Author: Paul Gable

Hidden Woods Special Tax Bonds

Third and final reading of an ordinance approving the sale of $850,000 in bonds for the Hidden Woods Special Tax District should sail through county council tonight.

Third reading approval is included on the consent agenda of council, meaning it will not be discussed and will receive approval as part of the overall consent agenda unless a council member pulls it off for individual consideration.

The property owners in the Hidden Woods tax district received a shock when their property tax bills arrived in the mail. This was the first year that the special tax for road improvements was included and many homeowners saw their property taxes more than double. This extra assessment is scheduled to run 15 years.

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Court Upholds Horry County Flow Control

Horry County may continue government monopoly flow control of its garbage waste stream, according to a ruling in federal district court last week.

The ruling dismissed the 2009 lawsuit by Sandlands LLC and Express Disposal Service challenging the legality of a county ordinance requiring all solid waste generated within Horry County be disposed of at the Horry County Solid Waste Authority landfill off Hwy 90.

With the dismissal, Horry County and the SWA will continue to exercise monopoly control over the county’s waste stream at the expense of a competitive market and private industry.

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Internet Sweepstakes Growing in South Carolina

A recent ruling by the North Carolina Supreme Court outlawing internet sweepstakes games has led to a strong push by the internet sweepstakes industry into South Carolina.

There is no state law that specifically addresses the issue of internet sweepstakes gaming parlors or machines. Bills have been pre-filed in both the S.C. House and Senate to close the loophole in the law during the legislative session beginning next week.

Throughout the state, judges interpreting the current state laws prohibiting gambling, have come down on both sides of the issue. In some areas internet sweepstakes games have been declared legal, in others not.

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SCDOR Cyber-Hacking Scandal

A S.C. House special committee investigating the cyber-hacking scandal at the S.C. Department of Revenue heard shocking testimony from former SCDOR security officer Scott Shealy yesterday regarding incompetence at the agency.

Shealy worked as an IT security officer for DOR from 1997 – 2011 when he resigned to go to work for the S.C. Judicial Department. His testimony described an agency that was more interested in pinching pennies than assuring security of the records it was responsible to protect.

Maybe Shealy’s most shocking revelation was that the data security chief position he held went unfilled for 10 months after his departure while the data security team that worked for him was effectively dismantled.

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The North Charleston SRO Controversy

The introduction of school resource officers into elementary schools in North Charleston drew criticism from a parents group yesterday.

The decision to place SRO’s in elementary schools was essentially a unilateral one taken by North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey. He admitted making it in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings last month. In Summey’s opinion, armed police officers in elementary schools will make them safer.

A group of concerned parents and citizens, Citizens United for Public Schools, sees other potential results from Summey’s actions. Opposing the arbitrary introduction of SRO’s into elementary schools, CUPS has called for a town hall meeting on the issue next week.

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The Fiscal Cliff Deal

You have to give Congress credit, the television spot, sound bite and photo op drama was high as the “fiscal cliff’ was “avoided” in New Years Eve and New Years Day votes in the U.S. Senate and House.

Automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that were set to begin yesterday were avoided, but the health of the U.S. economy remains perilous.

What really happened was business as usual on Capitol Hill. By extending the Bush era tax cuts to everyone earning less than $450,000 per year, middle and lower class workers will pay less in income taxes. But approximately 96 percent of millionaires will also be paying less income tax than they would have paid if no deal was passed and Clinton era tax rates were restored.

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Election Filing Mess Leads 2012 Stories

As we look back on the news of 2012, the top story in South Carolina this year was the election filing mess that kept nearly 300 candidates off the ballot.

Most candidates affected were challengers to incumbent Republicans, although many Democrats got left off too, in the June primary. They were ineligible to be certified as candidates because the state and local Republican and Democratic parties did not understand, and did not make allowance for, a minor change in state law that required electronic filing of the candidates’ Statement of Economic Interests.

The party leaders never saw it coming and they blew it. I don’t believe it was a big conspiracy to keep new candidates off the ballot. Some newcomers did file properly and did get certified, too few for a real democratic process, however.

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Martin Luther King Day Seeks Musical Talent

Carolina Has Talent, a musical tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is included in the three-day Martin Luther King Celebratory Weekend, Jan. 19-21, 2012, in Myrtle Beach.

A latecomer to recognizing Martin Luther King Day as a holiday, Myrtle Beach has quickly closed the void by combining traditional celebration events with non-traditional events to promote a spirit of unity throughout the community.

One of these is the Carolina Has Talent event, which will be a musical talent competition with cash prizes and other rewards to the top competitors.

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Hidden Woods Special Tax Controversy

The residents of Hidden Woods sub-division in Horry County got a shock in October when property tax bills, with their new special tax district assessments included, arrived in the mail.

This is just another example of the many problems with homeowner associations or, in the case of Hidden Woods a property owner’s association.

In this case, the Hidden Woods POA led an initiative over the past several years to get roads in the private community up to county standards so they could be included in the county road system.

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Mark Sanford Back in 1st?

The name of former Gov. Mark Sanford has been prominent in the last several days in connection with the S.C. 1st Congressional District seat vacated by the promotion of Rep. Tim Scott to senator.

This is only natural as Sanford once represented a former iteration of the 1st District for three terms in Congress before honoring a personal term limits pledge and stepping away from the seat. Two years after stepping down from Congress, Sanford was elected to his first of two terms as governor.

Sanford’s name is well known as is his strict conservative, libertarian political philosophy. As we have stated before, Sanford was Tea Party before there was a Tea Party.

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