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Time for Anderson's leaders to focus on economic development
Lack of ready-to-build industrial sites has been known for most of the decade
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ANDERSON — The story was shocking enough.
In a picture of transparency and accountability with the use of public dollars, the Upstate Alliance told the Anderson County Council this week that we lost out on 21 industrial recruitment opportunities because we had no suitable sites to show companies.
That number represented two-thirds of that regional economic development marketing-and-promotion group’s total recruitment activity.
Perhaps that’s why Anderson County has resisted public disclosure of its own staff’s performance measures and rejected benchmarks or metrics with which we could judge our county’s competitiveness.
More shocking still is that our deficit of ready-to-build sites around Interstate 85 has been common knowledge for most of the last decade.
That’s not to say Anderson County hasn’t done anything.
We saw construction of Alliance Industrial Park off S.C. 81 North in 2000; the establishment of the Airport Industrial Park on S.C. 24; and the purchase of land for a high-tech incubator at the Clemson Research Park on U.S. 178, as well as myriad road widenings and sewer improvements.
But that’s only the bare minimum of what’s needed to stay competitive.
And most of that work originated in a burst of activity at the beginning of the decade — before voters, the administration and many elected officials started obsessing over overheated imaginings of serious financial waste, malfeasance, corruption and every other cliché of bad government.
With a recession looming, a restive business community pulled out its guns recently for another round of Russian roulette shoot-the-messenger, blaming the newspaper for investigating our local government’s actions on our behalf and blaming fools such as me who aren’t buying the assurances that we’re on the right track.
You would think everything was hunky-dory around here.
No amount of positive chatter is going to conjure out of thin air the infrastructure, the buildable land sites or the businesslike political environment that would put Anderson County in the running with Greenville and Spartanburg again.
That takes real (and difficult) work.
There are some encouraging signs that this election season the business community is finally(!) ready to show its displeasure with the political status quo, such as it is.
We’re long overdue for some of its serious financial and political muscle-flexing, such as establishing a pro-business, pro-community slate of candidates to challenge the inevitable contingent of Citizens Against Virtually Everything.
You can help.
You’ll hear lots and lots of pablum from elected officials this year about how they care about economic development.
Judge them by their actions.
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Hahahaha, that's funny. Nice! Cave, now that's comedy.
Oh please - this is stupid. Does anyone really think that a large corporation cares about the stupid arguments in the county council and bases a relocation decision on that? If you do, what is your education level?
It's work force,economics & infrastructure issues as a base and we obviously don't make the grad.
Yes. BMW was coming to Anderson until we told them to go away.
And, may I ask what education level is necessary to form an opinion? Mr. Charalambous made your point for you in his column. Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure! I think what flash is saying is in part true, too. If the partisan—partisan in the sense that there are clear sides—bickering isn’t resolved, then it will be hard to establish the infrastructure needed. I realize that it will not be resolved entirely, but it must be resolved to the level that governing can continue. Let me be clear that I have no opinion concerning the substance of the infighting on the council; I simply know that it is bad for Anderson. I have a twelfth grade education in a formal setting. Am I sufficiently educated to comment on this? I made the mistake of making a similar comment to someone else, and I almost immediately realized that I was only showing my actual education level as opposed to making good points. This is meant, as always, to be stated with no disrespect, equine. These conversations are great for information’s sake, but are detrimental to our community if they are posted with a pompous attitude toward those who disagree with us. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how to bring more business to Anderson, however. Best wishes!
And, may I ask what education level is necessary to form an opinion? Mr. Charalambous made your point for you in his column. Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure! I think what flash is saying is in part true, too. If the partisan—partisan in the sense that there are clear sides—bickering isn’t resolved, then it will be hard to establish the infrastructure needed. I realize that it will not be resolved entirely, but it must be resolved to the level that governing can continue. Let me be clear that I have no opinion concerning the substance of the infighting on the council; I simply know that it is bad for Anderson. I have a twelfth grade education in a formal, accredited setting. Am I sufficiently educated to comment on this? I made the mistake of making a similar comment to someone else, and I almost immediately realized that I was only showing my actual education level as opposed to making good points. This is meant, as always, to be stated with no disrespect, equine. These conversations are great for information’s sake, but are detrimental to our community if they are posted with a pompous attitude toward those who disagree with us. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how to bring more business to Anderson, however. Best wishes!
