House right to keep radio reading

March 17, 2005

The House budget committee has restored funding to the Commission for the Blind’s program that provides radio broadcasts of stories, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries and other items from newspapers.

Gov. Mark Sanford justified withdrawal of funding in his budget by maintaining the program duplicates the Talking Book Services from the State Library. The director of the commission disagrees. Nell Carney told reporters the Commission for the Blind’s program "gets news to listeners far faster ? and is run 24 hours a day," mostly using volunteers.

Apparently a number of South Carolinians had a different view of the program’s value than the governor and made that view known to their representatives. Committee chair, Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said even though it was his committee that originally cut the funding, it was in response to public demand that the same committee voted to restore it.

He also took exception — and rightly so — to the governor’s spokesman Will Folks’ comments regarding the funding, that "at the slightest bit of outside pressure, the Legislature bends and decides to raid Medicaid funds to pay for the program."

Mr. Harrell responded that $100,000 wasn’t exactly a "raid" in a $4 billion state budget.

And, we might add, the comments from the governor’s mansion were a bit ironic; when it comes to "outside pressure" — and outside funding, for that matter — the governor’s pet project, Put Parents in Charge, has no peer. Reportedly, around $4 million has been spent by groups outside South Carolina to help the governor promote his plan that would offer tax credits for parents to send children to private schools.

The House has also authorized spending up to $2 million for courthouse security statewide, partially in response to the recent deaths in Atlanta of a judge, a court reporter and two officers when a prisoner was able to get an officer’s gun.

The House vote grants the State Law Enforcement Division the authority to spend $1 million for security and another $1 million for local law enforcement training grants, without a determination as to what exactly those security measures might be, and more importantly, the source of the funding.

Mr. Harrell believes that improvements in the state’s economy will enable lawmakers to find the money. He may be right. But apparently funding or specific plans weren’t an issue for the amendment’s author, Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston.

He said in effect that while the legislature didn’t know what to do about security, the people were "demanding they do something." Apparently any little gesture would do.

Mr. Altman’s proposal appears to be little more than a "there, there, little lady ... don’t worry your pretty little head" than any real attempt to address security, or a desire to appear to respond to concerns without going beyond the sound bite.

But we are pleased the House saw fit to continue a program that keeps citizens up to date on what’s happening in South Carolina.

Now if someone could just get more of the people to take an interest in current events ?

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