Tag: Mike Ryhal

High Drama Surrounds County’s I-73 Agreement with SCDOT

High drama surrounded a recent decision by the Horry County Council Infrastructure and Regulation Committee to consider changes and/or cancellation of the Financial Participation Agreement the county signed with SCDOT last December for the Interstate 73 project.

Like many issues in the political arena these days, this one included its share of drama queens heightening and confusing the discussion while voicing veiled threats about possible state government retaliation should local government officials significantly alter or cancel the agreement.

According to local council members who spoke with Grand Strand Daily, Reps. Russell Fry and Alan Clemmons as well as former representative and current Myrtle Beach Chamber lobbyist Mike Ryhal quickly took to phone calls and texts when they heard of the planned I&R discussion earlier this week.

Their collective message, reportedly, was leave the agreement alone or face the possibility of the General Assembly altering current state law to remove control of hospitality and accommodations tax revenue from local governments in favor of control in Columbia.

Ever since July 2017 when former county council chairman Mark Lazarus and members of county government senior staff led council down the path to partial funding of the I-73 project by removing a sunset provision from the county’s hospitality tax law, this controversy has been inevitable.

Despite massive propaganda efforts through the years by the Chamber and a few elected officials about the necessity of I-73 to provide a connection to Interstate 95, local residents have remained unconvinced of the purported benefits of the project.

Many of those who cried the loudest – the Chamber, Clemmons and U.S. Congressman Tom Rice – have been collectively unsuccessful at acquiring funding for the project at the state and federal levels.

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Plot to Stop Lindsey Graham Faltering

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.

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IRS Complaint Lodged Against S.C. Rep. Mike Ryhal

Grand Strand Daily has learned that S.C. House District 56 representative Mike Ryhal and RAN Enterprises, LLC, a business owned by Ryhal, are being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service for alleged discrepancies in required tax filings.

The investigation reportedly stems from complaints to the IRS by several former employees of Rotelli’s restaurant, the business Ryhal operates under RAN Enterprises, LLC. The employees said their W-2’s for tax year 2012 show considerably less wages than they actually earned.

The employees said they were fired by Ryhal after each refused, in December 2012, to sign an individual, back-dated statement saying they were sub-contractors of Rotelli’s for tax year 2012.

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Election 2012 Review

Election 2012 is now history and we correctly predicted President Barack Obama would be returned to office for four more years.

This was an obvious pick from various polling data over the last week of the race, but the overall results on the national level demonstrated once again that American voters cannot be taken for granted.

Challenger Mitt Romney ran on the economy and the number one concern of voters in exit polling interviews was the economy, yet incumbent Obama was re-elected and it wasn’t as close as we anticipated. In fact, it could be called a landslide in the electoral vote column.

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Our Election 2012 Predictions

As polls open for Election 2012, we thought it would be interesting to take a shot at predicting the outcome of some of the more difficult and contentious races around the state.

For this we chose two SC House races on the coast where only petition candidates are on the ballot, two contentious SC Senate races in the midlands, the new 7th Congressional District race and the one for that White House in D.C.

These are not endorsements nor are they preferences on our part. They are merely our best guess on who will win tomorrow. Yell at our picks if you wish.

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Conservatives for Responsible Government Endorsements

The Conservatives for Responsible Government, probably the most truly conservative group in Horry County, announced their candidate endorsements this week.

CRG supports low taxes, low spending and individual freedom through limited government. It is not an automatic endorser of candidates spouting labels and clichés.

“Party labels are not important for our endorsement,” said CRG chair Chris Panos. “We are not interested in whether candidates have an “R” or a “D” behind their names. We want candidates who live by our principles of small government and individual liberty.”

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Confusion Continues in Candidate Filings

It appears that confusion with the proper filing of a Statement of Economic Interests has found its way from the party nominating phase into the petition candidate phase of the current election cycle.

When several hundred candidates were forced from the primary election ballots due to filing their paperwork improperly, some chose to go the route of becoming petition candidates.

Horry County had the most candidates removed from the ballot for filing improperly and it also had the most petitions submitted by candidates.

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New Twist in Election Filing Case

A new twist has been added to the election filing controversy that affects many candidates for elective office throughout the state.

Even before the S.C. Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the case May 1, 2012, the S.C. House Legislative Ethics Committee has seen fit to send out notices of fines for late filing.

The letter below has been edited to eliminate the name of the candidate for public office who received it. However, this candidate is a first time office seeker who filed the Statement of Economic Interests SEI) after March 30, 2012 but before April 15, 2012.

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