Sanford will ask for funds, but ...

[Are_grits_groceries]

He won’t release the $700 million until he and Legislature strike deal on debt.

WASHINGTON -- Gov. Mark Sanford today will comply with a crucial stimulus deadline and become the last governor in the nation to seek millions of dollars in federal economic-recovery funds for his state, aides said late Thursday.

But Sanford will continue contesting $700 million in education and law enforcement money for South Carolina that he wants to spend on debt. Sanford’s eleventh-hour move to meet today’s midnight deadline buys time for a possible compromise with lawmakers over how to spend the money, as the state’s schools chief warned Thursday of mass teacher layoffs and SLED Chief Reggie Lloyd warned of draconian cuts without the stimulus.

South Carolina will not lose the money after today, as some legislative leaders had thought. But Sanford will control when South Carolina is able to tap the funding.
<snip>
BATTLE RAGES ON

Sanford will likely continue to tussle with General Assembly leaders from his own Republican Party over his insistence that the disputed $700 million pay off debt, despite $1.1 billion in state budget cuts already imposed because of revenue shortfalls.

Sen. Hugh Leatherman, a Florence Republican and chairman of the S.C. Senate Finance Committee, reiterated Thursday that the state lacks the money to offset stimulus funding with debt payments from other parts of the budget.

“There should be no confusion,” Leatherman said. “Given the current condition of our revenue collections, programs will be slashed, reductions in forces will occur, and services that our citizens have previously enjoyed will no longer be offered.”
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/736941.html

Most of this $700 is for education. He doesn't care if the whole system rots, and schools fall down. Sanford wants to force charter schools and vouchers. He is devastating the state.

[atreides1]

1. You get who you vote for

He won an election with the majority of the vote, so if the schools fail and programs rot, then the people of South Carolina only have themselves to blame, those people who voted for Sanford.

[NightWatcher]

2. have you seen the coverage of hundreds marching to the Capital to demand the money

You get who you vote for and I think that people are finally finding out that Votes Have Consequences