Thursday, April 18, 2024
Local funding for Coast RTA has been a topic of discussion, sometimes heated, for over a year.
The desire of Horry County Council to have more membership on the Coast RTA board almost cost the authority one-fourth of its funding from the county in the current fiscal year.
We are hearing a move may be made by some council members to substantially cut Horry County funding to Coast RTA in the 2014-15 fiscal year budget currently in its early stages of consideration by the county.
Sen. Lindsey Graham is right on target regarding the recent agreement between world powers and Iran on Iran’s nuclear development program.
Graham called the deal a “huge lost opportunity”. He said the deal allows Iran to remain on the edge of a breakout for producing nuclear weapons.
Graham is not alone. The governments of Saudi Arabia and Israel are both critical of the agreement, albeit for different reasons.
S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis was subjected to another attack by the good ole boys at the S.C. Retirement System Investment Commission last week when staffer and former state senator Greg Ryberg went on a 20 minute rant against him during a commission meeting last week.
SCRSIC chairman Reynolds Williams would not allow Loftis to respond to Ryberg’s mouthing off, which seems to be a new tactic to attempt to wear Loftis down.
Loftis is the only member of the commission who questions the expenses and results of the SCRSIC, so he is the only member who is truly representing the citizens of South Carolina.
The Horry County Infrastructure and Regulation Committee voted unanimously Thursday to remove construction and demolition waste from regulation under the county’s solid waste flow control ordinance.
The amended ordinance will now go to full council with a recommendation for approval. It will take three readings from council to make the amendment law.
The committee vote is a victory for small business and a reigning in of large, monopolistic government regulation of private business.
By Paul Gable Buried in a decision yesterday in which the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a restrictive Texas abortion law to be enforced, while the constitutionality of the law is decided, is the concept of irreparable harm to states. Specifically, the concept is stated from a 2013 Supreme Court decision […]
The Horry County Council Infrastructure and Regulation Committee will consider an amendment to the county’s solid waste flow control ordinance at its meeting Thursday.
According to a source familiar with the change, the amendment will remove the requirement for construction and demolition debris to be disposed at the Horry County Solid Waste Authority landfill on Highway 90.
If the amendment is favorably reported out of committee to full council, which is expected, a three reading ordinance amendment will have to pass county council to make the change official.
Sen. Vincent Sheheen got in the middle of the ethics reform debate in South Carolina with a letter to Sen. Luke Rankin, chairman of the S.C. Senate Ethics Committee.
In his letter, Sheheen, a Democrat who is expected to oppose Gov. Nikki Haley next fall in a rematch of the 2010 gubernatorial election, advocates stopping “constant abuses in order to clean up our state government.”
Specifically Sheheen advocates barring the use of the state airplane, state cars or any other state vehicles from being for political purposes including carrying political staff to events or for conducting fundraising activities.
Horry County Council has received information requested from Coast RTA, Myrtle Beach Economic Development Corporation and Horry County Solid Waste Authority regarding compensation packages for the CEO of each.
Each agency receives public dollar funding from Horry County and how that funding was allocated became an issue at last week’s Horry County Council fall budget workshop.
Actually, the compensation for Coast RTA CEO Myers Rollins was questioned by council member Gary Loftus. When charges of possible racism were leveled over the questions, inquiries were expanded to include MBREDC CEO Brad Lofton and HCSWA CEO Danny Knight.
After last week’s contretemps with Coast RTA board members, Horry County Council has decided to request salary, benefit and other information from additional agencies funded with county tax dollars.
The Horry County Solid Waste Authority and Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation were asked to provide salary and benefit compensation for the CEO and senior staff as well as expense account information.
Even though the action was ‘a day late and a dollar short’ for combating the impression that Coast RTA was singled out by county council last week, it is the proper action to take.
A state law that forces rollbacks of millage in reassessment years, so local governments do not benefit from rising property values, appears to mandate a tax increase if property values fall.
That is the conundrum facing Horry County Council as it begins its fall budget retreat today.
A June 2011 opinion from the office of the S.C. Attorney General notes in its conclusion that state law, specifically sections 12-37-251 and 6-1-320, was enacted to protect taxpayers by rolling back millage when property values rise due to reassessment.
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