Tag: city budget

Gingrich, Myrtle Beach, Oil and Interstates

Myrtle Beach Budget Retreat-Must Be the Water

It must be the water at Pinopolis because the City of Myrtle Beach budget retreat provided plenty of unusual highlights this year.

From $125 per year library cards to major surgical procedures under the city healthcare plan being shipped off to Costa Rica to the Downtown Redevelopment Corporation having a new secret plan for the pavilion site, the budget retreat had its moments.

Police Chief Warren Gall actually admitted that his force of caped crusaders does not do as effective a job of policing the south end of the city as it does the city’s north end. For anybody familiar with the city and its politics, that’s not news. In fact it’s quite obvious.

Continue Reading →
Gaming the City of Columbia Budget

Gaming the City of Columbia Budget

One look at the Columbia city budget deliberations tells you it’s an election year in the city.

Council recently pledged a two percent, across the board pay raise for all city employees in next year’s budget and even more for fire and police.

The firefighters received a 3.3 percent pay raise retroactive to January 1, 2013. Approximately 400 police officers and seventy 911 dispatchers will receive an additional 3.3 percent mid-year pay raise in January 2014.

History proves there is no better way to get city employees on the side of incumbent council members than to give them a pay raise in an election year.

Continue Reading →