Recent Posts

Mark Lazarus Hits a Grand Slam

With just a few appearances as Horry County Council chairman under his belt, Mark Lazarus hit a grand slam home run at Tuesday night’s regular meeting of council.

After many years of despairing over poor to non-existent leadership on Horry County Council, Lazarus has quickly stepped into the void, in my opinion.

He runs a good meeting and the other 11 council members seem comfortable with him at the helm. That’s certainly not a statement that could have been made very often, if at all, over the last several decades.

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A Funny Thing Happened to Flow Control Insurance

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum to the Horry County Solid Waste Authority Tuesday night. It ran into a problem while trying to foist its solid waste stream flow control insurance plan on Horry County Council.

Expectations are the S.C. General Assembly will finally pass legislation outlawing flow control statewide next year. Since it was Horry County Council, at the direction of the SWA four years ago, that established the only flow control monopoly in the state, the SWA was blindsided when council did not roll over for it at Tuesday’s regular meeting.

The SWA is now running around the county attempting to sign most haulers and all trash generating communities to five year contracts. If the customers agree to bring all their trash to the SWA landfill during that period, the SWA will give a $2 per ton reduction on its tipping fee if certain minimum recycling percentages are met.

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Ethics Reform – Not So Fast

Another Ethics Reform Failure

There is no ethics reform this year for South Carolina politicians because the S.C. Senate wasn’t interested in changing the way the ethics of its members is monitored.

Last summer, Gov. Nikki Haley ran around the state, accompanied by Attorney General Alan Wilson, trumpeting the need to tighten ethics laws in the state and overhaul the way in which ethics oversight is accomplished.

That no bill was passed in the General Assembly this year says everything that needs to be said about the way in which the state is governed.

The 1895 Constitution, which governs the state, places all real power in the General Assembly. If it doesn’t want to act, no force on earth can make it.

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James Louis Petigru, Nullification and Hypocrisy

“South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.” James Louis Petigru.

The quintessential statement by James Louis Petigru, after South Carolina voted for secession in December 1860, is just as true today in a state that never seems to learn the lessons of history.

After the close of the recent legislative session saw a nullification bill on the Affordable Healthcare Act (Obamacare if you wish) pass the House and nearly receive second reading in the Senate, South Carolina’s state legislators were virtually dancing in the aisles in celebration.

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Horry County Slows New Strip Club Law

Momentum for a new strip club ordinance being considered by Horry County Council is slowing as some council members are realizing there are better ways to spend tax dollars than defending bad laws in court.

This is not to say that Horry does not need a new ordinance governing the licensing and operations of strip clubs. It does. The current ordinance is expected to be struck down as unconstitutional in federal court as part of a lawsuit the county currently finds itself having to defend.

But, the realization that replacing one bad ordinance with another will only bring ever spiraling attorney’s fees is beginning to dawn on some council members.

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Myrtle Beach International Airport

Chicken Strips, Clam Chowder and MBIA Master Plan

A new airport master plan update is being proposed for Myrtle Beach International Airport. Horry County council’s Administration Committee will hear about it Friday at the MBIA conference room.

Will it be time for a new chicken strips and clam chowder agreement?

It is fair to say that anyone who does not know the details of the last chicken strips and clam chowder agreement should not be discussing a new airport master plan. This includes our current airport department staff.

The last airport master plan update for MBIA was completed just five years ago. Among other things, it restricted the airport to one runway and provided for an expansion of the existing passenger terminal on the east side of the runway.

Instead of expanding the existing terminal for $40 – $50 million, Horry County Council allowed itself to be persuaded into approving a $120 million terminal “enhancement” project, which really meant a new passenger terminal with some refurbishment and new uses for the old terminal.

That wasn’t too hard, it wasn’t their money council was spending.

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Obesity Problem

The Beaufort County Obesity Problem

URGENT – ACTION NEEDED MONDAY, JUNE 10TH

** We need to pack the meeting tomorrow!

The County Council meeting tomorrow, Monday, June 10 at 5pm in the County Council Chambers, Ribaut Street.

On the Agenda are THREE, Yes, THREE tax increases.
1% Sales Tax – Ballot Referendum
Property Tax Roll Forward – Part of the New Budget being voted on
4.86% Property Tax Millage Rate Increase – Part of the New Budget being voted on

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Obamas-1984

Liberty, Mother’s Milk and the Poison Pill [Poll]

We found out over the past week that the constitutionally guaranteed privacy, civil liberties and freedoms of U.S. citizens have been effectively assigned to the scrap heap by our own government.

Okay. For nearly 100 years, the U.S. government has sought to spy on American citizens through a variety of programs, most of which can be tied to the Department of Justice and FBI reign ever since J. Edgar Hoover got the nod from Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to establish the DOJ’s Intelligence Division in 1919.

It took Hoover less than a year to collect files on over 150,000 American citizens who, through his perverted sense of propriety, were considered a threat to the U.S. government. Those files were amassed in the days when typewriters were the most modern piece of equipment in government offices, a telephone in a private house was still somewhat of a novelty and the Model T Ford was only 10 years old.

But, Hoover demonstrated how quickly a small government department, with the help of private citizens spying and informing on each other, could invade the lives of American citizens.

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Big Brother 30 Years Beyond 1984

George Orwell’s “Big Brother” is alive and well in the U.S. government 30 years beyond 1984, but I’m not sure even Orwell ever anticipated the level of the current actions.

Another attack, by “Big Brother”, on U.S. citizens’ right to privacy and guarantees of freedom from illegal search and seizure was reported by the “Guardian” and “Washington Times” newspapers recently regarding requests for cell phone records from Verizon.

Those revelations were bad enough, but we later learned, from “The Hill”, that senators knew about these vast phone sweeping operations by the National Security Agency, which have been going on since 2007.

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Horry County Government vs. Strip Clubs

Once again yielding to its ‘grow big government instincts,’ Horry County government is preparing to launch an attack on strip clubs with an apparent goal of shutting the clubs down throughout the county.

The initiative is not coming from county council even though several members are now attempting to wrap themselves in a morals protection flag. This is a county government staff driven initiative as a panic reaction to a current suit in federal court.

The current county ordinance governing adult entertainment businesses is expected to be struck down as unconstitutional in federal court in the near future.

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