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The $101,524 in public money that was supposed to be returned to the people of South Carolina by a nonprofit group supporting Gov. Mark Sanford is still unaccounted for, according to The State.
The money has not yet been returned, said Office of State Treasurer spokesman Scott Malyerck. Helen Hill, executive director of the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the group has sent the money to the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
The money has been disputed since state Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, uncovered the transfer three weeks ago. The Charleston Area CVB received a $150,000 grant from the state competitive grants committee in June 2006 to help host the National Governors Association conference. [...]
After closing the books on the conference, more than $100,000 remained. E-mails obtained under state public information laws show a member of Sanford’s staff asked the Charleston CVB to transfer the money to Carolinians for Reform in August.Carolinians for Reform has not said what it planned to do with the money. After the transfer was discovered, Sanford asked the group to return the money. [S.C. Politics Today]
I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that Carolinians for Reform blew the money. I could be totally wrong about this because nobody really knows anything about this group, but if Sanford handed me a $101,524 check to help him out, I’m pretty sure the last thing I would do is help him out.
So let’s see, for $101,524 I could get 290 Xbox 360’s. Or I could get three bachelor’s degrees from the University of South Carolina. Or I could buy a brand new 2008 Cadillac XLR convertible and have enough change left to fill her up about 400 times. Or I could afford half-of-a-flight on Virgin Galactic.
Either way, I’m interested to see if Grant Scandal ‘07 turns into Grant Scandal ‘08.
Look, this is far more complicated than writing a check, so it is going to take time.
Sanford and his lawyers have to work out the best way to keep from disclosing information about his 6 (yes, 6!) nonprofits. He uses them to raise LARGE UNREGULATED sums of money from rich special interest groups…and he does it specifically this way because he can keep it all secret from the people of SC.
So, every action has to be weighed by no less than 3 lawyers to make sure that he does not jeopardize his secret fund raising machine. Sure, he will send this money back; after all it is chicken feed to his operation.
But what he can’t risk is that the average South Carolinians will find how much money these rich and powerful people have given…and why. Mark Sanford surely does not want to try to explain why out of state rich people have given him millions of unregulated dollars while being Governor of SC.
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