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Horry County Tax Increase Not for Public Safety

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.

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Obesity Problem

Horry County Tax Increase Unjustified

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.

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Horry County Council Tax Increase Moves Forward

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.

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway Thoughts

There is no greater place in the world than Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

What is it about a place that continues to bring thousands upon thousands back every May?

What is it about a place that has survived two World Wars, the Great Depression and has not changed its configuration in over a century?

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Horry County Council Considers Major Tax Increase

A major tax increase will be proposed at the Horry County Council budget workshop Wednesday May 27, 2015.

According to county sources familiar with the plan, taxes for the Horry County general fund budget will be proposed to increase up to 23% (8.25 mils added to the current 35.6 general fund millage).

In addition, an increase of 67% will be requested on the county road fee to bring it up to $50 per private vehicle.

The tax increase is being parsed as providing needed money for the Horry County Police Department, Sheriff’s office and Solicitor’s office with the preponderance of it going to HCPD.

But, it also includes an across the board pay increase for all county employees plus providing money for a proposed merit, incentive pay raise plan.

And it must be remembered, while the general fund tax increase will apply to all property holders in Horry County, those who live in the incorporated municipalities gain essentially no benefit from HCPD.

Taxing someone for services they don’t receive isn’t supposed to be included in conservative Republican lingo.

Just a few years ago, a tax increase of this size for the general fund budget would have never made it into Horry County Council budget discussions.

But, with one-third of the council having been replaced since 2012, the times they are a changing.

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SC House District 106 Filing Starts Friday

Filing for the special election for SC House District 106 will open Friday May 29, 2015 at noon.

The special election will fill the unexpired term of Rep. Nelson Hardwick who resigned from office earlier this month.

While nothing becomes official until filing papers and fees are submitted, two candidates have already announced their intentions to seek the office.

Russell Fry, an Horry County attorney and Republican Party executive committeeman, and Tyler Servant, Horry County Council District 5 member, have announced they will be running for the open SC House District 106 seat.

We are hearing Chuck Ottwell, recently appointed to the Coast RTA board, and former candidate for Horry County Council District 5 is planning to run.

Local writer Mande Wilkes’ name has been aired as a possible candidate. She challenged Hardwick in the 2010 Republican Primary for the nomination and scored an impressive 45% of the vote against a, then, three term incumbent.

However, Wilkes and husband Alex Robinson have had a son since that race, which may be a deterring factor to running for office at this time.

We are hearing speculation that Reese Boyd III, Horry County attorney and former Republican Party official, who lost to Servant in a runoff for the Horry County Council District 5 Republican nomination, may also be considering a run.

Boyd is the most experienced and probably best qualified of the names mentioned.

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Sen. Tom Davis and SC Roads

Sen. Tom Davis, filibustering the Capital Reserve Fund bill (H 3702), talked much about roads this week.

Second reading of H 3579 is waiting on the SC Senate calendar behind two other contested bills, but a Davis filibuster this week of the reserve fund bill may give some indications of things to come for roads.

It appears one goal of the Davis filibuster is to defeat an increase in the state gas tax.

Davis criticized past decisions by SCDOT and the State Infrastructure Bank. But, including CTC’s in any decision making on road maintenance doesn’t work. While county governments would be tasked with maintaining their own current road network plus any additional roads dumped by the state, the CTC works independently from county government in 36 of the state’s 46 counties.

Davis’ solution is to dump state roads on counties, give a little more money to an independent committee within those counties and have the state essentially wash its hands of responsibility for approximately 50% of the roads it has not maintained throughout the years.

All in the name of not raising taxes.

This demonstrates the problem of electing people to public office who have no clue how to govern. An ideology of not raising taxes while passing fiscal problems down the line to the next lower government entity doesn’t work.

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SC Senate to Take Up Roads Bill

The SC Senate paved the way for a roads bill debate to begin as early as tomorrow when it passed new abortion restrictions yesterday.

The questions for the roads bill now are how much of a tax increase the SC House and SC Senate agree on and will they have the votes necessary to override a Nikki Haley veto?

Look for a fairly stiff increase in the gas tax as well as an increase in fees for licenses, registrations and the like.

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Three Weeks Left for Do-Nothing SC General Assembly

Three weeks remain in this year’s SC General Assembly legislative session.

It would be nice to think SC lawmakers would actually accomplish something useful before the year is done.

But, that is wishing too much from our current crop of do-nothing legislators in Columbia.

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Horry County Council District 6 Candidates Forum

The Horry County League of Women Voters is holding a Candidates Forum for Horry County Council District 6 special election candidates.

The forum is scheduled for tomorrow – Tuesday May 19, 2015 at the Socastee Library from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

This is an excellent opportunity to meet the candidates and hear their views on issues.

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