South Carolina Statehouse Blog

Columbia, S.C. - June 16, 2009 - Governor Mark Sanford issued the following statement on the ports bill veto that was overridden today in the General Assembly:

“A lot of lip service is paid by many in the legislature to the idea of restructuring, and what we saw today is despite their talk about accountability our state is saddled with a legislative body that is content to further set our state back as has been done with this bill,” Gov. Sanford said. “The ideas of more in the way of qualifications and long-term planning contained in this bill were nothing more than a smokescreen for taking away governors’ ability to hire and fire board members. Taking that authority away will make our State Ports Authority less accountable and less transparent, and will make our state less competitive as a result. That said, I would give real credit to Senators like Chip Campsen, Tom Davis and Mike Rose who stood tall for the idea of accountability, and I thank them for their work in trying to sustain this veto.”