South Carolina's ports authority offloads nearly $750,000 in bonuses

South Carolina's embattled State Ports Authority is awarding $208,000 in bonuses to its top managers and some $500,000 to the rest of its employees.

It's awfully nice of them, but it has horrible political timing.

So, let's see: You're a state-legislated monopoly, in a state that is having massive budget shortfalls (and is having trouble paying unemployment), your performance has already been sucking, and you've all but lost your biggest customer. So what do you do? Dish out 3/4 of a million dollars in bonuses because that shows you're an organization that cares about the state.

Sigh. Really poor timing by the ports authority.

Go catch up on all the drama over at The Charleston Regional Business Journal.

What makes the decision even worse for the authority, is that Charleston's S.C. Senate Rep. Glenn McConnell (and the highest ranking member of the Senate) is using the authority's decision as a chance to denounce them. Which will help his case to privatize the port.

But, I'm already inclined to think privatization might be a good thing.