Wednesday 03.14.2012 The SC House unanimously passed their version of the budget 115-0. This budget will provide funding for abortions in the State Health Plan for exceptions. Not a single member of the House seemed to think this is a problem. To my knowledge, not a single Repsentative bothered to speak up for the taxpayer having to pay to abort perfectly innocent children. Somebody’s got to speak for this little one!
By Mark Basch and Karen Brune Mathis, Staff Writers
While Bi-Lo Holdings LLC promised to create 100 new jobs as part of an incentive package to move its headquarters from Greenville, S.C., to Jacksonville, its CEO said Monday that he hopes to add even more than that.
“We expect to create a lot more than 100. That’s a minimum number,” Bi-Lo President and Chief Executive Officer R. Randall Onstead Jr. said in an interview.
Bi-Lo completed its $560 million acquisition of Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie on Friday, creating a company with 688 supermarkets and 63,000 employees in eight states.
On Monday morning, it announced that the headquarters of the merged company will be in Jacksonville.
Mayor Alvin Brown and City and state representatives announced at a City Hall news conference that pending approvals, Bi-Lo could receive $6.6 million in incentives to move and that the company would add 100 jobs and invest $93 million in capital projects.
The deal also keeps 900 local Winn-Dixie jobs at the headquarters, which creates more than 1,000 jobs with the additional positions.
Brown and JAXUSA Partnership President Jerry Mallot said those headquarters jobs will pay an average $84,000 a year.
Onstead said a few people will be moving from Greenville but most of the additional jobs will be new hires.
“We’re mainly talking about new jobs created here,” he said.
Onstead would not give a timetable for adding those first 100 jobs or the additional positions, but he expects the company to grow.
Bi-Lo has said since the merger was first announced that Winn-Dixie supermarkets will continue to operate under that name and Bi-Lo stores would continue with their current name.
Onstead said customers won’t see anything in Winn-Dixie stores with the Bi-Lo name.
While the corporate name is now Bi-Lo, Onstead also said that the headquarters building on Jacksonville’s Westside will continue to have the Winn-Dixie name. Bi-Lo will continue to operate offices in Greenville with that name.
While not putting names on them, Onstead did say that he hopes to take the “best practices” from both supermarket chains and implement them in all the stores.
“I think both are doing certain things well,” he said, but he would not discuss specific programs.
Onstead said the incentive package was one factor in the decision to put the headquarters in Jacksonville.
“There were a lot of things that went into our decision-making and some carried more weight than others,” he said.
Other factors included Winn-Dixie’s facilities in Jacksonville, including its distribution center, and its central location for the eight-state store network, which stretches west to Louisiana and north to Tennessee and North Carolina.
Winn-Dixie has been operating in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Bi-Lo’s stores are in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.
The $6.6 million in incentives consists of:
• $1.04 million through Florida’s Quick Response Training program used for training costs for new and existing employees.
• $3.6 million in a state Quick Action Closing Fund to offset the costs of relocation expenses and equipment purchases.
• Up to $2 million from the City through a “Revenue Enhanced Value” grant over 10 years. A REV grant is based on the increased taxes generated by property improvements and is repaid to a company after it pays taxes.
That deal is scheduled to be introduced to the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission on March 21 and then Council. It could be approved by Council in late April or early May, said Paul Crawford, acting executive director of the JEDC.
South Carolina made an effort to keep the Bi-Lo headquarters, but Onstead wouldn’t provide details of that state’s offer.
“We received a very compelling offer from South Carolina as well,” he said.
Brown said at the City Hall news conference that South Carolina was “very aggressive” in trying to keep the headquarters. “That is why it was critical for the City and the state to get involved,” he said.
“South Carolina was very, very aggressive offering a whole lot more than we could come up with,” said Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll at the news conference. Read on
October Baby: Bringing Life
to Theaters March 23
If you believe that every life is beautiful and that a beautifully told story can touch hearts—and even save lives—then you will be excited about the impact that OCTOBER BABY can have when it opens in theaters on March 23.
OCTOBER BABY tells the story of Hannah, a young woman who learns that her life is much different than what she’s known up until now. After learning she was actually adopted—after a failed abortion attempt—Hannah embarks on an incredible journey to discover her hidden past and find hope for her unknown future. Check out a powerful scene featuring Hannah (Rachel Hendrix) and a woman who knows about Hannah’s past (Jasmine Guide).
» Watch the “Finding Answers” Scene from OCTOBER BABY
Impacting Lives with a Movie
Three pregnancy resource centers have received an incredible gift from an anonymous donor who purchased Thursday evening showings of OCTOBER BABY in their towns. Each of the three centers, including ones in Denver and Houston, received 250 tickets that they are reselling to donors. That means even before it officially opens on March 23, OCTOBER BABY will be helping save lives!
Your group can also host a special Thursday evening showing on March 22 by purchasing 250 tickets. Take your church, invite your customers, or even offer a special gift to a local pregnancy center just like our anonymous friend!
» Learn More
Every Life is Beautiful
It seems so natural: the sanctity of human life is the linchpin of a healthy society. Yet when it comes to life, our society keeps drifting further and further from God’s Truth.
Can a movie make a difference? Charmaine Yoest, President and CEO of Americans United for Life says:
“What a remarkable movie. This is a significant story, beautifully told. OCTOBER BABY weaves together an uplifting and inspiring look at redemption and the true meaning of love. It’s even funny too. It’s really a wonderful movie.”
