News 2 asks Sanford, what he’s doing to brings jobs to South Carolina

Gov. Mark Sanford visited Swansea High School on Monday to talk to students, teachers and organizers of a pilot program called Jobs for America’s Graduates-South Carolina.

JAG-SC is a dropout prevention program that focuses on academic success and career readiness.

The pilot program is now in 20 South Carolina schools. 

Each school has a career specialist who functions as a teacher, coach, counselor and advocate.

While there, Gov. Sanford asked students what they learned in the class and how it helped them. When he asked how many of the students now planned to go to college, every student but one raised a hand.

But South Carolina’s unemployment rate of 11.8 percent in July was one of the highest in the country.

So News 2 asked the Governor what he’s doing to try to bring down that number.

“One, there’s not a silver bullet, as we all know, with regard to employment or unemployment rates in South Carolina,“ he told us.  “Some of it is generational. It goes back straight to the notion of how many kids actually graduate from high school versus not. But other things can be done from the standpoint of recruitment, which we are actively involved in, past and present, which is why we saw record numbers of investment last year, more than $4 billion worth. Saw more than $4 billion the year before. So we continue the track with regard to actual recruitment,“ he said.

“Probably the most important thing that we can be doing, though, is improving the soil conditions for businesses in South Carolina. Cause the bulk of all jobs created, whether for these students or others like them, will actually come from existing businesses that add one or two employees without a lot of fanfare,“ he said.

But given his recent well-publicized problems, the fact that he hasn’t been able to get much passed in the legislature in the six-and-a-half years he’s been office and the fact that a majority of his own party in both the House and Senate are calling on him to resign, is it realistic to think he can get much passed in the coming year to improve business conditions? He rejects the assumption that he hasn’t been able to get much passed.

“We passed the largest recurring tax cut in South Carolina history during the last six-and-a-half years. We passed the first cut to the marginal income tax rate here in the last six-and-a-half years, as a cut that went to small businesses, LLCs, sole proprietorships, and that was to improve soil conditions. Passed first-of-its-kind tort reform measure here in the last six-and-a-half years. Passed workers comp here in the last six-and-a-half years. I think we’ve done a lot to improve soil conditions, and it’s certainly shown in the numbers, when you look at the amount of investment that’s come to our state. So I would just disagree with the hypothesis. Is there more that can be done? Absolutely, and that’s why we’re laying out our agenda for the new session,“ he said.