Hopeful has lofty goals for S.C.

Morgan Bruce Reeves does not do anything small.

The former college football player and Green Party and United Citizens Party nominee for governor is selling a "$40 billion plan" to improve state education, build new infrastructure and convert South Carolina to a home-grown, ethanol-based and solar energy economy.

During a 90-minute interview, Reeves railed against major party candidates, whom he dubbed the "Siamese twins," lobbyists and oil industry interests that benefit the wealthy at the expense of the state's poor

Reeves, who was a tailback at Michigan State University during the 1970s, wants to tap the state's football coaches and athletes to help his efforts.

"I'm a teamwork man. I'm not some kind of wild guy," Reeves, 51 and owner of an Irmo land-clearing firm, says of his political philosophy. "I'm the only one with a $40 billion plan. The state budget is $20 billion. I'm going to double the state budget."

Reeves will face Democratic nominee Vincent Sheheen and Republican nominee Nikki Haley in November.

Education is the cornerstone of Reeves' platform, which he would use to switch to a year-round calendar to improve test scores and graduation rates. Reeves would promote new energy sources to allow more money on K-12 spending.

Reeves' plan has a number of holes, experts said. Reeves struggled to account for the $40 billion, jumping from the cost of changing the school calendar and hiring more teachers to using high-school-age students to build ethanol plants and a high-speed magnetic levitation rail system. His plan would rely heavily on state residents and businesses buying stocks or bonds in energy and infrastructure projects, which he said would guarantee 15 percent annual profits. Reeves thinks every citizen would invest at least $100, and the gains would mint many Palmetto State millionaires.

"You can get on this train and go anywhere in South Carolina," Reeves said. "We're going to connect all the cities."

But Reeves' vision is less clear when it comes to paying for the rail system. Reeves put the cost at $5 million for two miles of track, or roughly $500 million to connect downtown Greenville and Charleston.

The system would be built entirely with South Carolina-made steel, and the state would build its own mills and use existing private mills. Reeves would encourage those mills to hire the unemployed and train youths. The tax revenue from hiring unemployed workers, Reeves said, would pay for the project.

"Take young gang members and show them how to make steel," he said.

But magnetic levitation train projects have proved much more expensive than Reeves' estimates. Virginia's Old Dominion University spent $14 million and failed to complete a mile of test track; while a German project to connect downtown Munich with its airport - a distance of about 20 miles - was abandoned when its cost soared to more than $4 billion from an initial $2.3 billion estimate.

Reeves would also push to construct ethanol plants to convert sweet potatoes into fuel for internal combustion engines. The plants would purchase sweet potatoes grown by farmers and in backyard gardens.

He would push the federal government to raise the amount of ethanol blended with gasoline to at least 20 percent, if not more. Doing so would lower the cost of fuel to $1.50 per gallon in the state, Reeves claimed.