South Carolina Statehouse Blog

Columbia, S.C. - February 24, 2010 - Gov. Mark Sanford today issued the following statement regarding the state Senate’s passage of an Employment Security Commission (ESC) reform bill.

“First, we’d thank the Senate for seriously addressing the lack of accountability at the ESC by way of commonsense restructuring and reform. Specifically for their bipartisan leadership and continued efforts on this front, we’d applaud Senators Greg Ryberg, Nikki Setzler and Joel Lourie - and we look forward to working together with these and other Senators in making sure the strong structural changes present in this legislation remain intact.

“Again, and as we’ve made clear for more than a year and a half now, the ESC’s incompetence and disturbing lack of accountability have real world consequences * from $171 million in inexplicable payments to people who were fired for good reason and a failure to even investigate fraud since 2008, to an estimated Unemployment Trust Fund shortfall of nearly two billion dollars, as well as the harrowing potential for increased taxes on our state’s businesses and taxpayers as a result.

“Finally, we’d say again that what can sometimes be lost in the political process is the fact that the ESC has a vital mission and is filled with many hard-working employees. It’s not the staff on the front lines that this legislation is aimed at, but instead a recognition that the ESC must get back to basics and start connecting people looking for a job with open positions across the state. This task is all the more important given that just last month, the Conference Board report found about 55,000 online job postings for South Carolina.”