Author: Paul Gable

Horry County Slows New Strip Club Law

Momentum for a new strip club ordinance being considered by Horry County Council is slowing as some council members are realizing there are better ways to spend tax dollars than defending bad laws in court.

This is not to say that Horry does not need a new ordinance governing the licensing and operations of strip clubs. It does. The current ordinance is expected to be struck down as unconstitutional in federal court as part of a lawsuit the county currently finds itself having to defend.

But, the realization that replacing one bad ordinance with another will only bring ever spiraling attorney’s fees is beginning to dawn on some council members.

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Myrtle Beach International Airport

Chicken Strips, Clam Chowder and MBIA Master Plan

A new airport master plan update is being proposed for Myrtle Beach International Airport. Horry County council’s Administration Committee will hear about it Friday at the MBIA conference room.

Will it be time for a new chicken strips and clam chowder agreement?

It is fair to say that anyone who does not know the details of the last chicken strips and clam chowder agreement should not be discussing a new airport master plan. This includes our current airport department staff.

The last airport master plan update for MBIA was completed just five years ago. Among other things, it restricted the airport to one runway and provided for an expansion of the existing passenger terminal on the east side of the runway.

Instead of expanding the existing terminal for $40 – $50 million, Horry County Council allowed itself to be persuaded into approving a $120 million terminal “enhancement” project, which really meant a new passenger terminal with some refurbishment and new uses for the old terminal.

That wasn’t too hard, it wasn’t their money council was spending.

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Obesity Problem

The Beaufort County Obesity Problem

URGENT – ACTION NEEDED MONDAY, JUNE 10TH

** We need to pack the meeting tomorrow!

The County Council meeting tomorrow, Monday, June 10 at 5pm in the County Council Chambers, Ribaut Street.

On the Agenda are THREE, Yes, THREE tax increases.
1% Sales Tax – Ballot Referendum
Property Tax Roll Forward – Part of the New Budget being voted on
4.86% Property Tax Millage Rate Increase – Part of the New Budget being voted on

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Obamas-1984

Liberty, Mother’s Milk and the Poison Pill [Poll]

We found out over the past week that the constitutionally guaranteed privacy, civil liberties and freedoms of U.S. citizens have been effectively assigned to the scrap heap by our own government.

Okay. For nearly 100 years, the U.S. government has sought to spy on American citizens through a variety of programs, most of which can be tied to the Department of Justice and FBI reign ever since J. Edgar Hoover got the nod from Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to establish the DOJ’s Intelligence Division in 1919.

It took Hoover less than a year to collect files on over 150,000 American citizens who, through his perverted sense of propriety, were considered a threat to the U.S. government. Those files were amassed in the days when typewriters were the most modern piece of equipment in government offices, a telephone in a private house was still somewhat of a novelty and the Model T Ford was only 10 years old.

But, Hoover demonstrated how quickly a small government department, with the help of private citizens spying and informing on each other, could invade the lives of American citizens.

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Big Brother 30 Years Beyond 1984

George Orwell’s “Big Brother” is alive and well in the U.S. government 30 years beyond 1984, but I’m not sure even Orwell ever anticipated the level of the current actions.

Another attack, by “Big Brother”, on U.S. citizens’ right to privacy and guarantees of freedom from illegal search and seizure was reported by the “Guardian” and “Washington Times” newspapers recently regarding requests for cell phone records from Verizon.

Those revelations were bad enough, but we later learned, from “The Hill”, that senators knew about these vast phone sweeping operations by the National Security Agency, which have been going on since 2007.

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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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The FBI and Eric Holder

The FBI and Eric Holder

In consequence of the recent illegal investigations of journalists by the FBI, the question is being asked ‘is it time for Attorney General Eric Holder to go?’

The more important question is whether it is time for the FBI to go?

Through a combination of successful propaganda and sympathetic journalism, the FBI is mythologized as the world’s number one law enforcement agency.

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Gaming the City of Columbia Budget

Gaming the City of Columbia Budget

One look at the Columbia city budget deliberations tells you it’s an election year in the city.

Council recently pledged a two percent, across the board pay raise for all city employees in next year’s budget and even more for fire and police.

The firefighters received a 3.3 percent pay raise retroactive to January 1, 2013. Approximately 400 police officers and seventy 911 dispatchers will receive an additional 3.3 percent mid-year pay raise in January 2014.

History proves there is no better way to get city employees on the side of incumbent council members than to give them a pay raise in an election year.

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SWA Looking for New Flow Control Guarantees

While the South Carolina “Business Freedom to Choose Act” (H3290) remains stalled in a Senate committee, the Horry County Solid Waste Authority is making other plans to continue its flow control monopoly on solid waste disposal generated within the county borders in case the act should eventually pass.

The SWA is going to certain private haulers offering tipping fee discounts if the haulers will sign long term contracts to bring their waste to the SWA’s Hwy 90 landfill. This new “disposal agreement” would essentially keep flow control of solid waste in place for the SWA if it is outlawed by the General Assembly.

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