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STATE NEWSPAPER STORY RAISES MORE QUESTIONS, LEGISLATORS LOOKING FOR ANSWERS
Following The Palmetto Scoop’s story yesterday that the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism used tax dollars to fund the “So Gay” campaign, The State newspaper ran a front page story saying officials pulled the plug on the program.
The State also discovered that PRT spent nearly $5,000 on the project, which agency head Chad Prosser said he only recently discovered. Upon “learning” of the “So Gay” campaign, Prosser then tossed some poor person under the bus.
[Prosser] said an agency advertising manager signed off on the contract, proposed by the agency’s London advertising contractor.
The agency will not pay the roughly $4,942 fee to take part in the campaign.
Employees “exercised extremely poor judgment in approving participation in the program,” Prosser said. PRT, he said, will require more review of future overseas advertising, as it does with domestic advertising. [...]
The campaign, which ends Saturday, planted posters all over a single London subway station. Prosser said the agency has asked the S.C. posters be removed. [JOHN O'CONNOR - The State]
Assuming Prosser’s claim is true and he had no knowledge of the grant, why on Earth did an “agency advertising manager” have the unchecked ability to allocate thousands of taxpayer dollars?
Rep. Rex Rice (R-Pickens), a member of the House Weighs and Means Committee, said it shows an inherent flaw with transparency in state government and that he has “called for a regular audit of state agencies to prevent future abuses of tax dollars. It is inconceivable and inexcusable that any state employee would think let alone approve this use of tax dollars.”
Rice noted that he twice sponsored sunset legislation which would provide for a commission to review every state agency and use the legislative audit counsel to periodically provide a complete audit and reauthorization of agencies and their mission.
“In essence, [those bills] would internally restructure state government once every twelve years, and next session, I will go a step further and call for an independent annual audit of each state agency’s budget and itemized expenditures.”
Sen. David Thomas and Rep. Greg Delleney are also spearheading efforts to look into , including a complete audit of PRT.
Other critics point to a blatant hypocrisy in Sanford’s office.
“[Sanford] wants restructuring but he doesn’t want to have to deal with the responsibility of it,” said a source with first-hand knowledge of the situation. “We shouldn’t have to go through weeks of red tape to find out what ‘Mr. Transparency’ is up to.”
But inevitably, I think the most important question is, why did it cost nearly $5,000 to plant some posters in a subway (pictured above)?
Chad? The guy’s name is Chad?
What can you say to that?
Yesssss! More buerocracy, oversights, audits, and restrurcturings will solve this terrible problem! All to cost taxpayers more than the initial $5000 that everyone is so ticked off about.
Alright, how about we just cut that whole department and pay $0 for both gay posters in europe AND $0 for extra white collars to a bunch of paper work?
A chamber of commerce could do the job of tourism advertising for each city in south carolina MUCH better than any government agency ever could.
So when are the license plates coming out with the new “Smiling Racists, Beautiful Homophobes” state motto?
Definitely a Lindsey Graham conspiracy
The ad was a fine idea. What’s the big deal? A bunch of courteous, fashionable men with loads of disposable income would hardly be the worst thing for this state.
I’m straight, a lifelong resident of South Carolina and ashamed of folks who would delude themselves by believing that they are somehow morally superior to others. I’m very sorry, but not surprised; to learn of the homophobic tone being voiced by the Palmetto Scoop blog, narrow minded legislators and those with a “Jesus loves me, but you suck” (in this case literally) attitude.
I’m disappointed to see the add campaign being pulled due to the pressure applied to PRT by sophomoric reactionaries. $5,000 is chump change in comparison to the potential return, not just in tourist dollars but in new jobs from global organizations owned or influenced by gay people.
With the value of the dollar at record lows and the cost of fuel used for transportation at record highs as well as climbing trying to attract more tourism from abroad, regardless of its persuasion, would have been time and money well spent. I find nothing wrong with welcoming gay people along with a little of their creative and their potential investment to our backward state.
Anon:”I find nothing wrong with welcoming gay people along with a little of their creative and their potential investment to our backward state.”
Neither do I. South Carolina is cutting its nose off to spite its face. Gays, by and large, have more disposable income and better credit. FACT! Their money is just as green as that of straights.