Monday, November 18, 2024
Counties and municipalities throughout South Carolina are again asking the General Assembly to obey state law with respect to the local government fund in the state’s general fund budget.
State law Section 6-27-30 requires the General Assembly to put 4.5% of the previous year’s base general fund revenue into the local government fund in the upcoming fiscal year budget.
But, the General Assembly has not fully funded the local government fund since 2008 – in violation of state law.
It will be an active primary season in Horry County as 11 contested Republican nominations, within the county, will keep voters occupied throughout the spring.
That’s even before you begin to consider statewide primaries where only Attorney General Alan Wilson and Secretary of State Mark Hammond are without primary opponents.
There are no contested Democratic primaries for countywide candidates in the June primaries. Republican candidates not listed below do not have opposition.
Coast RTA board member Katharine D’Angelo reported via email Thursday night to the other seven members of the board that she was asked to resign her position as a board member.
According to D’Angelo’s email, the request came out of a meeting between board members Ivory Wilson and Joseph Lazzara and unnamed members of the Coast RTA senior staff.
D’Angelo reported in her email that she had no intention of resigning from the board, a position she has held for 14 years through appointment by the North Myrtle Beach City Council.
Several developments over the last 48 hours have ‘stirred the pot’ regarding deliberations of the Special Committee on Coast RTA formed recently by Horry County Council chairman Mark Lazarus.
The committee, chaired by council member Marion Foxworth, held its first meeting March 17, 2014 with a second meeting scheduled for April 7, 2014.
According to stipulations of fact adopted by committee members at the first meeting, the committee has no oversight of Coast RTA or its management and is limiting its scope to attempting to make a determination of what went wrong with two projects cancelled by SCDOT – a bus sign and shelter project that began in 2007 and a study for an intermodal transportation center begun in 2013.
What does it tell you that the Tea Party’s best candidate to challenge Sen. Lindsey Graham is a former Democratic operative who ran the Michael Dukakis campaign in South Carolina?
Det Bowers officially filed yesterday to challenge Graham. While he is now talking about right wing issues such as illegal immigration, Obamacare, term limits and balanced federal budgets, it is Bowers’ former Democratic associations that reportedly bring hope to stopping Graham.
The thought process is that Bowers will attract at least some of the crossover Democrat vote in the June open Republican Primary that was expected to fully support Graham. It is hoped that this will bring Graham’s vote in the first round of the primary to under 50% forcing a runoff.
Somewhere James L. Petigru has a little smile on his face today as South Carolina’s latest attempt at nullification of a federal law went down in the S.C. Senate earlier this week.
Petigru, a 19th Century lawyer, legislator, S.C. attorney general and judge, was a leader of anti-nullification forces in South Carolina before the Civil War and critic of secession, yet a well-respected Charleston resident both before and after the war.
When South Carolina voted to secede from the Union in December 1860, Petigru uttered his most famous quote, calling the state “too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.”
The recent beach tent bans deliberated by three local governments in Horry County have drawn criticism from both locals and tourists as more big government intrusion on individual rights.
North Myrtle Beach passed final reading on an ordinance earlier this week banning tents in the peak summer season, May 15th – September 15th. In addition, beach umbrellas may provide shaded area of no more than 9 ft. diameter circle.
Myrtle Beach has passed first reading of an ordinance banning beach tents from Memorial Day to Labor Day while Horry County has passed first reading of an ordinance banning beach tents year around.
The first meeting of the ad hoc special committee looking into Coast RTA management practices and funding was held Monday.
The committee was created by Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus to help council determine what level of funding the county should provide to Coast RTA in upcoming years.
Specifically, the committee is looking into the circumstances that caused the sign/shelter project to be cancelled in December 2013 and the suspension of the intermodal center project earlier this year.
Incumbent Republican Al Allen is looking forward to continuing service to the interests of the people by seeking his third consecutive term representing Horry County Council District 11.
“I have really enjoyed learning how to help constituents and responding to the concerns of the people,” said Allen. “I receive a large variety of calls from people with concerns about how the government affects them and I have worked hard to build trust that I will represent their interests.”
Allen inherited a contentious issue when he was first elected to council – the Aynor overpass.
Horry County Solid Waste Authority officials were singing the blues at a pre-budget workshop earlier this week claiming a loss of $400,000 in revenue next fiscal year because of the elimination of construction and demolition debris from county flow control regulations.
Truth and reality rarely are factors at the HCSWA Hwy 90 headquarters and they are quickly removed if they are. There is nothing to base this $400,000 assumed loss of revenue on, but it’s being put out for media consumption.
And some media outlets in the county will play directly into the hands of HCSWA officials by spreading it.
Speak Up…