Feature

Flow Control Gloom and Doom

The Horry County Solid Waste Authority staff was crying gloom and doom last week, because of a possible loss of flow control, when it rolled out its projected budget for FY 2014.

The authority projects a loss of $715,000 in landfill revenue if the S.C. General Assembly outlaws the county’s flow control garbage monopoly before the end of this year’s legislative session.

The overall projected budget for disposal and recycling operations is $13.55 million. When Fund 6, the county tax dollars from the unincorporated areas that go directly to the SWA to pay for the convenience centers, is added in, the budget approaches $20 million.

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Office of Disciplinary Counsel Failing Citizens

A legal system is only as good as the people charged with overseeing it. In South Carolina that is the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which operates under the auspices of the S.C. Supreme Court and its Chief Justice.

The S.C. Judicial Department apparently agrees. Consider this high sounding statement from the Judicial Department regarding the ODC:

“Regulating the conduct of both judges and lawyers is critical to preserving the integrity of the South Carolina judicial system and to instilling public confidence in the administration of justice. In South Carolina, the task of regulating both judges and lawyers falls to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel,…”

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Budgets – Cuts, Spending and You

The expenditure of public tax dollars will be the focus of discussions throughout the state over the next several months as the state and local government budgets are finalized for the upcoming fiscal year.

This is crunch time for the individual taxpayer and a process that every citizen should be aware of but, unfortunately, relatively few will pay any attention.

We would include the federal government here if it ever decided to pass a budget, but continuing funding resolutions combined with the infamous sequestration is the best they can do in the nation’s capital.

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Sanford Easily in SC 1st Congressional District

Mark Sanford is two-thirds of the way back to Congress after disposing of Curtis Bostic rather easily Tuesday night in a primary runoff for the Republican nomination for the SC 1st Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Sanford won by a 57% – 43% margin with just over 10% of the registered voters showing up to cast a ballot.

The only remaining obstacle to Sanford’s successful return to Washington is Democratic nominee Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

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Showdown on SC Pension Fund Fees

SC Treasurer Curtis Loftis is holding up signing a $50 million investment check for the SC public pension fund until he receives confirmation in writing that the fees associated with the investment are the same as the SC Retirement System Investment Commission approved by recorded vote.

Loftis said, for years, commission attorneys have given verbal confirmation that the fees are the same as voted on. Reportedly, an email with this confirmation was sent to Loftis in this case.

However, the treasurer specifically requested a signed letter with that confirmation and, to date, he has been unable to get one. If the confirmation is accurate, why is it so difficult for Loftis to get written notice of that fact?

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The Independent Socialist Republic of Horry

For years, Horry County prided itself on being known as the “Independent Republic,” but now that name appears to be changing to the “Independent Socialist Republic of Horry.”

The conversion began in early 2009 when Horry County government established a monopoly on solid waste disposal in the county benefitting the government established Horry County Solid Waste Authority and seriously impacting small, private waste hauling companies and their employees.

That issue is now at the state level as legislators attempt to pass the “Business Freedom to Choose Act”, which would make illegal government monopolies in the marketplace.

The act has successfully passed the S.C. House, but appears to be bogged down in the S.C. Senate.

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Transparency and Reform Dead on Vine

Ethics reform and government transparency sounded great on the campaign trails last fall, but the reality in Columbia is another year will pass without any meaningful changes taking place in state government.

The S.C. General Assembly is up to its old tricks of exempting itself from the laws that govern all other elected officials in the state.

Two bills that may have added real oversight over state legislators appear to be dead on the vine. One would have gotten rid of the House and Senate ethics committees and put legislators under the same ethics commission that oversees all other public officials in the state.

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Sunshine Week and Beyond

Recently, media outlets across the country celebrated “Sunshine Week,” a time devoted to the promotion of open government. The cause is noble, and government leaders at all levels should be committed to the goal of daily transparency and not just during an appointed week.

Creating a transparent and accountable government is far more difficult than one may assume. There are many obstacles to granting citizens a look-see into what really happens, not the least of which is the old-fashioned sense of embarrassment. Few of us enjoy someone looking over our shoulders, and even fewer like the entire state peering wide-eyed into our daily work. But good government cannot exist in today’s complicated world without such sunshine.

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Equal Marriage Rights

I am going to start today by admitting two things. I am in favor of equal marriage rights for all citizens, regardless of their sexual preference. I do not know all the ins and outs of the Constitution.

I may not be able to tell you word for word what is in Article IV (admission of new states and changing of states), but I do know that the document that some want to trample on and others love to embrace as if it were the Holy Grail guarantees everyone certain rights of equal protection.

Nowhere in the Constitution does it say you get those rights ONLY if you are a heterosexual adult. And, during the Civil Rights movement, nowhere did it say you got those rights ONLY if you were a white adult. While I am not in favor of government having any sort of residency inside my house, especially, my bedroom, someone needs to tell the U.S. Supreme Court to get with the times and grant equal marriage rights to every person in this country regardless of sexual preference.

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Republican Nomination to Mark Lazarus

Mark Lazarus earned the Republican nomination for Horry County Council chairman Tuesday night defeating Al Allen by a 55% – 45% margin in a special primary election runoff. With no Democratic candidate, Lazarus should be guaranteed a win in the special election April 30, 2013.

I say ‘should be’ because voter turnout was so horrible it’s not beyond the pale that someone could put together a last minute write-in campaign to make general election voting interesting. I don’t expect this to happen, because it would take a candidate who could fire up the voters to make it happen and such a candidate has been sadly lacking in this special election season.

Both of these campaigns certainly underwhelmed voters. Despite estimates that both Lazarus and Allen went over the $100,000 threshold for campaign spending, less than 7 percent of the voters countywide bothered to cast ballots – actually 6.45%.

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