No Veto, Please

Governor should accept tourism marketing program

As four respected Grand Strand tourism leaders note in a letter on today's editorial page, the S.C. General Assembly did well last week to approve a $5 million state destination-specific grants program aimed at leveraging greater private investment in tourism advertising. But Gov. Mark Sanford reportedly has misgivings about the program and may excise it from the 2006 House-Senate budget agreement via line-item veto.

It is hard to understand why Sanford would do that. For every public dollar spent, hoteliers and other tourism entrepreneurs would spend many more private dollars to attract new visitors to the Grand Strand, Charleston, Hilton Head and other S.C. tourist destinations. From those visits would flow new state sales and income tax dollars, making up for the original public investment many times over.

Sanford is a staunch advocate of growing the S.C. economy via private investment. This program ought to be right up his alley. For that reason, the governor should spare it from the veto pen, so the economic blessings for all of South Carolina can begin to flow.