Feature

Making Municipalities Fiscally Responsible

With over thirty municipalities throughout the state in violation of South Carolina’s law requiring them to turn in a yearly audit to the State Treasurer, one might say something is not working!

The current law gives municipalities thirteen months to turn in an audit after the end of the fiscal year. If they don’t turn it in by the end of the thirteen months, then the Treasurer is supposed to halt all payments to the municipality until they are in compliance.

Obviously, the system is not working and something needs to change.

In light of this problem, Reps. Goldfinch, Clemmons, Hardwick, H.A. Crawford, Loftis, Barfield, Bedingfield, Hamilton, V.S. Moss, Rivers and G.R. Smith are sponsoring H. 4031. This bill seeks to promote more fiscal accountability on the municipal level.

A common excuse that the municipalities use for not having an audit is lack of funding. The bill requires that all municipalities include funding for an annual audit in their budget; that takes care of that!

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SCGOP In-Fighting — Updated

With a little more than a week to go until the SCGOP state convention, things are beginning to get a little personal.

S.C. Republican Party chairman Chad Connelly sent out an e-mail rant against upstate member Brian Frank late last week, at a time when you would think Connelly would be concentrating on the upcoming convention and his hopes for re-election as state party chairman.

Actually, maybe he is.

Connelly’s e-mail inferred that Frank may fit into the same category as the two Boston bombers, “As we close in on the end of our conventions and in light of the world in which we live where terrorists try their best to blend in with our culture, we cannot take anything for granted and cannot allow ourselves to associate with people who rant endlessly hateful stuff.

“I want to warn those of you in upstate meetings where I have seen this person that you do not need to let him near your meetings.”

Maybe the most telling part of the e-mail is where Connelly named Frank as a primary supporter of Sam Harms who reportedly is challenging Connelly for the state party chairmanship.

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Surfside Beach Dog Park – No Barking Allowed!

Just when you think you’ve heard it all, some elected official does a little thinking and comes up with the brilliant idea of outlawing barking at the Surfside Beach Dog Park.

We know ‘elected official thinking’ is an oxymoron, but the proposal by Surfside Beach town council member Randle Stephens is, frankly, nuts.

He has submitted a resolution, which would outlaw the name “Barc Park”, at the town’s dog park, because it encourages barking by the dogs visiting it. Stephens also submitted an accompanying sign that reads “Please be courteous and respectful to your dog park neighbors. No dog barking and loud noise.”

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New Look for Myrtle Beach Pavilion Site?

Nearly seven years after the Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park was torn down, a proposal has surfaced to bring rides back to the nearly vacant site.

According to recent media reports, Strates Shows of Orlando, FL is working with site owner Burroughs & Chapin, Inc. to open a three month, summer season carnival on a portion of the former Pavilion property.

On the surface, bringing rides back to that traditional downtown area of the oceanfront seems like a good idea. It always seemed a bad idea that former B&C president Doug Wendel wanted to do away with the Pavilion in the first place.

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The Mark Sanford Comeback

Everybody has an opinion on whether the latest “trespassing” chapter in the ongoing Mark Sanford political resurrection saga will hurt his chances of winning the May 7th special election for the S.C. 1st Congressional District.

Quick answer – No, Mark Sanford will be going back to Washington.

This is not a criminal trespass charge, but, rather, a complaint reportedly filed by Jenny Sanford’s lawyer to be heard in family court two days after the special election.

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Curtis Loftis, SCRSIC Supreme Showdown Fizzles

The anticipated showdown Tuesday between S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis and the S.C. Retirement System Investment Commission over transparency of investment details by the commission fizzled out Tuesday.

Loftis, a voting member of the commission, was holding out on signing a check for a $50 million investment, approved by the commission, until he received certain assurances in writing from commission attorneys.

As a result of Loftis’ initial refusal to issue the check and an impending default deadline for the investment, the remaining SCRSIC commissioners sued Loftis to force him to act.

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Accommodations Tax Fuels MB Chamber Greed

When Horry County Council begins in-depth considerations of next year’s budget later this week, the question of how much accommodations tax revenue goes to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce will be a major point of discussion.

While the accommodations tax concept is to help meet the costs of expanded services required by the introduction of millions of visitors to an area, the state law allowing accommodations tax collections requires 30 percent of the revenue generated to be spent on tourism marketing. This provision was one of the trade-offs put in the law to get the buy-in of the tourism lobby.

For a number of years, that 30 percent, approximately $2.3 million from the unincorporated areas of the county, has gone to the Chamber in a block to spend on its marketing efforts.

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Focusing on Government Spending

I read a statistic recently that startled me. The average pay for federal government employees is nearly $78,500 per year ($78,467).

The number of workers in the pool that determines average wage is 1,850,311 (one worker for every 167 Americans). Of this group, 4,744 more workers are making over $140,000 than at the same time last year.

And these government workers also have rather attractive benefits packages including such things as excellent health insurance coverage; a solid, defined benefit retirement plan, and liberal paid holiday and vacation packages.

None of these numbers includes the workers who are contracted by the government annually, but who are also paid from public tax dollars.

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Awendaw’s Missing Money

We are hearing the town of Awendaw may be missing money from its public coffers as important bills are not being paid on time.

According to several sources who have contacted us, the town missed its required payment of approximately $270,000, due March 1st to Charleston County for fire service, and nobody’s giving any answers.

Money for the fire service payment comes from a special fire tax district that was set up by town voters to levy taxes, specifically for fire service.

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Gable Remembering Thatcher’s Britain

The passing of Margaret Thatcher brings to end the life of one of the remarkable political personalities of my lifetime.

The “Iron Lady” is a sobriquet that was well earned and will always evoke her image. Above all else, she was tough.

The U.S. Navy, in its infinite wisdom, stationed me at a little base in eastern Scotland from 1971-74. I remember “Thatcher the milk snatcher”, as she was called when she was Minister for Education, from first-hand experience.

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