Author: Paul Gable

Flow Control Divides Horry County Pols

Internecine warfare among politicians over the issue of waste stream flow control is the current dominant issue of political discussion in Horry County.

The most recent round of the verbal battle over flow control began at last Tuesday night’s county council meeting when council voted 11-0 to support a resolution that urged state lawmakers to drop legislation that would allow free market capitalism in the waste industry and, instead, allow flow control, which is really monopoly government control, of the garbage generated in the county and the state.

A new round of flow control discussions took place at yesterday’s Committee of the Whole meeting of Horry County Council and will again be a subject of discussion when council holds a joint meeting with the Horry County delegation of state legislators Friday.

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Tax Credits for School Choice, Dividends for All

More than 15,000 low-income students attend private schools in South Carolina. Their parents scrimp and save. They make sacrifices. They’ve put their children’s education at the top of the family’s financial priority list.

Those parents also pay taxes. More than $8.5 million this year in state income taxes alone.

Much larger than their contribution to the government coffers is the sum they save other taxpayers. If those 15,000 students enrolled in public schools and were funded at the rate of the existing public school students, it would cost state taxpayers more than $72 million. Taxpayers below the $35,000 income class would not pick up that slack; it would be borne by those with deeper pockets.

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I&R Committee Hears Railroad Update

The Horry County Infrastructure and Regulation Committee heard an update on the Carolina Southern Railroad last week as the railroad looks to restart service.

Carolina Southern voluntarily shut down operations August 30, 2011, after new Federal Railroad Administration regulations identified issues with bridges along the railroad’s lines.

“We have put millions of dollars into bridges over the last couple of years,” said General Manager Jason Pippin. “However, we still have issues with three strategically located bridges that are keeping us from running.”

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Hate Has An Evil Face

hate has an evil face

a putrid taste
it reeks of weakness
and is such a waste
of human potential
even the sound of the word
has such a harsh tone to it

hate is a cancer on
the face of mankind
it creates havoc
destroying everything
in it’s way
yes, hate has a very evil face.

— by Faith Elizabeth Brigham

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Open Letter to Horry County Council

The following letter was sent in e-mail form to all members of Horry County Council by an Horry County resident and taxpayer. A copy was provided to Grand Strand Daily. The author expresses his experiences through the years with applying for a job at our newest economic development incentive recipient AvCraft.

Dear Sir or Madam

My name is Andy McCormack and I have been a resident and tax payer of Horry County for 14 years, I have owned a home in Horry County for 13 years and I have 26.5 years as a skilled aircraft painter and 3.5 years of aircraft wire harness fabrication/installation experience. In 1996 I received my permanent residency visa from US immigration based on my skills and experience as an aircraft painter.

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Horry County Police Changing at Top (Updated 2/10)

With the SLED investigation of the Horry County Police Department complete and the Attorney General’s Office finding nothing of prosecutorial merit in the findings, the Horry County Police Department is now in position to move on to a new beginning.

With the investigation exonerating the police department and its evidence handling procedures, Chief Johnny Morgan will soon announce his retirement. Sources tell Grand Strand Daily that Morgan has been in the process of cleaning out his office and was just waiting for the investigation to be completed so he would not retire under a cloud of suspicion.

According to sources close to the department, Assistant Chief David Beatty’s days are also numbered. Beatty is rumored to not be the choice to replace Morgan and he has been applying for positions in other departments around the state.

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Loftis and the High Cost of Political Courage

What happens when a newly elected South Carolina official tries to bring openness and accountability to the management of the state’s retirement system investment commission?

He finds himself in the news after “documents” are leaked, to the Associated Press, in which a possible “pay to play” scheme is mentioned and a SLED investigation is requested by the SC Attorney General’s office.

Looking at it another way, S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis finds himself in a political knife fight for trying to buck South Carolina’s “good ol’ boy” system.

Loftis has been a critic of the management of the state’s pension fund for much of his 13 months as treasurer. On January 31, 2012, Loftis outlined problems associated with the pension fund during testimony to the Senate Finance Retirement Committee.

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County Employees Could See Pay Raise

Horry County employees have not had a raise in the past three budget years, but that could change in the upcoming year. A majority of council members currently seem inclined to include an employee pay raise in the FY 2013 budget.

The county has weathered three difficult budget years and is currently running an approximately $9 million surplus in this year’s budget. It’s not that revenues are making a real comeback, it’s more that county government has significantly cut expenses over the past three years.

Much of the blame for local budget shortfall in the past three years can be laid at the feet of the state General Assembly. When Act 388 was passed in 2006, eliminating owner occupied homes from property taxes that funded school operating budgets, the state raised the sales tax one penny, promising to fund school operating costs from the state budget.

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Live from Indianapolis, Super Bowl Week

(Editor’s note: This post was submitted by a Horry County native who now writes for a daily newspaper in the Indianapolis, Indiana suburban market. As he is also my son, I asked him to share his thoughts on covering his first Super Bowl Week with Grand Strand Daily.)

As a young sports fan in middle and high school, I rooted for Deion Sanders at Florida State and Michael Irvin with the Cowboys. Tuesday I got to meet both up close and personal as we all now share the tag “media” at the events in and around Lucas Oil Stadium this week in the run up to Super Bowl XLVI Sunday.

Sanders and Irvin were both great athletes, but they are even better as human beings – funny, witty, down to earth and more than willing to share a little time talking with those of us covering our first Super Bowl Week.

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New Policy Needed for County Transportation Committee Funds

The spotlight that shined last week on the controversial proposed paving of Goldmine Road illuminated the need for a new policy governing the way state transportation “C” funds are disbursed and used in Horry County.

“C” funds come from 2.66 cents of the 16 cents per gallon state tax on gasoline and are apportioned to the counties according to a formula established in state law. They are collected by the S.C. Department of Revenue and Taxation and are deposited in the County Transportation Fund in the state Treasury until they are disbursed.

According to state law, 25 percent of the funds must be spent on the state highway system for construction, maintenance or improvements of state roads. The remainder may be spent for paving or improving local roads, traffic and street signs, road resurfacing, sidewalk construction and drainage improvements.

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