Horry County Council will begin its two day budget retreat today at the Government and Justice Center in Conway.

Originally scheduled for a two day meeting in Pinopolis, which has been the county’s traditional budget retreat site, it was moved back to Conway after a series of phone calls last week to council members. One wonders if this move has more to do with the flagging Tom Rice for Congress campaign than anything to do with the county budget.

Local media will almost certainly attend the meeting in larger numbers and for greater periods in Conway. One hopes Rice doesn’t intend to use the budget retreat as a stage to attempt to get two days of free media advertising for his campaign. We don’t need political posturing, the budget is serious business.