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Random Thoughts on the 1,000 Year Flood

Sitting through the last three days of Nikki Haley’s 1,000 Year Flood, I had the sense of Yogi Berra’s “déjà vu all over again.”

If you are in a flooded home or on a flooded street, you may not believe this, but I feel Horry County at least partially dodged a bullet with this storm.

To me, Hurricane Floyd and its aftermath in 1999 was worse in Horry County. Not by much, but worse.

What makes this storm Haley’s “1,000 Year Flood” is the rain and flooding was much wider spread throughout the state than it was in 1999. Floyd was a coastal storm that dumped a lot of rain. but didn’t hit the midlands and upstate like this one.

The Carolina Forest area, which saw significant flooding over the last few days, was in its very early stages of development in 1999. Other neighborhoods that are now flooded didn’t exist when Floyd came through.

You can only put so much asphalt and concrete in a coastal plain before problems develop. But, housing demand and an expanding tax base will trump other discussions every time.

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General Assembly Failing Citizens Again

Winthrop Poll Supports Flag Decision

The first Winthrop Poll since spring has some interesting findings among South Carolina respondents regarding the removal of the Confederate battle flag.

The Winthrop Poll is a long-term survey initiative designed to keep public policy makers across the country in touch with the attitudes and opinions of residents of South Carolina. It is the only regular “snapshot” of public policy attitudes of the residents of the South or of the state of South Carolina.

Two-thirds of the respondents said the SC General Assembly made the correct decision this summer to remove the Confederate battle flag from State House grounds. Broken down by race, 54% of White respondents and 93% of Black respondents supported removal of the flag.

However, asked about the significance of the flag, 47% said it stood for Southern pride while 40% of respondents said it stood for racial conflict.

Only 25% of South Carolina respondents said they believed the national economy was going in the right direction. However, again the schism as 63% said the South Carolina economy is good or fairly good.

Respondents said the two most important issues facing South Carolina are jobs/unemployment and education, the two issues tied at 13.3%.

Gov. Nikki Haley received a 55% approval rating with Sen. Tim Scott receiving 53% approval and Sen. Lindsey Graham receiving 40% approval from respondents.

With respect to roads, 84% of respondents said the state should give priority to fixing existing roads over building new roads.

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Curtis M. Loftis Jr., South Carolina’s treasurer

The Tough Fight of Curtis Loftis

Despite continuing efforts to embarrass and silence him, SC Treasurer Curtis Loftis continues to criticize the SCRSIC for poor performance.

Loftis was subjected to allegations in 2011 that he and Mallory Factor were partners in what was called a “pay to play” scheme involving state retirement funds.

Despite the best efforts of members of the SC Retirement System Investment Commission, Gov. Nikki Haley, then state senator Greg Ryberg and others, Loftis was cleared of all allegations by SLED and the SC Attorney General’s office.

Currently, he is facing an Ethics Commission hearing alleging Loftis used his influence as a state constitutional officer to include a business associate and friend as a lawyer in a lawsuit against the Bank of New York Mellon.

I predict these allegations will be found just as baseless.

The good ole boys and their confederates just can’t stand a politician who looks out for the public good first.

And Loftis is not criticizing without reason. The SC retirement system is consistently among the bottom few performers of public pension funds in the nation despite paying hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in fees and giving the underperforming staffers at the SCRSIC generous annual bonuses with more taxpayer dollars.

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Confederate Flag Bill Passes House

The SC House passed second and third readings of the bill to take down the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds early Thursday morning.

The readings were on a clean bill with no amendments, something that was needed to bring the flag down quickly.

The debate was long, emotional, full of passion and often contentious. Debate started before at approximately 11:30 a.m. and continued past midnight with an afternoon break from approximately 2:15 – 4:30 p.m.

In the end, House members worked their way through delaying tactics to pass both readings by votes well above the two-thirds threshold needed to take the flag down.

Gov. Nikki Haley is expected to sign the legislation before the day is done. The bill calls for the flag to come down within 24 hours of the governor’s signature.

There was a lot of talk about the Confederate flag being a symbol that was hijacked by hate groups. If the flag was, in fact, hijacked that hijacking was first done by Southern politicians who opposed the Civil Rights movement.

That point was made over and over through the long day.

One speaker after another from both sides of the aisle said, “that flag needs to come down.”

But, many attempts to slow down the fast track the bill was on came through attempted amendments.

The SC House initially faced the possibility of dealing with over 60 amendments to the bill that passed the SC Senate.

