by Mike Fitts
mfitts@scbiznews.com

South Carolina lawmakers spent an afternoon in Columbia preparing for a major new investment in the state, not knowing for sure if the unspoken target of their efforts — Boeing — would really bring the new 787 assembly line here instead of its traditional Washington manufacturing base.

The S.C. House stood “at ease” for hours on Oct. 28 while lawmakers awaited the official word. Despite the passage of the investment incentives bill, it was not a sure thing that Boeing would pick North Charleston, Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell said.

“This morning, there was no decision,” the Charleston Republican said.

Shortly before 5 p.m., key state leaders got the official good news from a Boeing representative in a back office at the State House; there also was a phone connection with Boeing leadership. Right at 5 p.m., both houses went into simultaneous session to announce the good news joyfully.

It prompted a most unusual scene for Columbia during the Sanford administration: Legislative and executive branch leaders working hard to praise each other for their teamwork in the effort to land Boeing.

Disputes pushed aside

Gov. Mark Sanford made a point of publicly congratulating McConnell and Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, with whom he often has been at loggerheads, outside the Senate chamber after the announcement. He cited “incredible” teamwork between the lawmakers and the staff of the S.C. Commerce Department, including Secretary Joe Taylor.

Sanford acknowledged that he and Leatherman, in particular, had crossed swords in the past. But he pointedly praised Leatherman’s leadership in the effort, noting that Taylor himself had praised the hard work of the Senate Finance Committee chairman to secure the deal. He even went so far to declare the chairman’s work as good stewardship of tax dollars, a turnaround from past Sanford complaints about Leatherman and the Legislature.

“Legislators from every part of the state pulled together for the good of this state,” Leatherman said.

Taylor himself had received an ovation from the S.C. Senate after being recognized in the gallery. That’s a far change from the pointed criticism he has taken from legislators.
Leatherman had been one of Taylor’s most pointed and public critics. But in an interview after the Boeing announcement, the tone was markedly different. “Joe Taylor, the Commerce secretary, put his heart and soul in this,” Leatherman said. “He’s done a superb job.”

The governor said that the coming-together of frequent combatants in the Boeing pursuit shouldn’t be considered surprising, even given that talk of impeachment still is making the rounds in Columbia. In fact, an impeachment resolution was ruled out of order during the same session that produced the incentives legislation.

“There’s a history in South Carolina on economic development of people coming together,” Sanford said. The “very, very significant” benefits of winning the Boeing project pushed all disputes immediately to the background, he said.

Powerful infrastructure

The successful result shows that South Carolina’s power structure can function well when it sees the need, said Leighton Lord, an attorney for Nexsen Pruet, which represented Boeing in the negotiations. The state badly needed such an economic win, and leaders came together to get it, he said.

“I think they all realized that, and they got it done,” Lord said.

Lord said that he, as a South Carolinian and apart from the firm’s role with Boeing, appreciated seeing the teamwork.

“We’re all better off when the legislative and executive work together,” Lord said. That teamwork helped South Carolina win over Boeing, along with what he called “the kind of pro-business environment I don’t think they have in Washington state,” Lord said.

Leatherman’s prowess on money matters as Finance Committee chairman played a particularly strong role in getting the right legislative package together, Lord said.
“Senator Leatherman is a master of what goes on in that committee,” Lord said.

He also noted the leadership of McConnell and House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charelston, in getting their respective bodies to approve the legislative packages. Lawmakers had been working since August to get the deal ready, McConnell and Leatherman said, and might well have brought the Legislature back to town for it anyway, even without the need to pass legislation to ensure full unemployment benefits.

Rep. Paul Campbell, R-Goose Creek, said that he met with Boeing to assure company leaders that South Carolina’s work force could step up to the challenge of building the 787. He used his experience as a retired Alcoa executive who has managed plants both here and in Washington state.

“It was a leap of faith for Boeing to come here,” Campbell said.

Another success for legislative leaders, Lord said, was in keeping the proceedings quiet as talks went forward without a guarantee that Boeing would come to South Carolina. “I give the whole Legislature credit,” Lord said.

Sanford has sometimes been a critic of tax incentives for businesses, but his office was in the loop throughout the deal-making through Taylor. The governor doesn’t see a contradiction between such a sweeping incentives package and his philosophical view that much of job creation should come simply from making sure that the state is economically competitive.
“I feel that each one is what it is,” Sanford said.

Overall job creation still comes mostly from small businesses, including current employers adding workers a few at a time, Sanford said.

The emphasis on South Carolina’s economic climate helped make landing such a big investment as Boeing possible, he said. “If our soil conditions weren’t right, you could offer anything you want to Boeing” and not attract them, the governor said.

If Boeing’s investment in South Carolina produces anything like the economic impact of BMW, it’s likely to be seen as a huge part of Sanford’s legacy from his two terms as governor.

That seems especially incongruous when considering the political maelstrom surrounding Sanford as this deal has been on the negotiating table and his past battles with many of the key players. The travails of this summer, Sanford said, have taught him that “it really isn’t about me.” Thousands of people will have a shot a better employment at Boeing, he said, and that’s a much more consequential development in the world than his own political fate.

Sanford said that political pundits will outline his legacy, and he thinks of it as something he cannot worry about given the tumult in his own life. Compared to that, the governor said, “all things fade in importance.”