Author: Paul Gable

Time to Rethink Government Cheese in South Carolina

Time to Rethink Government in S.C.

The vote last week by the state Budget and Control Board to slightly increase out of pocket contributions for health insurance premiums of local and state public agency employees has raised interesting questions about government in South Carolina.

The General Assembly included $20.5 million in the FY 2013 state budget to pay for health insurance premium increases for the 234,363 state and local public agency employees covered by the state health insurance plan.

The B&CB voted to have the employees covered by the plan participate in the premium increases to the tune of a $7.25 per month. Now some state legislators are crying foul on the B&CB saying the agency acted illegally.

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Homeless in Myrtle Beach – Arbeit Macht Frei

The homeless population in Myrtle Beach is an inconvenient problem for the city fathers (and mothers). It’s not good advertising for the tourists to see homeless on our streets and they sure aren’t welcome at the Dunes Club.

What to do? It seems like the powers that be in the city are falling back on an old European approach to the problem of dealing with people who are out of a job and homeless.

Arbeit Macht Frei, literally translates as labour makes free. More generally it means ‘work sets you free’ or ‘labour brings you freedom’. The slogan was cynically placed over the gates of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.

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State Farmer’s Market Controversy Continues

The purchase of land for “Phase Two” of the State Farmer’s Market remains on the political radar of S.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers and Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell, according to op-eds they each published in state newspapers last month.

A late attempt to get $16 million in the FY 2013 state budget to purchase additional land at the farmer’s market from private interests drew the attention of many familiar with the issue. The Senate proposed the $16 million, but, fortunately, the House wouldn’t agree and the proposed purchase died in conference committee at the end of the legislative year.

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Nikki Haley Ethics Case Won’t Make Difference

B&CB Splits Health Insurance Increases

Two months after the S.C. General Assembly put the entire increase in health insurance premiums for state and local government workers on the backs of South Carolina taxpayers, the S.C. Budget and Control Board voted 3-2 to split the increase between government employees and taxpayers.

Gov. Nikki Haley, Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and Treasurer Curtis Loftis voted in favor of the split. The B&CB’s two lawmakers, Sen. Hugh Leatherman and Rep. Brian White, voted against it.

The vote of the B&CB will have the effect of increasing government employee premiums approximately $7.25 per month while saving taxpayers approximately $5.8 million.

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Two Republican Candidates Cleared for Ballot

Two Republican Candidates Cleared for Ballot

Two Dorchester County Republican candidates were cleared to be on the November general election ballot Monday when a lawsuit challenging their certification was dismissed by Circuit Judge Howard King.

Ed Carter, Republican nominee for House District 97 and Carroll Duncan nominee for Dorchester County Council District 5 will be on the November ballot. GOP candidate Sean Bennett, who defeated incumbent GOP Sen. Mike Rose in the June primary for Senate District 38, still awaits a ruling from King on his status.

This case has been bizarre from the beginning. After the June 12th primary balloting, the Dorchester County Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the county and state GOP and the county and state election commission claiming Republican non-incumbent candidates had not filed candidacy paperwork properly.

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Economic Development Secret Revealed

The hoped for home run from Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation was reduced to a bunt single when it was revealed the secret Project Blue is really just a 1,000 job call center.

County council debated the project behind closed doors in executive session for two weeks, before council member Gary Loftus and EDC CEO Brad Lofton made the details of the project public in an interview with the Myrtle Beach Herald last week? Why all the initial secrecy?

A 1,000 job call center project that offers $14 per hour to employees while it receives $24-$30 million of combined incentives is about as good as it is going to get for Horry County economic development. At least that is what Loftus told the Herald last week.

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Kiawah Island Hosts PGA Championship This Week

Kiawah Island Hosts PGA Championship

Pete Dye won’t forget the gushing praise he heard from just about everyone about his new creation, The Ocean Course, as the world’s best players got ready for the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island in weather that was perfect for golf.

Then the wind blew in from the Atlantic Ocean, and that changed everything.

“They had a heck of time,” Dye said with a chuckle. “The trouble they had on those par 3s was unbelievable.”

It has taken more than two decades of tweaks _ all overseen by Dye _ and the PGA of America’s resolve to again make the feared course a showcase for the strongest field in golf for the PGA Championship, the final major of the year.

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Top Secret Economic Development

The secrecy surrounding a project of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation, which will soon be up for second reading by county council on an ordinance to issue $8 million in public debt for the project, may be very good news for county residents.

I have had several conversations recently with local Republican activist, and one of the founders of the South Strand Republican Club, John Bonsignor about possibilities for the project. Bonsignor said he was asked, by EDC board member and former county Republican Party chairman Robert Rabon, to help promote passage of the ordinance by council members.

Even though he was given few details of the project, Bonsignor agreed to do so. Bonsignor did mention to me that he was of the understanding the total incentive package for the project totaled approximately $30 million for a 1,000 job call center. Bonsignor said he would like to get more details to have confidence in the project.

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General Assembly Action Needed on Internet Sweepstakes Cafes

Federal lawsuits, state arrests, judges giving opposing rulings on the same law and the current head and former head of SLED on different sides of the issue, this is the world of internet sweepstakes cafes in South Carolina.

Sound confusing – absolutely – but it is really an example of the General Assembly fiddling while South Carolina burns.

While the General Assembly spent a large portion of this year’s session determining how to spend an additional approximately $1.2 billion in unexpected excess revenue, it virtually ignored several bills introduced to regulate or outlaw the internet sweepstakes café industry.

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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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