Tag: Horry County

Horry County Government vs. Strip Clubs

Once again yielding to its ‘grow big government instincts,’ Horry County government is preparing to launch an attack on strip clubs with an apparent goal of shutting the clubs down throughout the county.

The initiative is not coming from county council even though several members are now attempting to wrap themselves in a morals protection flag. This is a county government staff driven initiative as a panic reaction to a current suit in federal court.

The current county ordinance governing adult entertainment businesses is expected to be struck down as unconstitutional in federal court in the near future.

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Residents to Horry County – “Raise Our Taxes”

Faced with the possibility of a 3.5 mill tax increase, for those living in the unincorporated areas of Horry County, residents descended on county council chambers last night to beg for an almost double tax increase than was initially proposed.

Speaker after speaker came to the microphone, during public input on the county’s budget deliberations, to beg for higher taxes, higher even than the politicians were considering.

When the issue was settled, council voted 7-5 to raise taxes by 6 mills in the unincorporated areas of the county to fund improvements in fire services, mostly in the rural western part of the county.

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Rising Taxes in Horry County

It now looks virtually certain that the new fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2013, will include increased taxes on the unincorporated areas of Horry County.

County council is expected to raise taxes by 3.5 mills in the unincorporated areas to fund new fire equipment and to fill some currently vacant positions.

The increase will amount to approximately $14 per $100,000 valuation on owner occupied homes, which will provide approximately $3.5 million in new revenue.

If these upgrades are not made to county fire service, council members say the county’s ISO rating will increase, especially in the rural areas, causing homeowners to pay higher fire insurance premiums.

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Our Other Left

Those of you who have had the pleasure of going through basic training in the military can probably remember, as I do, the comic relief invariably provided by ‘our other left’ while learning how to drill.

Inevitably one or two members of a company will forget that you step out on your left foot and will be out of step while a drill instructor is running alongside yelling ‘NO, your other left idiot, your other left’, or something to that effect.

Some people just seem to be born with two left feet.

We are having a similar problem in South Carolina with local and state government. We seem to be suffering from two left wings.

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Carolina Southern Railroad

Carolina Southern Railroad Heist?

An unofficial committee of three local counties passed two resolutions Wednesday calling for new ownership for the Carolina Southern Railroad while acknowledging the railroad is essential for Horry and Marion counties in South Carolina and Columbus County, NC.

Grandly calling itself the “‘Interstate Railroad Committee of North and South Carolina’, this group of public officials representing several communities and three counties across two states, with no legal basis, has finally come out of the closet with its true purpose.

That purpose is to wrest ownership of the railroad from Ken Pippin and his family.

Since when, in America, is it the purpose of one government or a group of governments to decide who should own a private business?

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The Case Against Flow Control

A bill that would make flow control illegal in South Carolina currently rests in the S.C. Senate Rules Committee awaiting a majority vote to put it on the calendar for full Senate vote.

Flow control is the term that means establishing monopoly control over the flow of the solid waste stream in an area, in this case a county.

It is illegal for private companies to establish flow control over a waste stream, but, currently, not for county government to do so. Horry County currently has a flow control ordinance in place that makes its Horry County Solid Waste Authority the monopoly arbiter over county waste.

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Gingrich, Myrtle Beach, Oil and Interstates

Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was in Myrtle Beach earlier this week to push an initiative for oil and gas drilling off the coast of South Carolina.

Gingrich spoke at a forum of oil and gas industry representatives who want Congress to allow exploratory drilling and development of possible offshore oil and gas resources.

One of the issues at the forefront of talks about oil and gas drilling off the U.S. coast is the number of high paying jobs such economic activity will bring to the area.

If those types of jobs would become available, it would certainly help the Horry County area which consistently ranks dead last in average worker income among the 335 largest counties in the nation.

The irony here is that wage levels in Horry County have been consistently depressed because of the tourism industry. It’s just over 50 years ago that Horry County business leaders met with then Sen. Strom Thurmond to stop plans for extending I-20 to the coast. They worried an interstate would bring industrial development that would rob them of low wage workers in the hotels, restaurants and tobacco fields in the county.

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Accommodations Tax Fuels MB Chamber Greed

When Horry County Council begins in-depth considerations of next year’s budget later this week, the question of how much accommodations tax revenue goes to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce will be a major point of discussion.

While the accommodations tax concept is to help meet the costs of expanded services required by the introduction of millions of visitors to an area, the state law allowing accommodations tax collections requires 30 percent of the revenue generated to be spent on tourism marketing. This provision was one of the trade-offs put in the law to get the buy-in of the tourism lobby.

For a number of years, that 30 percent, approximately $2.3 million from the unincorporated areas of the county, has gone to the Chamber in a block to spend on its marketing efforts.

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The Independent Socialist Republic of Horry

For years, Horry County prided itself on being known as the “Independent Republic,” but now that name appears to be changing to the “Independent Socialist Republic of Horry.”

The conversion began in early 2009 when Horry County government established a monopoly on solid waste disposal in the county benefitting the government established Horry County Solid Waste Authority and seriously impacting small, private waste hauling companies and their employees.

That issue is now at the state level as legislators attempt to pass the “Business Freedom to Choose Act”, which would make illegal government monopolies in the marketplace.

The act has successfully passed the S.C. House, but appears to be bogged down in the S.C. Senate.

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Government Monopoly Fever Spreading…

The urge to establish a government monopoly in sectors of the economy seems to be getting irresistible for local governments in South Carolina.

Currently this trend is being seen in county flow control ordinances that force municipalities and private waste haulers to dispose of their collected garbage and other solid waste at landfills owned or designated by county government.

Why is this such a big deal?

Because it supports inefficiently run government landfills and costs taxpayers money.

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