By Bill Davis, senior editor | Looks like some of South Carolina’s state lawmakers are waking up to the needs of the state’s rural areas, many of which are bogged down by a seemingly endless laundry list of needs.
For the past 21 years, Graham Adams has worked with a national advocacy group to improve health care outcomes in rural South Carolina where some of the worst national rates of hypertension, diabetes and other ailments can be found.
Adams, who is CEO of the nonprofit S.C. Office of Rural Health, has concluded there isn’t a “magic bullet” as a solution for the state’s health care ills. Rather, he sees a wide swath of the state needs to be hit “shotgun-style” with solutions for health care, education, infrastructure and other challenges.
Adams said he would like to see South Carolina create an office or “mechanism” like other state have to provide one-stop shopping for rural issues.
The “ah-ha” moment
Adams said his “ah-ha” moment came when he saw the link between health care and rural education as tools for recruitment for business.
With up to 80 percent of the state’s landmass being classified as “rural,” Adams sees a “disconnect” between politicians and the state they represent.
And he’s not alone.
Several sources said they saw a similar pattern among state politicians: run for office touting your small-town values and rural roots; get elected; go to Columbia; and then … vote to for projects in Greenville-Spartanburg, Columbia and Charleston.
In short, the politicians run like they are a country mouse and then vote like a city mouse.
For example, Adams said he wondered why Gov. Nikki Haley, who hails from Bamberg, doesn’t do more.
Haley’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment. But she has fought for rural education improvements. And in June, after a Boeing-related aerospace company expanded in Orangeburg, she posted this statement:
“One of our top priorities in our economic development efforts is to make sure companies understand all that our rural counties have to offer.” It should be noted that the expansion would only create 75 new jobs.
State Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D-Orangeburg) said it might be a tough sell in the legislature creating a new office or agency, as it would fall afoul of many state politicians’ aversion to “growing government.”
But she said there is a demonstrated need for someone, or some thing, to apply some outside-of-the-box thinking to issues related to rural economic opportunities, arts, culture, and agritourism.
State Sen. Larry Martin (R-Pickens), chair of the Judiciary Committee, represents a district that includes rural areas and population centers. Martin said population diversity is more likely with Senate districts than House districts because of size.
Martin said he tries to represent all of his constituents, but many grants and funding programs are slanted toward population numbers, and so in many situations, the more urban areas can get more attention.
Additionally, rural areas not only lag in ready funds for matching grants, but also in ability to go after many grant programs, with limited municipal staffs in smaller towns than in cities.
More needs to be done
State Rep. J. Wayne George (D-Mullins) was a small-town mayor for 16 years before entering the legislature three years ago. He said looking over the most recent U.S. Census numbers, “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what’s happening” to rural South Carolina.
His divination of the numbers shows 10 counties that either lost population or stayed the same in the face of a larger population growth statewide. And all of those counties, he said, were rural.
George said the state missed a big opportunity to support rural communities when it diverted its portion of the federal tobacco lawsuit to pay for public health care programs. While a “noble” effort on one hand, he says, the money could — and perhaps should — have been used to assist the rural areas bidding adieu to tobacco farming, he said
While he, Cobb-Hunter and Martin praised the rural development office inside of the state Department of Commerce, George said he wanted more.
This past summer, he began to re-form the moribund Rural Legislative Caucus in hopes of bringing more attention and political oomph to the countryside. He’s met with limited success, but hopes that in December, as his colleagues in the General Assembly return their thoughts to statewide issues, he’ll be able to gain more support.
Martin and Cobb-Hunter praise his efforts, as it could focus attention without growing government.
“This state is growing, and if we truly care about everyone in South Carolina, we have to do better funding rural South Carolina,” said George.
Bill Davis is senior editor of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
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