South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster was in North Augusta on Tuesday for the final hours of the annual two-day Rural Summit, a conference meant to aid community leaders, economic developers and state officials in finding ways for boosting the state’s rural areas.
McMaster spoke both from a point of pride in South Carolina’s growing economy and from a point of caution that it takes care to preserve where it’s been.
“There are three great parts of our prosperity — our economy, that is, economic growth; educational excellence, and our environmental and cultural heritage,” he said. “We have to have them all — if you don’t have the clean, rich environment and protect your cultural heritage, then the other two are not going to work.”
“Our land and our people are what make us prosperous, are what make us strong,” McMaster said. “In the context of education, the environment and economic growth, there’s some things that are particularly important for the rural areas.”
Access to broadband and health care are two of these; investing in technical colleges and in water and sewer infrastructure are two others, he said.
Maceo Nance, senior advisor to South Carolina Commerce Secretary Harry Lightsey, said he’s seen rural areas struggle to reach what he said was an ever-rising bar that came with ever increasing demands.
Gov. Henry McMaster, left, conferred the Order of the Palmetto on Maceo Nance on March 5, saying Nance’s impact “is enormous, statewide and beyond.”
“Over the last 50 years, there has been a drastic change in South Carolina. We’ve gone from being a textile state to making aircraft, fighter jets, automobiles — you name it, that’s here,” Nance said. “On the other side of the equation, some things have not changed. […] The same counties that have been on the lower tier, economically, are still there.”
The issues that have held some areas back, he said, range from fractured leadership and an over-emphasis on political bias, to a “me and mine” attitude and a lack of long-range planning. Even plain “mean-spiritedness” has gotten in the way, he said.
Nance was speaking from his own first-hand experience: come November, he will have given 50 years to public service and, per McMaster, has done “just about everything” while with the state commerce department.
“Just about everything” earned Nance the Order of the Palmetto.
McMaster conferred the honor on Nance during the Rural Summit, saying Nance’s impact “is enormous, statewide and beyond.”
While in North Augusta, McMaster also promoted SC Nexus’ designation as one of 31 inaugural Regional Technology and Innovation hubs.
It’s a designation that, according to the federal Economic Development Association overseeing the Tech Hub program, acts as endorsement of the “region’s strategy to supercharge their respective technological industry to create jobs and strengthen U.S. economic and national security.”
SC Nexus’ geographic reach covers the Midlands and the Upstate, plus Aiken and Orangeburg counties. In securing inaugural designation, SC Nexus now has the potential, should it become one of about a dozen long-term hubs, to receive between $40 million and $70 million in federal grants annually over the course of five years.
“The future is very bright in South Carolina,” he said. “And it will be very bright in South Carolina.”