Computer glitch didn’t mean to post twice. Sorry.
And by the way, in comparison to others of his time like Alexander Hamilton, who went to King’s College (modern day Columbia University), George Washington had what barely amounted to an elementary school education. He only assembled the first federal government of the United States, and set the precedent for future presidents to serve only two terms absent the 22nd amendment. To think that even I have a higher education level than that of George Washington is scary.
By the way, there were eight U.S. Presidents that never went to college, the last of whom was a man named Harry S. Truman, who ended WWII. We must have an amazing primary education system here in the United States, huh. Abraham Lincoln is among those eight who never went to college. He only put our union back together after it fell off a wall, something all the king’s men could never do. Let’s use an analogy to see just how relevant one’s education level actually is: Without a college degree, Harry Truman: with a college degree, O. J. Simpson.
Guy makes a great point, too!
Although, it would take some fairly extensive investigation and presentation of the facts to convince me that the council has spent more on their salaries and business dinners than the $122 million budget (per Heidi Cenac’s column) that they manage. I think that the council is beneficent in nature, but they are also slightly myopic in their implementation and explanation to the general public. This is why I don’t understand why the job review of Mr. Preston is being delayed. I have said I wouldn’t post anymore on the topic, but I don’t think I should refrain when I only use the Anderson Independent as a source of information. If the Independent is printing false information, then that would be tragic. I do not think that they are. If I am wrong then please someone, anyone, post a source or two and some numbers as to why I am wrong. Thank you.
As I have stated many times in the past, Anderson Co is a diamond in the rough, which needs some serious polishing.
1.) We have some empty textile mills in the county which could be very easily converted to becoming bio-fuels manufacturing plants, especially with some already having the riparian settings already conducive to the manufacture of alcohol and other bio-fuels. I have been pushing the creation of a SC-based bio-fuels manufacturing plant to serve South Carolinians, since 1996. Something that could create well over 5,000 directly-related good-paying jobs, while greatly reducing our dependence on foreign oil, greatly reducing our fuel prices at the pumps, and greatly reducing greenhouse gases. Win-Win-Win-Win situation, if you ask me. Um, which of the elected officials, or even the candidates for any office have come up with such an idea? Besides me... nobody.
Plain.
Simple.
Common Sense.
2.) A person I know used to be a clerk at a SC chain of convenience stores... until video poker got dumped by SC government. As a clerk (note... clerk and not manager), he was averaging $35,000 per year. When video poker was stopped, his income was reduced to min. wage. Over 30,000 good-paying jobs were lost when SC did away with video poker. Chances are that you know folks that either lost their jobs or could no longer afford to work at their job when video poker was stopped. What other politician, currently holding a seat, or a candidate, besides me, is willing to be openly controversial enough to do what it takes to get this area up on its financial feet again? Nobody.
In 2003, SC State agencies spent over $43 million in contracting outside engineers, when the upstate of SC has more engineers per capita than anywhere else in the US and maybe in the world! Has anybody else besides me mentioned that little insignificant tidbit $43 million tidbit of information?
If things were fine in SC, I wouldn't be a politician.
Plain.
Simple.
Common Sense.
Capt. Leonardo Ortiz (USMM)
Leo ~ You are so right!!! Video poker may be the source of some peoples addictions, but it's no worse than the lottery! And we lost so much revenue from pulling those machines it's not even funny. Now people just put the machines in their homes and run "poker houses." Shame.
Guy & Cindy ~ I agree! I work for Anderson County (not in Economic Development, SWEAR!!) and I couldn't agree more! We need leadership for the long haul. People who care about this county and where we are headed as a whole. People who give a crap what type of economic situation they are leaving their kids/grandkids to. We need to contact these companies and find out why they chose elsewhere. Then take THAT to county council.
