The Palmetto Insider

The Charleston Post and Courier deserves plaudits for its recent work analyzing stimulus job creation in South Carolina.

The paper took time to scrutinize stimulus statistics put forth by elected officials and found large discrepancies in the process.

Unfortunately, that same critical eye has been severely lacking in the Post and Courier’s reporting regarding Boeing. 

There’s been little investigation of claims that the aerospace giant will create 3,800 jobs in the next few years with the construction of a new 787 aircraft assembly line in North Charleston.

The Post and Courier appears almost afraid to fact check information being put out by state leaders for fear that this hometown eco devo windfall might dissipate upon closer reflection.

Consider some of the phrasing the paper included in an editorial it ran shortly after Boeing’s plans were revealed:

“The big news Wednesday afternoon was a Dreamliner come true: Boeing has decided to build a massive facility in North Charleston for production of its 787 airliner. That landmark victory for economic development in our community and state will bring thousands of well-paying jobs – an especially impressive and important achievement during these tough times. … It’s hard to imagine how we can lose on a deal that adds 3,800 good jobs to the local economy.”

But Boeing has never actually come out and specified the amount of its economic investment or the number of jobs that will be created, a fact state Sen. Glenn McConnell included in a Nov. 6 press release.

In fact, the job creation numbers have all come from political leaders, others involved in negotiating the deal and the bill that made the deal possible, rather than the company itself:

• “At minimum, Boeing will hire some 3,800 employees, while investing more than $750 million.” – State Sen. Hugh Leatherman, newsletter, Oct. 29. 
• “Greenville attorney and former federal judge Billy Wilkins, who helped negotiate the incentives package for Boeing, said he expects 3,800 new jobs and a network of new parts companies in North Charleston.” – Greenville News, Oct. 29.
• “Boeing’s new facility, which will be adjacent to the existing plant in North Charleston, will bring hundreds of millions of dollars in capital investment and in excess of 4,000 new jobs.” – S.C. Department of Commerce press release, Nov. 3.

About the only time the Post and Courier has managed to put down its Boeing pom-pons was in a Nov. 5 story acknowledging that aspects of economic incentive packages like that negotiated by Boeing can be kept under wraps for up to a year.

Of course, we appreciated this last article because it made clear that such secrecy makes it impossible for outsiders to calculate the real cost-benefit analysis of such deals.

But the real question is why is no one else asking these questions? Perhaps they don’t want to know the answers.

A recent article in The Spartanburg Herald Journal left the impression that Upstate students were eating locally grown broccoli, despite the fact that vegetable doesn't grow well during hot-weather months.

In a testament to the success of the S.C. Department of Agriculture’s marketing campaigns pushing state residents to eat locally grown produce, we’ve apparently managed to turn long-standing agronomy practices on their head.

Witness a Sept. 23 story in The Spartanburg Herald-Journal titled “Schools celebrate connection with locally grown food.” The piece begins:

Broccoli is one of fifth-grader Andrea Diaz’s favorite vegetables served in Arcadia Elementary School’s cafeteria. Andrea recently learned that having the green veggie on her lunch plate doesn’t just benefit her, but the local farmers who grew it.

The problem is, broccoli doesn’t grow in South Carolina in the summer. The vegetable develops best when exposed to an average daily temperature between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Broccoli is known as a cold weather crop and you have to grow it before there’s too much heat,” said Fred Broughton, marketing specialist with the S.C. Department of Agriculture.

Some broccoli is grown in the state in the fall and winter, according to J. Powell Smith of the Clemson Extension Service, but he knows of no South Carolina farmers who grow it in the summer.

“They may grow some during summer way up in the mountains, but it probably wouldn’t be good quality,” he said. “It wouldn’t be of the quality that we want to promote as a South Carolina product.”

The Herald-Journal article focused on Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers’ visit to Arcadia Elementary School, part of an “Eat Local” event sponsored by Chartwells School Dining Services, which is the food service company for Spartanburg School District 6.

Weathers has been promoting South Carolina produce through such campaigns as Fresh on the Menu and Palmettovore, which received at least $250,000 in taxpayer funds between them during the past fiscal year.

The rationale behind the Palmettovore campaign is that SC-grown produce and products are local, which purportedly makes them fresher and therefore healthier. Also buying SC products is supposed to help the Palmetto State’s economy.

But, interestingly, among the items on the menu at Arcadia Elementary earlier this week were sweet potatoes from Nash Sweet Potatoes in Hendersonville, N.C., nearly 50 miles north of Spartanburg.

So, were Spartanburg elementary school students served low-grade broccoli grown in the South Carolina mountains? Or perhaps the Palmetto State has undergone a sudden catastrophic cooling that enabled farmers to raise the floret-topped vegetable here this summer.

In fact, there wasn’t any broccoli served at Arcadia Elementary on the day The Herald-Journal reporter visited the school and won’t be for several weeks, until the weather cools, according to an employee of Chartwells School Dining Services.

“I think what happened is that the student made the comment about broccoli and the reporter wrote around that,” according to Cynthia Robinson, a spokeswoman for Spartanburg 6.

A recent Charleston Post and Courier article focusing on the number of South Carolinians without health insurance left readers with a misleading impression.

The paper reported that according to U.S. Census Bureau information, about 19.2 percent of South Carolinians have no form of health insurance, according to data collected in 2006 and released earlier this week.

To which The Post and Courier added: ”some experts say the recession likely has pushed that figure closer to one in every four people today. That would put the number of Palmetto State residents without health insurance at more than 1 million.”

For an explanation, the paper turned to Walter Jones, a professor of health policy and health economics at the Medical University of South Carolina:

• South Carolina has a significant number of people employed by small businesses that can’t afford to provide insurance;
• The state has a large tourism industry, which tends not to offer health insurance benefits; and 
• The state’s requirements to qualify for Medicaid are overly strict.

The Post and Courier’s one-dimensional report fails to delve beyond the cursory when it comes to the subject of those without health insurance.

Fortunately, other sources have taken a closer look at the issue.

Read the rest of this entry »

Greenville News associate editorial page editor Paul Hyde has a solution for South Carolina’s third-worst-in-the-nation unemployment rate: spend more state tax dollars on higher education.

While Hyde is right that education plays a huge role in job opportunity, simply calling for legislators to pump more money into higher ed is a simplistic concept in a state where at least one third of kids don’t even graduate from high school.

But beyond that, Hyde is incorrect when he asserts that a large factor behind the Palmetto State’s high unemployment rate is state lawmakers’ failure to invest appropriately in higher education.

More than half of our state’s General Fund is devoted to education, K-12 up through higher ed. To put more money into higher education, while well intentioned, would mean funding would have to be drawn from other areas, either by cutting into legislators’ pet projects or taking from core services, neither of which are likely to happen.

If South Carolina wants to make more money available for higher education, its leaders must create a business environment that is more inviting to employers, businesses and entrepreneurs.

That’s because in order to have more money available for higher education, we have to grow the pie so the money is available in the first place.

The real problem isn’t that South Carolina has purposely underfunded higher education, it’s that we’ve purposely created a business climate that discourages economic growth and prosperity.

Until that changes, unemployment will remain a constant thorn in South Carolina’s side.