Dan Hamilton

The events of this past week have been incredibly difficult for the people of South Carolina. Since Governor Sanford’s return from being out of the country and his revelation of an extramarital affair, I had hoped he would be able to put this behind him and move on with the responsibilities of governing our state.

Unfortunately, in light of recent less than candid and contradictory statements, it has become clear that Gov. Sanford has lost the ability to effectively govern at this time. I regretfully ask the Governor to consider resigning his position and take the time to focus on his personal well being and his responsibility as a husband and father. The job of Governor is temporary in nature and can be passed on to other people. The role of husband and father is permanent and cannot be done by anyone else.

Let me be clear, this is not about the Governor’s personal indiscretions, none among us is perfect. We must now focus on our fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of South Carolina and do what is best for them.

On Wednesday, April 22, 2009, Capitol Ministries will host Pastors’ Day at the Capitol®. We are inviting the pastors all across our state to join in this ministry event. Ralph Drollinger, http://www.capmin.org/About/RalphDrollinger.aspx, founder and president of Capitol Ministries will be our keynote speaker, addressing “The Missing Mandate of Modern Mission” as it relates to the political arena.

Events will begin at 8:30am with our Legislative Bible Study and a luncheon at 12:30-2:30pm At the Capital City Club. We would greatly appreciate your presence here in Columbia for our annual Pastors’ Day. Please feel free to invite other ministers to participate and RSVP to jeff.lingerfelt@capmin.org or 803-467-7634.

I agree with Gov. Sanford that the federal government should give states flexibility with the stimulus money. As it stands, the federal government is requiring us to use over 85% of the money for annualized K-12 and higher education spending. While these are important functions of state government, South Carolinians should be able to decide how to best spend the money for our state, not Washington politicians. For these reasons, I voted against using the stimulus money in our budget and will continue to support Gov. Sanford in the responsible use of the funds.

See Gov. Sanford’s letter to President Obama below:
_______________________________

STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
MARK SANFORD, GOVERNOR

March 17, 2009

The Honorable Barack Obama
President
United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I’d first thank you and Director Orszag for your response of March 16 to my letter of the previous week. Likewise, I have to express my disappointment that our substantive dialogue about the best way to adapt this stimulus to the unique situations of states across this country was interrupted by the Democratic National Committee’s launching of a petty attack ad against us even before we had received your response.

I’ve made clear my opposition to using debt to solve a problem created in the first place by too much debt – and I don’t believe this to be an unreasonable position. What I find less reasonable is the way this DNC attack ad returns a nation indeed yearning for change back to the same old politics-as-usual. Because I believe you and I share a common desire to escape this worn-out “attack first” mentality, I’d respectfully ask you to immediately condemn and put an end to this unnecessary politicization of a truly important policy discussion.

In the spirit of moving forward, I’d offer the following as a clarification to our using a portion of the stimulus funds to paying down our state’s sizable debt. With regard to the Education Stabilization Fund monies (ARRA § 14002(a)(1)) that must be used “for the support of * education,” we think it would be consistent with statutory requirements to use this $577 million to pay down the roughly $579 million of principal for State School Facilities Bonds and Research University Infrastructure Bonds over two years. This would immediately free up over $162 million in debt service in the first two years and save roughly $125 million in interest payments over the next 13 years, which could then be directed towards other educational purposes – just as paying off a mortgage early frees up the typical monthly payment for other uses.

Regarding the $125 million in the Fiscal Stabilization Fund (ARRA § 14002(b)(1)) headed to South Carolina, we’d lay out a few options for your consideration: first, paying down debt related to the state’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund that currently exceeds $200 million and would directly impact those currently out of work in this struggling economy; second, paying down debt related to state retirees, since that would seem to satisfy the statutory requirement that these funds be used for “other government services”; or third, paying down other bonded indebtedness at the state level.

We trust these alternative proposals fit both the statutory requirements and spirit of the stimulus legislation. Thank you again for your response, and we would again appreciate your opinion as soon as possible given that we believe this course of action will do more to ensure South Carolina’s long-term economic strength than would other contemplated uses of the funds.

I also await your response on pulling down the attack ads. A good part of your candidacy was fueled by the hope for change in the way political debate is conducted in our country. On this, actions will speak louder than words – words you have been so gifted in delivering – in determining where you really stand, not as a candidate promising to deliver on change, but as a leader now capable of bringing this change. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Mark Sanford

cc: The Honorable Peter R. Orszag, Director
Office of Management and Budget

Dan spoke on Wednesday, January 14th at the State House in favor of repealing point of sale assessment for property taxes in South Carolina.

There are two things I wanted to accomplish when I set out to build this web site; My first goal was to establish two-way communication in an transparent environment with constituents and other interested parties; Second, I wanted to provide readers with a window into my role in state government through a quick and easy to read format using micro-blogging as a backbone to the infrastructure.

This site has been set up for me to to quickly and easily update all day, everyday…so hang on. Along the way, you’ll get a glimpse into my life as a state legislator, businessman, husband and father. By the way, a lot of people don’t know this, but being a legislator in South Carolina is a “part time” job…my “real” job is in real estate so expect to see a little bit about that occasionally.

Here are a few tools I will use along the way to make this happen:

Twitter — Twitter is a micro blogging format with “posts” limited to 160 characters. This is a simple application that makes it easy to provide a one or two sentence update. I can update Twitter from any computer with an Internet connection, on my phone through text messaging or with my iPhone using an application (more on that later). My Twitter updates throughout the day will automatically post to this website, providing you with real time access to my thoughts on current events or pending legislation. I plan on providing readers with unprecedented access to what is really happening in Columbia. You can follow me and others by going to twitter.com/dphamilton.

Here are a few of my fellow South Carolina Legislators you might want to follow (in no particular order, well, OK, Republicans first): Rep. Eric Bedingfield, Rep. Shannon Erickson, Rep. Nathan Ballentine, Rep. Joey Millwood, Rep. James Smith and  Rep. Anton Gunn.

Facebook — Chances are you have heard of Facebook. It is a very popular social networking site originally used for colleges but has grown acceptance in nearly every facet of life. It can be used to build a “community” of like minded people around a person, idea or cause.

iPhone (with applications) — My iPhone has become one of my favorite tools in life. It it vital for my business to stay in touch with clients, pull up maps and search the Internet…all while on the go. It will also be indespendible tool for me to use at the State House. My iPhone is loaded up with some great applications to help me communicate and stay in touch.

Some of my favorite applications on the iPhone are:

• Facebook — See above.

• Twittelator — Manages my Twitter updates on the go.

• Evernote – Mobile note taking application where I can take pictures, write notes or even record audio.

• vlingo — Allows me to control certain aspects of the phone by voice command. I can make phone calls by speaking a name and even update my Twitter and Facebook status by speaking. Very cool and a big time saver.

• The Bible — Yes, I even have the Bible on my phone. It comes with lots of translations and background notes so if you see me looking at my iPhone in church, I’m reading the Bible and not checking email.

We have a few more ideas we’re working on to make the site even better. For example, I plan on adding lots of links to help constituents work with the state government, provide access to my Legislative calendar so you can see what I am working on in Columbia and a link to other Legislators’ Twitter updates.

In the meantime, please give me your feedback and ideas of what you would like to see on this site. Its a blog format, so feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Also, please make sure to sign up for email alerts when the site is updated to you will be the first to know.