City needs every penny Bill Wellborn, researcher for the S.C. State Treasurer's Unclaimed Property Program, wants to alert the city about some of its Air South money in a holding pattern at the treasurer's office. The items are still claimable for Air South: #767279, $1,020.60 from BellSouth for 1997 overcharges; #1065547, $29,259.80 from Automated Data Processing for 1997 or earlier; #1086742, from CocaCola for 2003 (no reference to activity date). More than $30,000 sounds like enough for another trip to China by City Council Member Cromartie or another run to Germany by Mayor Coble et al. With that kind of money, thinking of immediate priorities, city council can resume its catered sandwiches for another four years.

South Financial might reconsider new home The South Financial Group, parent company of Carolina First, back in 2006 announced its plans to build a corporate headquarters campus near the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research in Greenville. The city, county, and state worked together with South Financial on a package that put together a fee- in- lieu- of- taxes agreement as well as tax credits for jobs creation and infrastructure improvements. At the time they were approved, the county incentives were valued at about $12 million. The county incentives and the state tax credits can be picked up by an occupant other than South Financial should South Financial choose to sell the campus, which is already under construction. South Financial reportedly is weighing all options, to include possibly leasing a part of the building.

Decisions we wish Columbia were making Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory and his chief transit executive recently alerted Charlotte City Council there are big decisions to be made this spring about a light- rail expansion and a commuter rail line. Early estimates for the cost of the north commuter rail line topped $350 million, and the northeast light- rail extension could cost more than $900 million. The commuter rail was planned to be up and running by 2012, and the light- rail extension, by 2015. Both projects suffer from contemporary economic conditions, but both projects could be saved by federal economic- stimulus funding. Columbia, on the other hand, has no commuter rail planned and no need for an extension to a light- rail line because there is no light rail line. On a per capita basis, as discovered in a bus transit study in 1991, Charlotte had about three times the bus service available in Columbia.

Jobs Among major metropolitan areas in terms of keeping jobs, Houston is No. 1 (57,300 new jobs in 2008) in the U.S.A., and New York City (down 120,300 jobs) is the worst, No. 88. Durham, N.C., No. 11, is up 1,700 jobs. Raleigh, N.C., No. 15, is up 200 jobs. Greenville, No. 33, is down 4,800 jobs. Charleston, No. 36, is down 5,200 jobs. Columbia is No. 47 in the ranking, having dropped 7,700 jobs in 2008. Charlotte dropped 15,700 in 2008 and ranked No. 65. Atlanta lost 82,000 jobs for the year, leaving it at No. 84, fourth from NYC's 120,300 jobs lost in 2008.

More jobs The S.C. Dept. of Commerce recruitment campaign for 2008 scored 18,993 jobs and $4.1 billion in capital investments.

Capital- to- capital population comparison Raleigh, N.C., grew to an estimated 385,507 people in 2008 - that is just the people inside the city limits, not the market or commuting area. In Columbia, the city boundaries contain about 124,000 people, according to what Columbia City Council Member Tameika Isaac Devine reported at a recent council meeting.

Flagship schools in the Carolinas On Friday, February 13, the University of North Carolina System Board of Governors approved tuition increases for the coming year, to include a 4.3 percent increase at Chapel Hill. There, in- state students pay $3,856 for the academic year, and out- of- state students pay $21,753. For the current academic year 2008- 2009 at the Columbia campus of the University of South Carolina, in- state students pay $8,838, and out- of- state students pay $22,908. The endowment at UNC- Chapel Hill is $2.36 billion, far below the nation's leader among public universities, which is the University of Texas system at $15.6 billion. USC's endowment is $438.5 million. Citizens and alumni are encouraged to lobby the S.C. Legislature on behalf of USC on Wednesday, March 25, which is called "Carolina Day at the Statehouse."

Hard Rock sold FPI MB Entertainment LLC purchased Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach for $25 million. The park just cost $400 million to build when it opened in April 2008. It closed due to bankruptcy in September 2008.