The democratic response has been loud to Governor Mark Sanford losing against the two stimulus funds lawsuits. The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Sanford must accept $700 million in stabilization money.
Kershaw County Senator Vincent Sheheen says the expenditure of taxpayers’ money, caused by the lawsuits and Sanford’s refusal, is ironic, since we are in a recession and every bit of cash is needed by the state. “The whole dispute is really full of irony. We had a governor who ran to the federal courts to block his own state from accepting tax dollars, which of course meant that we were spending more tax dollars in litigation while everyone was awaiting a decision, and it was really a complete waste of time.”
Sheheen says the stimulus issue, and the state almost losing the funds, was not a good reason for South Carolina to stand out. “Every other state in the union excepted their own tax dollars back and put them where there supposed to be, toward education and law enforcement. And it’s really sad we went through all of this. And I’m optimistic this will be a turning point for the state and people will realize that we can’t fight about these things any more, we have to pull together and work on those issues which are so important. “