Governor offers deal on stimulus [Sanford] [accept *if* S.C. legis. pays off equiv. amt. of debt]

The State, Columbia, SC ^ | 2009-03-31

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Sanford might accept the federal funds if lawmakers agree to deal with debt.

BY JOHN O'CONNOR

GREENVILLE — Gov. Mark Sanford has proposed a compromise with state lawmakers over accepting $700 million in federal stimulus money — one that would require diverting state funds to pay off debt and accepting Sanford’s suggested budget savings.

Speaking to a group of Furman University students Monday, Sanford said for the first time that he might accept the rest of the federal stimulus money due to South Carolina if lawmakers use an equivalent amount of state money to pay down debt the next two years.

Friday is the deadline for governors to accept the funds.

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Both you and I know that it's your committee's very decisions
that could have taken our state down a more responsible path
in years' past, and this year you could still avoid any and all
lost education jobs that you so ominously foretell. It's your pen,
not mine, that has in large part brought us to this point today.
—S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, in a letter to S.C. Sen. Hugh Leatherman, RINO-Florence (S.C.)

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Don’t fall for it Sanford. They’ll do to you eggs ackley what they did to Daddy “No New Taxes” Bush! I remember the news clip of Bush and the Dem Congress leaders quite well. The Prez announced that there would new taxes, but that Congressional leaders had promised him that for every new tax dollar taken in, they would use that dollar to reduce the debt by one dollar. Instead, they spent a $1.84 for every new tax $1 .