Gov Sanford and accountabilty

Government at the State and Federal level needs reform. There must be accountability.
Keep it up Gov Sanford!




Hillarity Fest? Governor isn't amused

Associated Press
Published June 9, 2006


COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Gov. Mark Sanford finds nothing funny about the Hillarity Festival, one of numerous events getting money under a grant program set up by state lawmakers.

Chester's Hillarity Festival--a September celebration that features gospel music and is so-named because the town sits on a hill--was granted $5,500. The Flopeye Fish Festival in Great Falls got $3,500.

"There may be some merit to the Hillarity Festival or any of these other local projects, but the problem is that we don't know because they were funded just because somebody asked for the money rather than through a real process to determine their value," Sanford said.

It's too late for him to do anything about the grants already awarded. But Sanford said he probably will veto the grantmaking process in the state budget that just landed on his desk.

But with Sanford seeking $150,000 from the $9.3 million grant fund to help pay for the National Governors Association meeting in Charleston, the man doling out the money said Sanford's complaints sound like election-year politics.

"That's money that belongs to the taxpayers of South Carolina and it is being returned to the taxpayers of South Carolina through these little festivals that are very important in these communities," said former state Rep. Jimmy Bailey, chairman of the grantmaking panel.