WASHINGTON — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford will comply with a midnight stimulus deadline today and become the last governor in the nation to seek millions in federal economic-recovery funds for his state, aides said late Thursday.
Sanford will continue contesting $700 million in education and law-enforcement money for South Carolina, but his 11th-hour move to meet the deadline buys time for schools fearing mass teacher layoffs and draconian cuts.
Obama has twice rejected Sanford’s written requests to use $700 million in State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money to pay off state-government debt instead of its stated use to help school districts retain teachers and modernize old schools or build new ones.
Sanford’s failure to request the stimulus funds by midnight today would have imperiled all $8 billion reserved for his state.
