Politics

Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

The Devious SC General Assembly

The disconnect between the SC General Assembly and local political sub-divisions is highlighted by excess state budget appropriations.

House bill H 4320 amends the FY 2016 budget bill, H 3701, to appropriate excess state revenues certified by the SC Board of Economic Advisors.

Dealing with just three sections of H 4320 demonstrates how devious the SC General Assembly remains in limiting the ability of local governments to fund their services while taking care of its members.

According to H 4320, the SC Board of Economic Advisors has certified recurring general fund revenue for FY 2016 of $150 million (Section 1). This is additional recurring money that was not anticipated at the beginning of the legislative year.

In addition, the board certified $150.2 million in excess revenue collected during the current fiscal year (Section 3).

Those two excess revenues total slightly over $300 million.

But, that isn’t enough for the SC General Assembly. In Section 5 of the bill, state legislators reduced the state contribution to the Local Government Fund by $20.425 million.

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General Assembly Failing Citizens Again

The South Carolina No One Mentions

“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I love South Carolina.

I love the fact that in a matter of a few hours I can be in the mountains or along the coast and never have to leave the state.

Great football is divided by only a few hours, and there is arguably no greater scenery anywhere with pink azaleas, Angel Oak trees blowing in a cool breeze, and yes, of course, the Palmetto trees and a crescent moon setting.

South Carolina is Charleston, the Grand Strand, Columbia and Greenville.

It’s where my family has called home since 1983, where I lost my mother to cancer and where I graduated from college, met my wife and got my first start in journalism.

It’s home to the Loris Bog-Off Festival, the Irmo Okra Strut, and the Prosperity’s Hoppin’ Fest.

It’s the home of Due West, Green Sea, Fair Play, Ketchuptown, Ninety Six and Wide Awake.

In case you haven’t figured it out, South Carolina is the home to many amazing things.

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Gingrich, Myrtle Beach, Oil and Interstates

Community Forum on Off-shore Drilling

A community forum on off-shore drilling will be held at the North Myrtle Beach Historical Museum June 23, 2015 beginning at 5 p.m.

The forum is being presented by a local grassroots volunteer organization formed in response to the Obama administration’s proposal to open the mid- and south-Atlantic waters to seismic testing and deep water drilling for off-shore oil & gas by the petroleum industry.

Called Stop Off-shore Drilling in the Atlantic – Prevent Oil Pollution, or by the acronym SODAPOP, this grassroots organization will have Peg Howell, a former petroleum engineer with experience working on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, as the featured speaker June 23rd.

South Carolina has been one of the states pushing for oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic despite the state’s reliance on tourism on the Grand Strand and Hilton Head.

Only Rep. Mark Sanford opposes off-shore gas and oil exploration among our federal legislators and Gov. Nikki Haley joins the group listening more to the oil industry lobbyists than environmentalists.

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Horry County Council Tax Explosion

It is now official, the tax and spend Republicans on Horry County Council passed the largest tax increase in a generation last night.

Nothing changed from the budget that passed at second reading. There will be a countywide tax increase of 7.2 mils more for the general fund. The countywide road fee increased from $30 to $50 per vehicle and county building permit fees increased.

The Republican “Gang of Five” who voted to increase taxes consists of chairman Mark Lazarus, and council members Al Allen, Johnny Vaught, Bill Howard and Gary Loftus. Democrat James Frazier made the sixth vote in the 6-5 decision.

Of the six members who voted for it, five (all but Loftus) were elected to their current terms in November 2014, so it will be over three years before they have to face the voters for reelection. There is speculation Loftus may not be planning to run again so his term ending next year may not matter in having to answer for being a tax and spender.

Despite campaign pledges to “oppose new taxes”, “keep property taxes low”, “listen to the taxpayers” and support TEA Party goals, Lazarus, Vaught, Howard and Allen (respectively) make the term conservative Republican virtually extinct in Horry County and, in their particular cases, an oxymoron.

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Passing Bad Tax Increase Legislation

There is nothing more irritating to me, than Legislators who don’t read vital pieces of legislation but just pass it into law.

The dumb remark from one time speaker of the U S House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, “you have to pass it, to know what’s in it”, has now resonated with our Horry County Council members.

Our esteemed County Council members are going to vote on increasing the property taxes, to the maximum rate provided by law, and most of them have not read the legislation, nor have any conception of what is in the legislation they are about to pass.

The one Council member who is a Friend of the Taxpayer, Harold Worley, does know where the money is going. Worley had a withering exchange with Horry County Administrator Chris Eldridge on how, where, and why the increased funds, are going to be appropriated and spent.

