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[color=#000000]Hunley costs spiral to nearly $100 million as McConnell helps funnel money its way
By JOHN MONK The State
jmonk@thestate.com
The cost of preserving and promoting the Hunley submarine has soared to nearly $100 million — thanks largely to a powerful politician's behind-the-scenes work to steer public money toward his pet project.
The Hunley is one of South Carolina's biggest financial undertakings in modern times. Not counting university expansion projects, the Hunley ranks behind only a few large road and bridge projects. It even exceeds the $62 million State House renovation in the 1990s.
Glenn McConnell, president pro tem of the state Senate, is the Hunley's biggest booster. He also has been the driving force behind the spiraling price tag for the preservation and promotion of the Confederate sub.
McConnell has pieced together the money, keeping the project out of the public arena and away from State House debate.
And he has personally authorized much of the spending of the
project's public money in an arrangement the state's comptroller general says is "obviously outside the framework the state has provided for disbursement of public funds."
Few politicians or state policymakers know how much money is involved — or how much of it is coming from taxpayers.
It's a classic case study in hidden government, said John Crangle, head of the citizens watchdog group Common Cause.
"It's a stealth strategy," Crangle said. "The whole scheme involves rivers of underground money flowing to the Hunley from many sources, and the obvious intent is to not let people know."
The $97 million for current and planned Hunley projects far exceeds McConnell's estimate in the late 1990s. Then, McConnell was trying to get the sub raised from the Atlantic seabed where it had lain since 1864.
"We have looked at figures somewhere, we think, between $5-10 million to conserve it, to house it and to endow it," McConnell, R-Charleston, said at an Oct. 30, 1997, meeting.
McConnell and other Hunley supporters predicted back then that private donors would pay much of the sub's costs.
But more than 85 percent of projected costs are expected to be paid by taxpayers, according to a State newspaper analysis.
McConnell has used his considerable influence to]
By JOHN MONK The State
jmonk@thestate.com
The cost of preserving and promoting the Hunley submarine has soared to nearly $100 million — thanks largely to a powerful politician's behind-the-scenes work to steer public money toward his pet project.
The Hunley is one of South Carolina's biggest financial undertakings in modern times. Not counting university expansion projects, the Hunley ranks behind only a few large road and bridge projects. It even exceeds the $62 million State House renovation in the 1990s.
Glenn McConnell, president pro tem of the state Senate, is the Hunley's biggest booster. He also has been the driving force behind the spiraling price tag for the preservation and promotion of the Confederate sub.
McConnell has pieced together the money, keeping the project out of the public arena and away from State House debate.
And he has personally authorized much of the spending of the
project's public money in an arrangement the state's comptroller general says is "obviously outside the framework the state has provided for disbursement of public funds."
Few politicians or state policymakers know how much money is involved — or how much of it is coming from taxpayers.
It's a classic case study in hidden government, said John Crangle, head of the citizens watchdog group Common Cause.
"It's a stealth strategy," Crangle said. "The whole scheme involves rivers of underground money flowing to the Hunley from many sources, and the obvious intent is to not let people know."
The $97 million for current and planned Hunley projects far exceeds McConnell's estimate in the late 1990s. Then, McConnell was trying to get the sub raised from the Atlantic seabed where it had lain since 1864.
"We have looked at figures somewhere, we think, between $5-10 million to conserve it, to house it and to endow it," McConnell, R-Charleston, said at an Oct. 30, 1997, meeting.
McConnell and other Hunley supporters predicted back then that private donors would pay much of the sub's costs.
But more than 85 percent of projected costs are expected to be paid by taxpayers, according to a State newspaper analysis.
McConnell has used his considerable influence to]