The scenes here are now familiar in places deeply bruised by the recession: The Salvation Army gets so many calls from people desperate for help with overdue utility bills that, one morning, its phone system crashed. The Family Service Center of South Carolina is deluged with clients seeking free counseling for delinquent mortgages. And the shelves at the Life Force food pantry run out of rice, canned stew meat and black-eyed peas in less than an hour.

Yet in few places is the nonprofit sphere being tested as profoundly as in this Southern city -- the capital of a state where, figures released yesterday show, the unemployment rate is now the second worst in the nation and conservative political leaders believe that charities, and not the government, should bear primary responsibility for people in need.

Gov. Mark Sanford (R) eschews the prevailing view in Washington that government money should be used as a salve to the economy and to people who have lost jobs. "At some level, government steps in to fill the void," Sanford said in an interview, "but we ought to be the lender of last resort, not the first."

Sanford and the Republican-led General Assembly have cut the state's budget three times since last summer by a total of $871 million, or 13 percent -- among the deepest reductions in the nation.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • State Government • * South Carolina

1. Piedmont wrote: Here is an article from Forbes explaining how South Carolina’s unemployment rate climbed higher even though the state’s labor market had grown considerably. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/11/ap6156327.html March 12, 1:57 pm | [comment link]

2. libraryjim wrote: We are going to see more articles like this as states see that the so-called “Stimulus Package” comes with some very unwanted strings.  As States refuse the money, more media articles are going to come out on how State legislatures and Governors are ignoring the plight of their people and turning their back on the one thing that can help them. And it’s going to put more impetus to the state’s rights movements. March 12, 10:41 pm | [comment link]

3. trooper wrote: can we take a moment to pray for everyone in this story? i am. March 12, 11:57 pm | [comment link]

4. libraryjim wrote: i’d like to remind everyote that there are more unemployed in reality than are reported on the rolls.  For example, someone let go who was given the option to resign with something of a severance package instead of being fired; or who was let go during a probationary period, perhaps after leaving one job to take what seemed to be a better one.  Both of these prevents a person from being eligible for unemployment assistance. I know. First-hand. And yes, prayers are appreciated.  Job offers even more so. March 13, 9:32 am | [comment link]

5. libraryjim wrote: everyote = everyone.  March 13, 9:32 am | [comment link]

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