Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Duane Lewis Wins Berkeley County Sheriff Election
It was a bit closer than expected, but Duane Lewis is the new Berkeley County Sheriff.
Lewis captured 47% of the votes cast with write-ins garnering 33% and Democrat Anthony Smalls finishing third with 20% of the vote.
The Republican Liberty Caucus is circulating a petition opposing the proposed Horry County Council 7.2 mil tax increase.
According to the information we have received, the petition will be presented to Horry County Council members prior to third reading of the FY 2016 budget scheduled for council’s June 16, 2015 regular meeting.
This is the type of taxpayer involvement in the budget process that is needed to let Horry County Council members know their spendthrift ways are being watched.
The petition makes a solid case in noting that this is not the time for a tax increase for county businesses and residents since Horry County still has 7.7% unemployed. Raising taxes will not stimulate the economy to, hopefully, create new jobs.
Regardless of what has been publicized about diminishing county excess reserves and public safety needs, this tax increase is all about giving an across the board pay increase to all county employees.
According to the county’s briefing documents, a total of nearly $3 million additional dollars will be added to the county general fund to pay the 1,631 county employees paid from the general fund.
This group already earns $57,177 in pay and benefits per year on the average with a total of at least 34 paid days off each year.
The county has not responded to a request to provide the numbers on the total additional dollars that will be spent on the pay increase. Approximately 600 county employees are paid from funds other than the general fund.
Therefore, the amount of tax dollars expended on pay increases will be significantly more than the nearly $3 million already documented.
The $57,177 average salary and benefits package for county employees is far greater than private sector employees in Horry County receive in average pay and benefits – $44,779 according to the petition.
Why should those who earn less on average (private sector) get taxed more to fund a pay increase for those who already earn more on average (public sector)?
Something about that just doesn’t pass the smell test.
It can be argued that the SC General Assembly is at least partially responsible for a large tax increase being considered in Horry County.
There is something called the Local Government Fund that is mandated by state law. It evolved from a group of taxes due to cities and counties collected by the state government.
To simplify the return of this money, the SC General Assembly, in 1991, passed a law that states 4.5 percent of the previous fiscal year’s general fund revenue must be divided between counties (83.3%) and cities (16.7%) based on population.
This Local Government Fund may not be cut below the 4.5% level without separate and specific legislation being passed.
In many years at least since 2000, the SC General Assembly passed an annual legislative exception (separate and specific legislation) to the 4.5% required Local Government Fund.
Why?
Because a significant number of members in both houses of the SC General Assembly hate local government and would like to see Home Rule done away with.
Since the passage of Act 388 of 2006, the SC General Assembly has directly interfered with local governments’ ability to fund local services and has used the annual exceptions to LGF amounts to continue to further restrict local government revenues.
June 4, 2015
House Adjourns Regular Legislative Session for 2015
(Columbia, SC) – House Speaker Jay Lucas (District 65-Darlington) released the following statement after the House adjourned Sine Die. By law, the South Carolina General Assembly is required to complete its legislative business by 5pm on the first Thursday in June. The adopted Sine Die resolution recognizes the completion of business, but allows the House of Representatives to return in the coming weeks to debate and consider gubernatorial vetoes, conference reports and budgetary matters.
At the beginning of the year, Speaker Lucas outlined four priorities for this year’s legislative session: (1) Infrastructure reform, (2) Ethics reform, (3) Criminal domestic violence reform, and (4) Education reform.
“The House of Representatives kept our promises to the people of South Carolina and we did everything we said we would do. We overwhelmingly passed a three-part roads bill that reforms the Department of Transportation and puts forth a responsible plan to fix our roads. We rallied around domestic violence survivors by working with the Senate to pass a bill that protects our citizens from senseless abuse. We reformed our ethics laws to restore public confidence in elected officials. And we continue to work on an education improvement package so that every child in every part of our state will be given access to a twenty-first century education. The progress made on these issues is a reflection of the steadfast efforts our members put forth over the last nine months.
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Contact: Caroline Delleney
(803) 734-3125
[email protected]
Horry County Council is spending your tax dollars like a bunch of drunken sailors making a port call.
The council voted 6-5 to amend the FY 2016 budget to include a countywide tax increase of 7.2 mils for the general fund, to increase the business license fees and to raise the road fee to $50 for every vehicle registered in the county.