Interesting, to note is that Eldridge’s salary will be increased $10,000 per year for the next four years amounting to $40,000.00 at a time when the County is asking everyone to tighten their belts for austerity. These my friends are our County Council Republican members in action.

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Case for Property Tax Increase Not Made

Justifying or attempting to justify an unnecessary tax increase has become something of a cottage industry in Conway this week.

A few County Councilmen have nearly tripped over themselves trying to come up with more and better reasons for supporting one of Council’s biggest tax hikes in a generation. Their efforts to explain this tax hike to taxpayers runs the gamut from unconvincing to just plain silly.

We are told that this situation is an emergency and that this budget must be passed on Tuesday night in order to meet the June 30 deadline. But the inconvenient truth is this “disaster” is one that Council has created. They got themselves into a pickle, and now they want an easy way out. And one of the easiest ways out, as always, is to ask taxpayers for more money. But as the old saying goes, “poor planning on your part does not make for an emergency on my part!”

The fact is, when it was presented for first reading, the 2016 budget did not contain a tax increase. So where did this tax increase come from? Well, it turns out that the first reading of the budget, which gave a whopping pay raise to County Administrator Chris Eldridge, while at the same time cutting benefits for firemen, police, and other county employees, wasn’t very popular politically with most anyone except for the County Administrator. That may not shock you. It apparently shocked many on Council.

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Towering Political Egos

Towering political egos are the bane of sensible political discussion and of the ability of a politician to take a reflective look at him or herself.

It doesn’t take long for the average politician to believe that anyone criticizing them is wrong by definition and that any criticism of them is a mean-spirited personal attack.

Too often this attitude is the result of an inner insecurity that is masked by a false confidence and arrogance.

No, this isn’t meant to be a column on the psychology of politicians. The above is merely an expression of my conclusions over many years of observing the political scene, criticizing many statements, decisions and votes and watching the reactions of those politicians involved.

Word has reached me that I bruised a few egos again this week.

Evidently I hurt some feelings when I called Cam Crawford the stealth candidate for dodging candidate forums in the current Horry County Council District 6 Republican special primary campaign.

I have even been told Crawford’s wife, Rep. Heather Ammons Crawford, was making statements about being mad not only at me, but also at political consultant Donald Smith.

Mad at me for writing that Cam should not be a political candidate if he was unwilling to answer questions from the public and engage voters and the other candidates and mad at Smith for not stopping me from writing those statements.

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Stop the Horry County Council Tax Increase

The tax increase FY 2016 budget of Horry County Council remains a major topic of conversation throughout the county.

Council will vote on third reading of what could be the largest Horry County tax increase in a generation at its regular meeting Tuesday June 16, 2015.

Why it all became necessary within the last month is the real story.

During both the fall and spring budget retreats of Horry County Council, as well as first reading of the budget, the discussion was of a balanced budget with no tax increase.

Then, council voted a new contract for county administrator Chris Eldridge with annual pay increases of $10,000 and a six month severance package. The only thing Eldridge is guaranteed is the severance package as council can vote to terminate him at any time, but, if he remains for several years, he will receive annual increases of $10,000.

Upset at the possible pay increases for Eldridge, the county employees, especially those in public safety departments, began an organized campaign of calling council members to complain.

A majority of Horry County Council members were intimidated enough to completely restructure the budget to include somewhere in excess of $4 million for a pay increase for all county employees. (The county has still not answered our request for the total amount being dedicated to the pay increase.)

To mask their intimidation, those council members supporting the tax increase have verbalized things like a shrinking excess reserve fund and the need to better pay public safety employees as their justification for the tax increase.

But, nothing has really changed from first reading of the budget. No tax increase is needed this year. And nothing in the budget increase will pay for new HCPD patrol officers meaning no reduction in response times or increased community policing will result from this massive increase.

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Horry County Council District 6 Forum

The South Strand Republican Club hosted a candidate forum Tuesday night for those seeking the Horry County Council District 6 Republican special primary nomination.

As has been the norm over six forums held throughout the district during this special election campaign, five candidates, Blaine Garren, Ric Coates, Chris Stephens, Cary Rowell and Kirk Hanna, showed up.

The sixth (alleged) candidate in the race, Cam Crawford, remained conspicuous by his absence from any forum where he would have to answer questions and engage in debate with the other candidates in the race.

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Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

SC General Assembly Ongoing Road Problems

The effort to find funding to fix the state’s roads will be the elephant in the room when the SC General Assembly convenes in January 2016.

With several road bills already in the legislative process, how to mix a possible gas tax increase with other proposals in an election year will cause big problems for legislators.

An astute political observer I have known for a long time predicts no road maintenance bill will be passed next year because of the elections.

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