As the word passes around about Sanford’s vetoes, and as the day for lawmakers to consider them approaches, supporters of such state services as the State Museum (which would be wiped out under the governor’s approach) and SC ETV (which would lose most of it’s state funding) are gearing up with e-mail campaigns such as this message passed on by Stan Dubinsky:
Attention State Museum Members!We need your help!GOVERNOR SANFORD VETOED $1.69 MILLION IN FUNDING FOR THE STATE MUSEUMPLEASE CALL YOUR LEGISLATORS!We need you to call your House member first, and then your Senator and ask them to OVERRIDE VETOES 33 and 106.Two weeks ago, the General Assembly gave final approval to the state budget which included $2.8 million for State Museum operations. On June 9th, Governor Mark Sanford issued 107 budget vetoes. Included in these vetoes was $1,693,893 in funding for the State Museum’s operating expenses (Vetoes 33 and 106). The Governor’s cut would leave $1.2 million for Museum operations. After paying mandatory rent of $1.8 million to the State Budget & Control Board, and paying other fixed expenses, the State Museum faces a devastating $800,000 deficit if the Governor’s vetoes are not overridden!THIS WILL ENDANGER THE PRESERVATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA HISTORY & HERITAGE, THREATEN ONE OF THE STATE’S UNIQUE EDUCATION EXPERIENCES & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ASSETS, & CRIPPLE ONE OF THE STATE’S TOURISM CROWN JEWELS!Please go here to find your legislators. Please call their local numbers through Monday evening. On Tuesday, call their statehouse numbers.If you are available to come to the State House lobby at 11:30 on Tues., June 15, PLEASE DO. We need CALLS MADE and a MAJOR SHOW OF SUPPORT on Tues. in order to achieve these overrides.CALLING INSTRUCTIONS:It is critical that you make the call to your House Member, and then your Senator ASAP! We are expecting the House members to take up the Governor’s vetoes on Tuesday (June 15) at Noon. The Senate will take them up once the House completes their actions on the vetoes.CALL YOUR CONSTITUENT HOUSE MEMBERS FIRST!Also place calls to other House & Senate members with whom you have close relationships.Please make at least two attempts to call YOUR legislators.If you do not reach them, be sure to leave several things in your message:1) Your name2) where you live and your phone number3) that you want them to vote to OVERRIDE the Governor’s budget veto numbers 33 and 106.Thank you for your support!
Meanwhile, I still haven’t seen a good, comprehensive list of the vetoes and their impact from an impartial source (such as the MSM). There’s this story about ETV in The State this morning, but nothing comprehensive. I have the governor’s veto letter, and Wes Wolfe is promising a post this weekend that gives a full list. But the governor paints the vetoes his way, and Wes promises to be in heavy advocacy mode. Here’s what Wes told me:
I’m going to go through the vetoes tonight. May well have to continue tomorrow. When I’m done, I’ll have a post up. It’ll likely be heavy on defending museums, the State Archives, the arts and such. People who back the humanities need every person at the barricade that they can get. They’ve been devalued since the beginning of the Cold War (as in, we need people who know a lot about math and science to beat back the Red Menace). The rise of Japan and Germany in the ’80s didn’t help, nor did the tech explosion of the ’90s. I could go off on this for hours. Anyway, yeah, I’ll have something up in the next 24 hours or so.
Hey, advocacy or not, it’s better than nothing. Thanks for doing all that work Wes!
Also, Rep. Nathan Ballentine writes to me, “go to NathansNews, my most recent post has link to all.” But when I went there it was mainly a reference to the governor’s message. Unless I’m looking at the wrong thing…
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Why doesn’t SC Governot Mark Sanford go out in a blaze of glory?
Veto the entire budget? Oh wait, I’ve done that before.
Abolish state government? Hey, that hasn’t been done before. I can do that!
I’ll take over the National Guard and do a coup d’etat. Glenn McConnell will be so proud to take his Hunley out to defend South Carolina’s coast.
Ha!!! Now Burl’s talking about “cultural heritage”… the same guy who blasted people using the exact same statement about the Confederate flag on the State House grounds. I wonder if Burl will or will not defend cuts made to museum cuts that will affect the Confederate Relic Room.
When it comes down to necessities and luxuries, a museum takes a back seat to health and safety. I’d prefer seeing a museum curator’s job get cut over a teacher or someone who works in the fire, police, medical community.
Museums are an essential part of our cultural heritage, and reflect how we care about society. Killing museums is just another one of the methods to make citizens intellectually isolated. As ignorant as possible. Dumb enough to vote for candidates like Sanford.
Hi, Burl– I hope you are secure for the moment job wise!
As far as “cultural heritage” goes, put the flag in a museum, where it belongs, and we’ll all be just peachy.
I agree that in a true pinch, public safety takes precedence over museums and other cultural expenditures, but especially in a state whose tourism industry is a top money maker, we are being penny wise and pound foolish to cut the arts. Furthermore, knowledge economy jobs are not going to be attracted to a place that has no cultural life.
Kathryn, you took the words right out of my mouth. It’s not just the museum and ETV, the arts commission is being decimated and they are sending out SOS’s on Facebook, etc. Also many constituent arts institutions, SC Philharmonic for example.
In a healthy society, things that we lump together under the term “culture” are not luxuries or “little extras that are nice to have if you have extra money.” They are essentials, inextricable from other basic needs. They are certainly no less vital than a healthy educational system, in fact, they are a component of a healthy educational system, only they not only serve children and young adults, but people of all ages. The relatively small investment made in them by state government (or federal, for that matter) is returned many times over by the benefits to the people of the state. It is indeed penny-wise and pound-foolish to slash funding in this manner.
Phillip – I think I could remain living comfortably if the funding for “culture”, as you describe it, were slashed. If the SC Philharmonic dissolved, would it even make the local news? The only people who’d care are the couple hundred season ticket holders who mainly go to rub elbows with other pretentious people.
Maybe I’m just not civilized as some of you… I can’t even tell you what frequency NPR is located on, I know it’s on the left-hand side of the dial… which is kind of ironic in itself.
“As far as “cultural heritage” goes, put the flag in a museum, where it belongs, and we’ll all be just peachy.”
I think this has been discussed before. Name one thing that’ll change for the better if this were to happen. I could really care less about the flag, but I agree with the legislature’s decision to leave it where it is now, by the Confederate soldier’s monument. I guess that’ll be the next thing the NAACP will want removed.
I work in a library and hear word that there is a veto for the public library budget which would lead to a 50% cut in funding for the library budget in my county, including 45% taken from the salary budget.