Author: Paul Gable

Controversial EDC Project Blue on Hold for Now

Controversial MBREDC Project Blue on Hold

The Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation has requested the final vote by Horry County Council on Project Blue incentives be delayed from its currently scheduled September 4, 2012 regular council meeting.

Third reading approval and public review of Ordinance 53-12 is currently listed as a published agenda item for the September 4th meeting. The ordinance proposes to issue up to $8 million in county general obligation debt to help fund incentives of the project. The agenda will have to be amended to delay third reading.

According to information we have received, EDC CEO Brad Lofton notified county officials in an e-mail late Thursday afternoon that, while the project retains full support of the EDC, the agency was requesting a short delay before third reading is considered by council.

Project Blue ran into trouble earlier in the week when myhorrynews.com broke a story about the criminal history of Covation COO David L. Rocker, which includes a tax fraud conviction, jail sentence and continuing tax liens.

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Citizens Pushing Far Reaching Ethics Reform In South Carolina

Citizens Pushing Far Reaching Ethics Reform

It is well past time for true ethics reform in South Carolina. Not the reform that our ethically challenged governor and her attorney general sidekick ran around the state last week attempting to claim as their own.

That really was a performance. Gov. Nikki Haley on a taxpayer funded circuit around the state promoting ethics reform that she would have been guilty of violating when she was a state representative. Haley also promoted stiffer freedom of information laws while her current administration routinely disregards FOIA requests.

With Haley it’s not what she says, it’s what she does. The word hypocrisy is too tame to apply to her.

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Controversial EDC Project Blue on Hold for Now

Public Money, Corporate Welfare

The revelations Monday of a tax fraud conviction and jail sentence for one of the company officials associated with the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation’s Project Blue leads to a conclusion of an apparent shocking lack of due diligence by a number of entities charged with fiscal responsibility for the expenditure of public money.

In many state and local jurisdictions throughout the U.S., conviction of a felony by a corporate officer, especially one associated with tax fraud, would automatically exempt a company from consideration for public money economic development incentives. Such does not appear to be the case in Horry County or South Carolina.

The EDC has put together a deal that would involve approximately $24 million in local and state incentives to Covation, a startup company with no demonstrated performance records.

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David L. Rocker and The Many Faults of Project Blue

David L. Rocker and Project Blue

The real reason for the big secret called Project Blue by the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation may have surfaced Monday when myhorrynews.com, the website for Waccamaw Publishers, broke a story on the shady past of David L. Rocker.

According to documents provided to Horry County Council, Rocker is listed as the Chief Operating Officer of Covation Holdings, a startup Georgia company that is trying to land a call center jobs project in the Carolina Forest area. However, last night the EDC was trying to spin Rocker as merely a consultant on the project.

Whatever the truth is behind Rocker’s participation, his past difficulties should raise some eyebrows about whether the county should be risking public dollars on a project which has, so far, been much hype with very little substance.

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Ron Paul feted in raucous farewell rally

Ron Paul feted in raucous farewell rally

As Republican National Committee officials scrambled to adjust the storm-shortened schedule for this week’s convention to nominate Mitt Romney for president, Paul followers gathered across town at the University of Southern Florida’s Sun Dome.

Paul, who is retiring from Congress this year after a colorful career and three failed White House runs, looked embarrassed as he got a prolonged standing ovation from an ear-splitting crowd as music thumped “Ron Paul, Ron Paul” in the background.

He praised his supporters for backing his vision of reduced government and increased personal liberties and urged them to continue the movement even now that his presidential bid had ended.

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Mark Sanford’s Lonely Battle for Austerity: Did It Lead Him to the Appalachian Trail?

Mark Sanford’s Lonely Battle for Austerity

My new book about President Obama and his stimulus, The New New Deal, unspools the politically shrewd but remarkably cynical GOP strategy to obstruct the President.

Congressional Republicans who supported stimulus in 2008 and even voted for a $715 billion stimulus in 2009 somehow pegged Obama’s similar $787 stimulus as the death of capitalism, although they still pursued stimulus cash for their districts.

GOP governors who denounced the stimulus as fiscal lunacy quietly used its aid to states to balance their hemorrhaging budgets. But there is at least one principled Republican politician in the book: Mark Sanford…

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Governor Nikki Haley’s EthicsReforms – Style Trumps Substance

Haley’s Ethics – Style Trumps Substance

Gov. Nikki Haley’s run around the state this week promoting ethics reform was a perfect example of disingenuous political posturing.

Haley must be given credit for several things. She knows how to define the message and present herself in the best possible political light. After this week’s demonstration, one could almost think Haley supports real ethics reform.

Nothing could be further from the truth. She supposedly supports transparency in government while her administration continuously refuses to follow the guidelines of the state’s weak freedom of information act.

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Phone Harassment Complaint Filed Against Horry County SWA Director Danny Knight

Complaint Filed Against Horry County SWA Director

A telephone prank got out of hand Wednesday resulting in telephone harassment charges being filed against Horry County Solid Waste Authority Executive Director Danny Knight.

According to complainant Chris Burroughs, who owns waste hauler EZ Dump, he received two telephone calls from Knight Wednesday morning referring to an incident during a SWA committee meeting two days before.

A special committee meeting was convened by the SWA Monday night during which Burroughs’ permit to recycle construction and demolition debris in the county was discussed.

Burroughs said there was an issue with the percentage of C&D material he recycled and with scale readings at his facility. The SWA had threatened to cancel the $5 per ton discount he receives as a C&D recycler and to charge him $18,000 for discounts already received.

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The Internet Sweepstakes Café Conundrum

The Internet Sweepstakes Café Conundrum

The conundrum now engulfing the internet sweepstakes cafe issue around the state has had intricate twists and turns in the last several months.

Several key legislators told us recently that SLED chief Mark Keel was lobbying General Assembly members to close the “loophole” in the state law on gambling that allows sweepstakes games at food stores and fast food restaurants. The same loophole is being used by internet sweepstakes café operators to justify their business model.

After the General Assembly failed to act on any change in the law, Keel, using an opinion by Attorney General Alan Wilson, began raiding internet sweepstakes cafes and confiscating the computers on which the games were being played.

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SLED, the FBI and Statutes of Limitations

SLED, the FBI and Statutes of Limitations

“Whenever we hear SLED and FBI used in the same sentence, we can’t help but think of the Southern Holdings case.”

The best aspect of blogging is the opportunity to encourage an ongoing dialogue about issues, especially as they apply to the political arena.

Our recent post on internet sweepstakes cafes drew an interesting response that we believe deserves an answer.

The comment read: “This is the most obsurd (sic) thing I have ever read. SLED and the FBI will certainly solve this problem for you Mr. Sewell and Mr. Gable. They have done the research and they know who is involved and this is a very poor attempt at making this political. This Internet Sweepstakes Case has nothing to do with a political campaign. I would be careful at how I approach this or you will drag yourself into a place that you cannot get out of.”

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