Promotion for jobs included foreign goods

COLUMBIA --- Some South Carolina lawmakers say they're upset a new promotional package sent to state business leaders to attract industry includes goods made in China and Taiwan. They're questioning how well the state department that came up with the material is creating jobs.

"What a reflection on our times," Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, said Thursday. "I think that is such an apt reflection on our jobs leaving this country that the agency charged with recruiting industry is using materials made outside of the country. There's just something wrong with that picture."

For weeks, South Carolina's unemployment rate -- the nation's third highest at 8.8 percent in December -- has brought into sharp focus the work of the state agency responsible for handing out unemployment checks.

Gov. Mark Sanford has criticized the state Employment Security Commission for not matching the jobless with vacant positions, and threatened to fire its commissioners if not provided with data about people out of work.

He has also been pressing to control the agency. On Thursday, a Senate committee heard testimony on a measure that would move the agency into the governor's Cabinet.

But little public outcry has landed at the feet of the Commerce Department, which is under the control of the governor.

The questions became more pointed with news of the $75,000 spent on the promotional box of goodies sent by the department. Officials who created it say most of it was made in the U.S., even though the foreign country labels drew ire.

The Commerce Department began distributing the material this week to get 800 South Carolina companies to partner with the agency to recruit suppliers.

The box was printed with the image of grass and sky with signs sticking out of the ground saying "shave your costs," ''be more competitive," and "trim operations costs."

Inside was a promotional brochure stuck into the spines of a plastic tray along with a pencil made from tree branch, a pen, a highlighter, a fold-out box cutter and ruler made from recycled money and plastic.

A sticker on the tray said it was made in China in three languages and the box cutter was labeled as made in Taiwan.