diff between Amazon's shipping center- which is apparently bad- and Amazon's server center- which is apparently good?
No one's saying.
The House vote was all over the place, Ds and Rs posting yeas and nays.
But the key to the debate is this- in the new economy, it's not the size of the big box you attract that counts.
It's the people you attract to work in the big box. And on that front, SC's racking up a big "FAIL".
Meantime, the governor tours the state, assuring people that if they paint their picket fences, plant flowers, smile a lot, and take an oath to to work for low wages, bidness will come.
The House voted 71-47 to deny Amazon.com a sales tax exemption for the distribution center it is building in Cayce. 42 House Republicans voted to kill the deal, which was negotiated in the waning days of the Sanford administration. Governor Haley said she wouldn't have done the deal herself but wouldn't oppose it if the legislature passed it.
Process Story, a consultant/blog, underscores the conflict. In one post they finally pull up the rock under which a South Carolina liberal conspiracy is revealed to be running the state even though it holds no statewide office or legislative majority.But it was their fault the tax exemption failed.
Except for all those Republicans.
PS, whose principal makes his living shilling for legislative Republicans, must have a big 'ol dog in this hunt.He's added a whole string of caveats and explanations and colloquies to explain away what is really a pretty simple story.
That story is that the ruling majority in South Carolina has no idea whatever how to attract business to the state.
The Amazon deal was a classic, 1950s style econ dev deal: free land, various tax breaks, even an exemption from the state's arcane laws banning people from buying things on Sundays. Give up enough and get a big box factory in which, in this case, people put stuff in boxes and ship them. 1249 jobs, to be exact.
That's a ton o' jobs given that one her 100days in office celebration of herself, the governor is touting the creation of 849 jobs on her watch, not counting her appointment of her husband to help Henry McMaster pick a new head of SLED.
You can get an idea of the incoherence of the ruling class' economic development plans from the media reports.
Opponents of the deal included Teabaggists, social conservatives, small businesses, and big businesses like Wal-Mart that the small businesses ordinarily get wigged out by.
So, one might ask, what's the diff between Amazon's shipping center- which is apparently bad- and Amazon's server center- which is apparently good?
No one's saying.
The House vote was all over the place, Ds and Rs posting yeas and nays.
But the key to the debate is this- in the new economy, it's not the size of the big box you attract that counts.
It's the people you attract to work in the big box. And on that front, SC's racking up a big "FAIL".
Meantime, the governor tours the state, assuring people that if they paint their picket fences, plant flowers, smile a lot, and take an oath to to work for low wages, bidness will come.
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