oRiley is set to launch Charleston Works, a workforce development initiative to help knowledge based companies with recruiting.

· Development/Renovation

oHorizon District – plans are underway to develop the Horizon District (between Lockwood and Hagood Ave.) to support the incubated ideas from the Innovation Center;

oWest of the Ashley – the City plans to replicate its successful Flagship concept (on East Bay) in West Ashley. The Flagship is a business incubator to help entrepreneurs;

oUnion Pier – Plans are underway for redevelopment of the Union Pier property, a 50 acre lot on the waterfront;

oInternational African American Museum – design work is underway;

oParks – the City plans to open its newest park this year – the Bees Landing Recreation Center; and the City plans to begin construction of Governors Park on Daniel Island (fields for soccer, baseball and softball, plus tot lot, waterfront trail, and more);

oGilliard – a major renovation is planned, to transform it into a world-class performing arts center.

· Business support -- Riley has formed a City Task Force to support Boeing.

· Finances-- Riley said that, in 2010, he’ll furlough every City employee, to reduce costs.

· Public services

oCrime – Riley is seeking passage of a criminal justice reform bill;

oTransportation – The City plans to develop a master plan for a series of connected bike and pedestrian systems, said Riley;

oEducation – The city will work to create a Charleston Children’s Zone, patterned after the successful Harlem Children’s Zone;

oFire Dept. – Riley said that the Fire Dept. is training 43 new firefighters – its largest recruit class ever;

oFlooding – the City is seeking a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation to fix the Crosstown drainage basin, which represents 20 percent of the city (Riley said that he has met with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation three times about this issue). The plan is to create a series of tunnels, 140’ under the City. Fixing the basin would make MUSC and the hospital complex more accessible.

Riley highlighted five major awards recently received by the City:

· Smartest cities – Forbes names Charleston #8 in world’s smartest cities;

· Travel destination - Conde Nast travel magazine said Charleston was the #2 travel destination (behind San Francisco);

· Travel destination - Lonely Planet travel guide chose Charleston as one of the top 10 cities in the world to visit;

· Livability – the U.S. Conference of Mayors awarded Charleston with the Livability Award for its Palmetto Artisans program (training young people to become entrepreneurs);

· Sports – The City’s Tennis Center was named Club of the Year.

In his State of the City speech, Riley highlighted these recent advancements:

oAircraft assembly – Boeing located its second Dreamliner assembly plant (3,800 jobs, plus over 2,000 construction jobs);

oBiotech – opening the Innovative Center, for biotech inventions and processes;

oEntrepreneurs – creating Flagship, a business incubator on East Bay St. for entrepreneurs who need office space and conference facilities. Currently, seven businesses are housed there.

oShipping – the City helped the Port of Charleston keep Maersk Shipping Lines, and the City learned that Mediterranean Shipping Lines will bring in one of the world’s largest ships;

oTourism – Carnival Cruise decided to make Charleston its home port for year round embarkation for its cruise ship, Fantasy. They will have 70 calls/year (note: Mayor Riley said that one cruise ship would help Charleston’s economy but that more than one "would be out of scale for our City";

oTourism – the Port of Charleston set in motion plans to build a new passenger cruise terminal;

oApparel – Gildan Activewear, a Canadian company which manufactures basic apparel, purchased the Mikasa building on Clements Ferry Rd. They will bring roughly 250 jobs and $25 million in investment;

· Approve a bill to create spending limits (the House has already passed such a bill);

· Raise the cigarette tax and use these additional funds to cut the corporate income tax (Sanford pointed out that passing these measures would move South Carolina from 25^th to 6^th on the list of "most competitive states" in terms of the business tax climate);

· Approve a bill to limit government’s growth to "population plus inflation"; and

· Create a new Dept. of Workforce that would combine the Employment Security Commission with parts of the Dept. of Commerce. Said Sanford: "The current trust fund is $800 million [in debt] . . . and if nothing is done here, [unemployment] taxes will go up on every small, mid-sized and large business in our state."

Sanford also urged passage of three measures that would improve the "structure of government" and yield significant efficiency gains:

1. Create a Dept. of Administration (Said Sanford: "We are the only state in the country that does not allow its Governor to administer the laws administrated by the other 49 states/governors");

2. Require that the Governor and Lt. Governor run together on the same ticket; and

3. Allow citizens to decide whether constitutional officers should be elected or appointed (Sanford pointed out that South Carolina, for instance, is the only state to elect its Adjutant General).

 A LOOK BACK

Reflecting on recent accomplishments, Sanford pointed to the following:

· Helping land Boeing, which will lead to 3,800 permanent jobs and 2,000 temporary construction jobs;

· Passing the first cut to the marginal income tax rate in South Carolina’s history (said Sanford: "As a result, $292 million stayed with small business . . .")

· Passing the first tort reform bill of its kind;

· Passing the state’s first reform to the workers compensation system;

· Passing a small business health care bill;

· Helping encourage major firms to "put down roots" (Boeing, Google, Starbucks and Adidas), and helping other major firms to expand (e.g., BMW, GE Aviation); and

· Reducing "waiting time" at state DMVs from 66 minutes to 16 minutes.

NOTEWORTHY

In his speech, Sanford cited the following major accomplishments:

· South Carolina was the second state in the nation to offer Health Savings Accounts;

· In 2009, South Carolina received $4 billion in capital investment, a record level;

· South Carolina ranks 14^th in the nation in employment growth and 9^th in labor force growth;

· The state has seen a one-third reduction in transportation-related facilities; and

· South Carolina has passed "tough" immigration bills.