Council chairman Mark Lazarus was joined by council members Al Allen, Bill Howard, Johnny Vaught, Gary Loftus, and James Frazier in voting yes for the tax increase.
This is an increase of 20% on general fund operating millage and 67% on the vehicle road fee. The increase of 7.2 mils for the general fund is the maximum limit allowed by state law or council probably would have gone higher.
This comes on top of a 6 mil tax increase (50%) for the fire fund in all the unincorporated areas of the county approved two years ago.
And not that many years before, council added 3 mils (100%) to the waste recycling fee in the unincorporated areas of the county.
It used to be if you lived in the city you could expect fairly routine tax increases, albeit for a higher level of services. Now, that holds true for tax increases in the unincorporated areas of Horry County just not for the level of services.
To paraphrase former Republican senator Everett Dirksen, a few mils here, a few mils there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.
Of course, Dirksen was speaking against federal tax and spend programs.
In Horry County, it’s the Republicans who have proudly become the tax and spend party.
The SC General Assembly meets today to begin its last regular week of this legislative year.
To say this year has been a disappointment in real legislation is an understatement. In fact, this year will be known by what wasn’t accomplished rather than by what was.
An attempt to pass an ethics reform bill hung up on the shoals of the SC Senate. Seems our senators are determined to keep ethics oversight within the Senate Ethics Committee. No independent investigations of conduct of senators are allowed unless the Senate okays it (read Robert Ford).
The proposed Horry County tax increase being considered by Horry County Council will not provide much benefit to public safety services.
This is contrary to what has been publicized about it – a tax increase for public safety.
The proposal does include adding seven new detectives, only four of which will serve the county directly. No new patrol officers will be added, according to information provided to Horry County Council members at last Wednesday’s budget workshop.
According to county officials, 63% of the county’s general fund budget is spent on the Department of Public Safety. Since 2006, the Department of Public Safety has absorbed the bulk of the increase in the budget.
In that sense and that sense only, the proposed 7.2 mil tax increase can be considered a public safety increase.
However, as council member Harold Worley said at last week’s Horry County Council budget workshop, not one penny of the tax increase will go toward putting one extra officer on the street. Response times will not go down nor will community policing increase because of the tax increase.
The tax increase is really a response by Horry County Council to widespread discontent among county employees with respect to the new four year contract, including $10,000 per year pay increases, approved recently for Horry County Administrator Chris Eldridge.
The tax increase being discussed by Horry County Council appears much less necessary than those council members supporting it would have us believe.
The proposed 7.2 mil increase for the general fund budget is being billed as a public safety increase.
It is not.
Included in the 7.2 mil tax increase is an across the board pay raise of at least 3% for all county employees.
While it is nice for any employee to get a pay raise, the question must be asked is it fair and equitable to charge county taxpayers extra taxes to satisfy county employees’ desire for a pay raise?
Council member Harold Worley spoke on the central issue of this question during Wednesday’s county council budget workshop.
“The people of Horry County are not making this type of money,” Worley said.
What Worley was referring to was the average pay scale for Horry County private sector employees.
According to Horry County budget documents, with the tax increase included, the county would pay $93.256 million for personal services to its employees in next year’s budget. Personal services are pay and benefits for employees.
According to the same statistics, the county has 1,631 employees paid out of general fund revenue.
These statistics equate to an average of $57,177 per employee in pay and benefits in next year’s budget.
COLUMBIA, S.C. – In an attempt to address the State’s pressing highway infrastructure issue, Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler moved to deviate from the Order of business in the S.C. Senate to consider the roads bill. There were several attempts to prevent that motion by members of the democratic caucus, despite earlier statements that roads were their priority. However Senator Peeler’s motion prevailed stopping the current filibuster for the day. By doing so, the Senate gave third reading to the Pain Capable Bill, which would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks and began debate on the much anticipated bill regarding highway infrastructure.
Horry County Council will be discussing a 7.2 mil tax increase for the county’s general fund budget at its regular meeting next week.
The 7.2 mil increase equates to a 20% rise in taxes for the county’s general fund budget and $13.5 million in additional revenue.
After hearing a presentation from county staff about why the increase is needed and how it will be applied to operating expenses, council chairman Mark Lazarus directed staff to go forward with a planned 7.2 mil tax increase for second reading of the budget.
Speak Up…