SC Governor Sanford Files Lawsuit To Stop Stimulus Spending

Columbia, S.C.—Gov. Mark Sanford announced details of his federal lawsuit against the state legislature Thursday morning. It names Attorney General Henry McMaster as the defendant, as the chief enforcer of South Carolina laws. The suit says the Republican governor has sole authority to request nearly $700 million in federal bailout money intended to keep the state from cutting education spending.

“The code is very, very clear in giving the governorship the power to apply or not to apply for that 10 percent of the stimulus monies that’s been in question all along,“ Gov. Sanford said. “The question you’ve got to ask yourself is if we allow the legislative branch to come in and usurp power that has been granted through a federal law, where are we in terms of balance of power in this state?“ 

He says the suit won’t cost taxpayers any money because a private lawyer is volunteering his time to represent the governor. He says the lawsuit was filed in federal court because the suit is about federal money and the federal law that directs how it’s to be spent.

But Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, says it’s the governor who’s trying to usurp power since it’s the legislature, not the governor, that decides how to spend money. “Why didn’t he go into the state Supreme Court where we could get an immediate decision as to whether or not the General Assembly acted properly under the South Carolina Constitution? That could’ve been quick and done probably by as early as next week. Instead, he’s gone into the federal courts to get them to interpret the South Carolina Constitution that could take months or years,“ he says.

That delay could be a major problem because the new budget year starts July 1.

Gov. Sanford said one reason he filed a lawsuit so quickly was to preempt an expected refiling of a lawsuit by Chapin High student Casey Edwards with the state Supreme Court. She had filed suit earlier this year in an attempt to force the state to accept the stimulus money, but the Supreme Court refused to hear the case because the legislature hadn’t taken action yet. Lawmakers included about $350 million of the stimulus money in the budget. The governor vetoed that spending and lawmakers overrode his veto.

Dwight Drake, one of the lawyers representing Edwards, says they’ll make a decision in the next two days about whether to refile the lawsuit. “Governors in the past have tried to keep certain children from getting an education, standing in the schoolhouse door. This governor is using the federal courts to block the schoolhouse door to all children. It’s really rather bizarre,“ Drake said.