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(AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, far left, holds a news conference Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008,in Columbia, S.C., to announce he would request a federal loan for the 77,000 jobless residents so they can continue receiving unemployment benefits.

SENECA — Jobless workers applying for benefits at the local One-Stop Workforce Center on Wednesday afternoon breathed a collective sigh or relief knowing there will be money available to pay out unemployment checks after all.

The benefits to 77,000 state residents will not be cut off after Gov. Mark Sanford on Wednesday ended a stalemate with state unemployment officials by announcing he would apply for a federal loan to fund the depleted South Carolina Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

Sanford threatened to hold off making the request unless the state’s Employment Security Commission (ESC) agreed to his demands of submitting to a state audit and providing more detailed unemployment data.

By signing the $146 million federal loan request, the governor guarantees the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund will have the money to pay benefits for qualifying jobless workers through the first quarter of 2009.

In a statement released by his office, Sanford said he would not allow the state’s unemployed to be punished because of the Commission’s “utter disdain for accountability.”

Sanford warned working taxpayers that without reform they would end up bearing the burden because the ESC has suggested doubling unemployment taxes from $300 million to $600 million a year.

“It is unbelievable that any state agency would hold such outright contempt for taxpayers and the unemployed that they would refuse to sign a very simple request for audit compliance and sharing data they already collect,” Sanford said.

TIT FOR TAT

ESC Executive Director Roosevelt Halley issued a statement posted on the agency’s Web site Tuesday saying the organization has nothing to fear from an audit. He said the ESC and the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund are audited annually by a qualified accounting firm that is independent and free of political influence.

Halley said the governor’s office and the legislature receive a copy of that annual audit. He said the latest audit showed no questioned costs.

Furthermore, Halley accused the governor’s threat to hold off on requesting a federal line of credit for unemployment benefits as a familiar pattern. He said the governor’s office questions the agency’s Labor Market Information data, which he said follows the same statistical model used in every state in the country. He said the governor’s office also questions the agency’s building or structural improvements and the management of the agency.

Halley underscored that unemployment insurance is an entitlement program and those benefits must be paid under federal law. He said the weekly benefit check is a simple question of survival for families of all walks of life.

“Unemployment Insurance is a lifeline that supports people who have lost jobs through no fault of their own and provides a small measure of relief to keep food on the table and the rent paid,” Halley said.

LAWMAKERS TO INTERVENE

State Rep. James Smith, D-Columbia, said Wednesday that he and five other lawmakers would request a state audit of the ESC. Smith’s call comes in response to Halley’s statement that the ESC was unable to request an audit by the Legislative Audit Council because such a request must come from the state legislature itself.

Sanford said he was pleased with the lawmakers’ initiative and added that he too was working with legislators to request an audit early next week. He said the Legislative Audit Council (LAC) has more than 20 years experience in auditing state agencies.

According to Sanford, it was an LAC audit two years ago that led to sweeping changes at the state Department of Transportation, and a similar audit recently uncovered a litany of problems at the state Department of Disabilities and Special Needs.

Halley told the Daily Journal/Messenger on Wednesday that his agency has nothing to hide and would welcome a state audit.

Joanne Johnson, assistant director of the One-Stop Workforce Center on Radio Station Road in Seneca, said she did not know if there would be any delays in people receiving their benefit checks as a result of the governor waiting until today to request a federal line of credit.

“We just continue to tell everybody to continue to call each week and to file their claim each week,” Johnson said.

Halley said that the federal line of credit is done electronically in a matter of minutes. However, he said there would be a short interruption in the flow of checks of a day or two taking into account the New Year’s Day holiday.

According to the ESC’s labor statistics, Oconee County had 2,860 unemployed workers actively seeking jobs in November in a labor force of 30,198 for an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent. Pickens County had 4,426 jobless people seeking work within a labor force of 60,224 for an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent.

Statewide, unemployment stood at 8.3 percent or almost 2 percentage points more than the national jobless rate of 6.7 percent.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.