Recently Gov. Mark Sanford encouraged the state to invest more money in the S.C. Department of Commerce, the economic development arm of state government. For that reason, the governor shouldn't veto $5 million in the budget earmarked for public-private investment in the state's No. 1 industry -- tourism -- that still has the capacity to grow.

The money is contained in Section 26.11 and creates a tourism Destination-Specific Tourism Marketing program, which is a competitive grants opportunity.

Even before his inauguration the governor touted the need for economic development. Since his first day in office, he has continued the quest and even has touted a report by Harvard University's Michael Porter assessing the state economic competitiveness.

According to a report from the spring issue of Business and Economic Review published at allbusiness.com, Porter outlined three years ago a new economic development strategy based around industry clusters. In the study, Porter identified tourism as one of four existing industry clusters that have a significant impact on the state's economy.

Indeed, it is a more than $15 billion industry that already uses public-private dollars and has a substantial return on investment for the state. Katherine Easterling and Julie Flowers, authors of the Business and Economic Review article, said that in 2003 the tourism industry employed directly and indirectly 216,000 people. John K. Durst, then executive director of the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, testified before a congressional committee in 2002 that tourism supported 240,000 jobs. Easterling and Flowers say the economic impact represents 10 percent of state employment and 9 percent of gross state revenue.

Carlotta Ungaro, president and CEO of the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce, said that money directed to tourism has at least a 6-1 return on investment, and additional funding could be a win-win for the state.

Writing in The Sun News of Myrtle Beach that week, the area's chamber of commerce officials said that the $5 million grant isn't "a government handout or an entitlement. Instead, it is a secure and sound investment in the state's largest industry -- tourism."

The investment could be a big return on the dollar since it should attract additional out-of-state tourists. An estimate says that tourists bear 60 percent of the sales tax burden in Beaufort County alone, not to mention the state.