Leo, I often obfuscate the main point of the editorial in my comments, but bio-fuel plants in the old mills is a great idea and worth discussion. It is one of the best ideas that I have heard in a long, long time. That would inevitably lead to high paying jobs and reduction in oil needs in the long run. Do you know how to go about investigating the cost involved in retrofitting those old mills? Do you know who to contact about acquiring the mills? There are several problems with using corn based ethanol, the main problem being the amount of energy need to create corn based ethanol. I am not sure if I am correct about that, so if you know that not to be true, then enlighten me. What about the model that Brazil has presented us. Don’t they use sugar based ethanol there? Is it possible that we can attract attention to companies or investors that are willing to investigate the idea? This would help to make up for one of those twenty-one companies that passed on Anderson much more than bickering about who is at fault; right?
I mean do we just want to talk about the story, or do we want to do something about its substance?
The common political verbal diarrhea rhetoric that you hear every election year is that ALL the politicians make those vague, ambiguous, generic comments like "I believe in helping the SC Economy"... blah blah blah...
hey, I think we ALL believe in the SC Economy. What you rarely find is anyone who actually has taken the time to have done some homework to come up with some viable plans to help the small businesses and the SC economy overall.
In other words... talk is cheap and though the rhetoric may sound good, it is usually nothing but hot air being expelled from their mouths while their jaws engage in an up and down movement... and not really saying anything at all.
I have taken the time to do my homework. And, I have a track record for being more than just talk.
In 1996, I exposed the scam behind the SC Education Improvement Act of 1985 whereby the 1% additional sales tax added for Education Improvement went to everything BUT for the 11 years prior. Coincidentally, money from the 1% tax now goes into Education Improvement (allegedly).
In 1996, I came up with a new and innovative idea... my Property Tax ELIMINATION plan... to add 2% extra to the sales tax, remove sales tax on Groceries qand Medicines (including OTC), and ELIMINATE (not 'help reduce') SC Property Taxes. Who came up with that whole plan first? Me. (Spartanburg Herald, Oct. 1996)
I again promoted the idea publicly in 2004. Recently the legislature implemented a hastily-drawn, chopped up version which "allegedly" gave property tax "relief", and did eliminate sales tax on groceries. But that job is not done. I still have plans to ELIMINATE SC property taxes... and it can be done. I have done MY homework.
Plain.
Simple.
Common Sense.
Capt. Leonardo Ortiz (USMM)
...in continuation...
In 1996, I saw the writing on the wall re the changing paradigms of the textiles industry and I also saw the need for alternative energy and reducing pollution, so I did MY homework and started contacting Farm Bureaus, Alternative Fuels coalitions, Clean Air groups... and yes, even tree huggers (back when it was unpopular to be "green").
So, I figured out a plan, based on the research I did, facts, and figures gathered... and voila...
the idea of a Bio-Fuels manufacturing plant in SC, which would:
1.) provide over 5,000 new, good-paying manufacturing jobs... over 20,000 new agricultural jobs... and according to industrial economics figures of a major manufacturing plant indirectly being responsible for 10X more employment, over 50,000 related new good-paying jobs. Translation: over 70,000 new jobs for SC.
2.) offer cleaner, replenishable fuels, at a lower cost than even back then when gas prices were at about $1/gal. According to more current figures, Brazil's bio-fuels costs are the equivalent to paying, in comparison with oil, $19/barrel.
3.) we would no longer be sending young Americans to the Middle East to die for oil. In fact, if we took that first step to go bio-fuels, the only thing the terrorists would have to fund their attacks would be the selling of sand (I guess they could all carry 2 handfuls of sand and throw sand at us)... which is much better than us paying for the terrorists every time we put gas in our vehicles. Think about it.
The thought of bio-fuels is not a new idea:
"We can get fuel from fruit, from the sumac by the roadside, or from apples, weeds, sawdust, almost anything. There is enough alcohol in one year's yield of an acre of potatoes to cultivate that field for a hundred years. And it remains for someone to find how this fuel can be produced commercially---better fuel at a better price than we now know." (Henry Ford, 1908)
At risk of redundance, I reiterate my position since 1996... we can even use the old empty mills to convert into bio-fuels plants. That goes with my philosophy of recycling.
BTW, I'll be officially announcing my campaign on Monday, March 31st at the Anderson Co. Courthouse between 5-6:30 pm. I'll have more on economic revitalization then.
Plain.
Simple.
Common Sense.
Capt. Leonardo Ortiz (USMM)
cwilson4,
Senate 4. Google me.
:)
Plain.
Simple.
Common Sense.
Capt. Leonardo Ortiz
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