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PTR Industries – No More AvCraft’s

As PTR Industries struggles to become current with Horry County and other vendors, it is important Horry County Council remembers the lessons of AvCraft.

Having covered the AvCraft debacle from beginning to end, the issues with PTR Industries sound eerily familiar.

It will be one year ago next week that Gov. Nikki Haley and Rep. Tommy Rice visited PTR Industries to celebrate the one year anniversary of the announcement that the company planned to relocate to Horry County. Te dignitaries received special edition rifles to commemorate the occasion.

One week later, PTR Industries laid off workers.

In early July 2014, PTR Industries presented a check to Horry County during an executive session of Horry County Council that, reportedly, brought the company to within 45 days of being current on its rent at the county building it occupies at the Cool Springs Business Park.

One year later, it is being reported in local media that PTR Industries hasn’t paid rent to the county since March 23, 2015. In other words, we are back to at least 90 days in arrears.

Additionally, PTR Industries is in arrears to other vendors and, according to information from sources familiar with the company, is required to bring cashier’s checks, as often as weekly, to utility providers in order to keep the lights on.

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Gingrich, Myrtle Beach, Oil and Interstates

Community Forum on Off-shore Drilling

A community forum on off-shore drilling will be held at the North Myrtle Beach Historical Museum June 23, 2015 beginning at 5 p.m.

The forum is being presented by a local grassroots volunteer organization formed in response to the Obama administration’s proposal to open the mid- and south-Atlantic waters to seismic testing and deep water drilling for off-shore oil & gas by the petroleum industry.

Called Stop Off-shore Drilling in the Atlantic – Prevent Oil Pollution, or by the acronym SODAPOP, this grassroots organization will have Peg Howell, a former petroleum engineer with experience working on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, as the featured speaker June 23rd.

South Carolina has been one of the states pushing for oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic despite the state’s reliance on tourism on the Grand Strand and Hilton Head.

Only Rep. Mark Sanford opposes off-shore gas and oil exploration among our federal legislators and Gov. Nikki Haley joins the group listening more to the oil industry lobbyists than environmentalists.

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SC Senate to Take Up Roads Bill

The SC Senate paved the way for a roads bill debate to begin as early as tomorrow when it passed new abortion restrictions yesterday.

The questions for the roads bill now are how much of a tax increase the SC House and SC Senate agree on and will they have the votes necessary to override a Nikki Haley veto?

Look for a fairly stiff increase in the gas tax as well as an increase in fees for licenses, registrations and the like.

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Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

SC General Assembly Compromise Roads Bill

The SC General Assembly turned its attention back to passing a road funding bill this year, but the devil is in the details.

The bill, which began as H. 3579, was set for special order yesterday after a compromise was reached in the SC Senate to move it to priority status for debate.

Much changed since its original version, the bill contains the three elements Gov. Nikki Haley said was needed to avoid a veto – sort of.

The current plan raises the state gas tax by 12 cents per gallon and allows it to be adjusted for inflation in future years. Increases in license and registration fees and raising the sales tax cap on car sales are also included bringing the estimated rise in revenue to approximately $800 million per year.

The bill proposes a decrease of 1% in the state income tax spread over five years. However, the reduction in tax rates would be suspended in any year the projected growth in state revenue is less than 4%.

If the rate is lowered over five years, the estimated tax cut is $700 million.

From 2003-2013, South Carolina’s annual average growth rate was less than 2%, making the possibility of income tax reductions less than certain.

Finally, the bill makes some changes in how the SC Department of Transportation commission is appointed.

While the bill would probably allow for some improvement in funding road maintenance and repairs, it now appears to be more political nonsense than a real effort at fixing the state’s roads.

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Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

Two Road Funding Plans Introduced in S.C. House

As expected, two road funding plans were introduced in the S.C. House yesterday.

Rep. Gary Simrill (R-York) and Chairman of the House Ad Hoc Transportation Committee introduced H.3579, a bill crafted around the recommendations of the study committee.

Rep. Tommy Stringer (R-Greenville) introduced H.3580, a bill that mirrors the gas tax/income tax plan outlined by Gov. Nikki Haley in her State of the State address last month.

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Road Funding Plans Due in S.C. General Assembly Today

Competing road funding plans are expected to be introduced in the S.C. General Assembly today.

The plans, authored by a S.C. House ad hoc committee and by Gov. Nikki Haley, respectively, each attempt to address fixes for South Carolina’s crumbling road infrastructure.

The main difference in the plans is funding mechanisms. Haley’s plan calls for a 10 cent rise in the state gas tax spread over three years, while calling for a 2 percent reduction in state income tax over 10 years.

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