Tax break pandering to voters

ISSAC J. BAILEY

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

Every time Gov. Mark Sanford makes a decision or a report is issued about South Carolina's high unemployment rate, the S.C. Democratic party instantaneously sends out a bundle of e-mails to news organizations throughout the state.

I usually read the first few sentences before hitting the delete button because all of the messages are biased and many are misleading. In other words, they are mostly full of crap. A more understanding soul than myself might call that politics. I just don't believe there's a difference.

I received another of those messages Wednesday after Sanford announced plans to hold a press conference to tell the state he wanted to temporarily eliminate the state's gas tax - which happened to be weeks after Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Myrtle Beach, proposed the same thing. The e-mail's title: "Politician Sanford Discovers High Gas Prices."

For once, one of those S.C. Democratic Party e-mails makes sense.

"Mark Sanford arrogantly ignored the high price of gas for a year," wrote Lachlan McIntosh, S.C. Democratic Party Executive Director. "Now, with his primary looming and the legislature in the closing stages of finalizing the budget, Sanford finally decides to act. This isn't leadership, it's typical politics from a typical politician."

A politician calling another politician a politician isn't big news, but it is relevant in Sanford's case. He's spent his career telling us that politics isn't his game, that leadership is.

That's why he is an easy target and seemingly doesn't get much done, even with his own party in office, because making good, solid decisions is supposedly his bedrock.

But this gas tax pandering is ridiculous and I hope most South Carolinians don't fall for it. For the low, low price of about $2.50 a week for the average family, Sanford and the General Assembly are trying to make us forget that the reason we are in this energy mess is because we don't have a comprehensive energy plan. Politicians are too busy caving in to irrational demands from environmentalists or lustily craving campaign donations from big oil companies to demand such a thing.

I have a proposal: How 'bout keep the $100 million that would be collected from our gas tax during those fall months and fast-track the roads that have been on the radar since the 1970s or use it to fix up the dilapidated public schools S.C. legislators don't seem to believe need fixing.

There is something else Sanford needs to remember: My vote is worth much more than 16.75 cents a gallon. I hope yours is, too.

Contact ISSAC J. BAILEY at ibailey@thesunnews.com or 626-0357.