Author: Paul Gable

Nikki Haley Ethics Case Won’t Make Difference

Haley Ethics Case Won’t Make Difference

The S.C. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear an appeal of whether a circuit court judge erred when he refused to hear a lawsuit concerning alleged ethics violations by Gov. Nikki Haley when she was a state legislator.

Judge Casey Manning ruled state courts were not the proper venue to hear alleged ethics violations. Rather he said ethics regulators should hear the case. The complaint was heard by the S.C. House Ethics Committee twice, behind closed doors in May and in open session in June. Both times, the committee excused Haley’s actions.

This case says everything that needs to be said about the lack of ethics in S.C. governments.

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Treasurer Curtis Loftis Delivers Cash Money

Treasurer Curtis Loftis Delivers Cash Money

The South Carolina Office of State Treasurer returned $12.6 million to people during fiscal year 2011 and with one month down already for fiscal year 2013, the office is hard at work finding the owners of unclaimed millions.

The $300 million in unclaimed property typically is in the form of old, unclaimed tax refund checks, inheritances, deposits, insurance payments and bank accounts.

State Treasurer Curtis Loftis Jr., is on a mission to find the owners of that money and occasionally takes his show, the Palmetto Payback Hometown Tour, on the road, such as Tuesday’s stop at Bazen’s Family Restaurant.

“We’ve got a lot of money that belongs here,” Loftis said. “We’ve been doing this for a long time, the treasurer’s office has, but we built up a reserve of $300 million and if we’re going to give that money back to its rightful owners, I’ve got to get out and hit the streets.”

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S.C. Budget and Control Board

S.C. Budget and Control Board Ignored Law?

A USC chemistry professor has sued some of the state’s most powerful politicians, asking the courts to put to rest a lingering question in state government: Who is in charge?

Thomas A. Bryson, director of graduate studies for USC’s chemistry and biochemistry department, filed a class-action lawsuit in Richland County on behalf of all state employees, challenging the State Budget and Control Board’s 3-2 decision last week to make state workers pay more for their health insurance, starting next year.

The budget board’s move, proposed by Gov. Nikki Haley and praised by some taxpayer groups, would save the state $5.8 million but cost the average state worker or retiree an extra $7.24 a month.

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Time to Rethink Government Cheese in South Carolina

Time to Rethink Government in S.C.

The vote last week by the state Budget and Control Board to slightly increase out of pocket contributions for health insurance premiums of local and state public agency employees has raised interesting questions about government in South Carolina.

The General Assembly included $20.5 million in the FY 2013 state budget to pay for health insurance premium increases for the 234,363 state and local public agency employees covered by the state health insurance plan.

The B&CB voted to have the employees covered by the plan participate in the premium increases to the tune of a $7.25 per month. Now some state legislators are crying foul on the B&CB saying the agency acted illegally.

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Homeless in Myrtle Beach – Arbeit Macht Frei

The homeless population in Myrtle Beach is an inconvenient problem for the city fathers (and mothers). It’s not good advertising for the tourists to see homeless on our streets and they sure aren’t welcome at the Dunes Club.

What to do? It seems like the powers that be in the city are falling back on an old European approach to the problem of dealing with people who are out of a job and homeless.

Arbeit Macht Frei, literally translates as labour makes free. More generally it means ‘work sets you free’ or ‘labour brings you freedom’. The slogan was cynically placed over the gates of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.

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State Farmer’s Market Controversy Continues

The purchase of land for “Phase Two” of the State Farmer’s Market remains on the political radar of S.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers and Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell, according to op-eds they each published in state newspapers last month.

A late attempt to get $16 million in the FY 2013 state budget to purchase additional land at the farmer’s market from private interests drew the attention of many familiar with the issue. The Senate proposed the $16 million, but, fortunately, the House wouldn’t agree and the proposed purchase died in conference committee at the end of the legislative year.

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Nikki Haley Ethics Case Won’t Make Difference

B&CB Splits Health Insurance Increases

Two months after the S.C. General Assembly put the entire increase in health insurance premiums for state and local government workers on the backs of South Carolina taxpayers, the S.C. Budget and Control Board voted 3-2 to split the increase between government employees and taxpayers.

Gov. Nikki Haley, Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and Treasurer Curtis Loftis voted in favor of the split. The B&CB’s two lawmakers, Sen. Hugh Leatherman and Rep. Brian White, voted against it.

The vote of the B&CB will have the effect of increasing government employee premiums approximately $7.25 per month while saving taxpayers approximately $5.8 million.

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Two Republican Candidates Cleared for Ballot

Two Republican Candidates Cleared for Ballot

Two Dorchester County Republican candidates were cleared to be on the November general election ballot Monday when a lawsuit challenging their certification was dismissed by Circuit Judge Howard King.

Ed Carter, Republican nominee for House District 97 and Carroll Duncan nominee for Dorchester County Council District 5 will be on the November ballot. GOP candidate Sean Bennett, who defeated incumbent GOP Sen. Mike Rose in the June primary for Senate District 38, still awaits a ruling from King on his status.

This case has been bizarre from the beginning. After the June 12th primary balloting, the Dorchester County Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the county and state GOP and the county and state election commission claiming Republican non-incumbent candidates had not filed candidacy paperwork properly.

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Economic Development Secret Revealed

The hoped for home run from Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation was reduced to a bunt single when it was revealed the secret Project Blue is really just a 1,000 job call center.

County council debated the project behind closed doors in executive session for two weeks, before council member Gary Loftus and EDC CEO Brad Lofton made the details of the project public in an interview with the Myrtle Beach Herald last week? Why all the initial secrecy?

A 1,000 job call center project that offers $14 per hour to employees while it receives $24-$30 million of combined incentives is about as good as it is going to get for Horry County economic development. At least that is what Loftus told the Herald last week.

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Kiawah Island Hosts PGA Championship This Week

Kiawah Island Hosts PGA Championship

Pete Dye won’t forget the gushing praise he heard from just about everyone about his new creation, The Ocean Course, as the world’s best players got ready for the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island in weather that was perfect for golf.

Then the wind blew in from the Atlantic Ocean, and that changed everything.

“They had a heck of time,” Dye said with a chuckle. “The trouble they had on those par 3s was unbelievable.”

It has taken more than two decades of tweaks _ all overseen by Dye _ and the PGA of America’s resolve to again make the feared course a showcase for the strongest field in golf for the PGA Championship, the final major of the year.

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