Gov. Mark Sanford talks a good game on publicly assisted economic
development, but his view of the concept is so narrow that it's of
little use to Horry County and Myrtle Beach. He takes the
traditionalist view that any public investment in economic
development should net a direct payoff in new jobs and economic
activity.
To him, the General Assembly's $7 million appropriation toward an
international trade-show center in Myrtle Beach this year looks like
pork. Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride, who wrote to Sanford recently
urging him to oppose the appropriation when it came before the state
Budget and Control Board, apparently shares this narrow-minded view
of economic development.
Sanford, readers will recall, is one of five members of the
Budget and Control Board, the panel that decides major state
expenditures. He didn't get a chance to vote against the
trade-center appropriation Tuesday because the item got pulled from
the board's agenda. One member, S.C. Sen. Hugh Leatherman,
R-Florence, "attended" the meeting via telephone. According to S.C.
Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, Leatherman sought the delay
in the trade-center appropriation until the board's next meeting so
he could vote for it in person. His support for the project in the
Senate was instrumental in getting the appropriation passed.
But Sanford did participate in two similar votes Tuesday, one an
appropriation toward a Greenville convention complex, the other
toward a culinary school in Charleston. Along with S.C. Comptroller
General Richard Eckstrom, he voted no on both projects. But
Leatherman, S.C. Rep. Dan Cooper, R-
Anderson, and S.C. Treasurer
Grady Patterson all voted yes, so both items passed. Local
trade-center supporters can expect a similar vote when the matter
comes back before the board next month. Myrtle Beach will get
the money.
Still, it sticks in the craw that Sanford and other elected
officials from the parts of the state with diverse, industrialized
economies, define state-assisted economic development so narrowly
that development of alternative forms of tourism doesn't merit
public investment. The trade center won't create new jobs in the
sense that a new auto factory or airplane plant creates new jobs.
But it should incubate new jobs in Myrtle Beach, Horry County and
the Pee Dee. Those jobs should be year-round in nature and carry
good salaries, unlike some current tourism jobs.
The problem for Sanford, McBride and other trade-center
detractors is that this job-creation process will unfold in stages.
Once the center is built adjacent to the Myrtle Beach Convention
Center and the new terminal is completed at Myrtle Beach
International Airport, the city can solicit and house trade shows on
a year-round basis, bringing in visitors at times of year that now
are slow. That gives the tourism economy an boost.
Trade shows, in turn, bring in industrial and technological
leaders, some of whom might be looking to expand their businesses.
Northeastern South Carolina has a wealth of potential industrial and
commercial sites, as well as a willing, educated work force and
first-rate job-training facilities. None of this can happen without
the trade center, which is why Pee Dee public and private leaders so
vigorously support it.
True, building the trade center is risky. But this is the best
idea out there. Anyone else with a surefire idea for growing and
diversifying our local and regional economies should step forward
with it. Mayor
McBride?