» See the trailer at OctoberBabyMovie.net
Make a Statement with
October Baby
What will it take? For nearly 40 years since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, abortion has been deemed a right. Unfortunately, no rights are bestowed upon the unborn.
This month, starting Friday, March 23, a beautiful, compelling movie plays in theaters. What if you stepped up, knowing that your ticket—and every other ticket purchased for Opening Weekend of OCTOBER BABY—is a loud vote for the sanctity of life?
» Get Your Tickets Now!
OUR PARTNERS:
Bryant Announces March 12, 2012 | Filed under: Featured | Posted by: Booger News By Stan Welch
State Senator Kevin Bryant took off the gloves Monday night in announcing his campaign for reelection from District Three.
Speaking to approximately 75 supporters at the Powdersville Fire Department – or as he said he calls it, Conservativeville – Bryant took on liberals, Democrats and bureaucrats.
Liberals, according to Bryant, believe such things as that AIDS is spread by a lack of federal funding; that business produces oppression while government creates prosperity; and that a liberal opposes the NRA for supporting parts of the Constitution, while supporting the ACLU for supporting parts of the Constitution; and that abortion is alright while the death penalty is not.
Bryant said that liberal Charleston Democratic Sen. Says that if you get to the right of Bryant, you’ll hit a tree. He also pointed out that U.S. Senator Jim DeMint has been quoted as saying that he, DeMint, is a Kevin Bryant conservative. “I expect you’ve seen that on a few billboards by now,” laughed Bryant.
Bryant said he has also been called a right wing extremist and a flame thrower. “With the debt and the unfunded liabilities imposed on us by the federal government, we need extreme measures. We not only cannot continue to kick the can down the road, we are out of road. We must take action to stop the socialistic policies coming from Washington DC. This is no longer about Republican vs. Democrat. It is about freedom vs. socialism.”
Audit: S.C. jobless agency safeguards didn’t work Associated Press
Originally published 04:03 p.m., March 13, 2012
Updated 04:50 p.m., March 13, 2012
COLUMBIA — The second independent audit of South Carolina’s unemployment agency in the past two years has found its system for checking whether people getting jobless benefits also received wages at a job didn’t work properly for six years.
The Legislative Audit Council’s latest report, released Tuesday, also found the Department of Employment and Workforce does not consistently verify that people receiving jobless benefits are looking for work. It said unemployment offices are sometimes impossible to reach on the phone and some employers are making the agency’s job tougher by not following the law and reporting the identities of new hires.
The report did praise some actions taken since the last audit in 2010, including work to make sure that the trust fund that pays benefits is brought back in balance by 2015.
The state currently owes the federal government $850 million in loans used to cover the costs for the sharp increase in people looking for unemployment benefits during the Great Recession, but changes in taxes and benefits mean the state should be able to pay all that money back, according to the audit.
In its response to the audit, Department of Employment and Workforce Director Abraham Turner promised to look at most of the report’s recommendations.
The agency pushed back on the audit report’s recommendation that lawmakers clarify some oversight rules concerning the panel that hears appeals of the department’s decisions on whether people are eligible for unemployment benefits. The agency said the board exceeds federal standards for its work and has become more efficient over the past nine months.
“While the report does offer recommendations for improvements, it also identifies many of the positive initiatives the department has taken over the past two years. These measures have transformed our agency into a more effective, progressive organization,” Turner wrote the Audit Council.
The state agency said the problem with checking wage information against people earning benefits should be fixed by a new software system put in place in December.
The audit said that from 2005 to 2011, the agency’s system for checking that information didn’t work. The report cited a worker who collected $13,000 in benefits over 12 months while he had a job at a technical college.
The audit criticized the amount of information the agency collects on where people receiving benefits look for jobs. People on regular benefits need to only list the name of the employer, making it much harder to verify if they actually applied there. And while people on extended benefits must also list names, addresses, phone numbers and the person contacted, agency employees often didn’t check because employers complained about being bothered.
The agency said it is combining its database of jobs available with the forms that jobless individuals fill out verifying they are looking for a job and requiring at least one of the jobs applied for is listed in the agency’s computers.
Auditors also found outdated information in videos and packets given to workers who just lost their jobs. They called all 56 local unemployment centers in the state, and couldn’t get a person in 14 of them. Eight of those calls went to voice mail, which was full in six cases.
The agency said it is revamping its phone system and getting rid of the outdated material.
Lawmakers critical of the Department of Employment and Workforce didn’t think the audit went far enough.
“What DEW is good at doing is taking taxes from employers and giving it away,” said Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson. “They’re focused on collecting money from employers and paying people not to work.”
Bryant has been highly critical of the $50 million DEW paid out in unemployment benefits last fiscal year to fired workers. Their benefits are now reduced depending on the type of misconduct and severity, up to complete disqualification. But Bryant says the agency has abused that latitude.
He is backing Sen. Lee Bright’s bill to automatically disqualify people fired for misconduct from receiving unemployment benefits. Under state law, gross misconduct already completely disqualifies people. The definition includes theft, alcohol use, property damage, assault, and insubordination.
But senators say the agency isn’t abiding by that law. They have heard testimony about cases in which a fired worker received several weeks of pay despite multiple examples of gross misconduct.
Bright, R-Roebuck, said senators need to carefully consider the reappointment of the three officers that hear appeals. Bryant complained they’re rubber-stamping agency staff’s decisions and giving people benefits when they shouldn’t.
© 2012 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online
