Tag: Confederate battle flag

Taxes, Flag Top 2015 News Stories

Taxes, Flag Top 2015 SC Newsies

Local tax increases and removal of the Confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds topped the 2015 news stories.

Horry County Council passed the largest single tax increase in county history with a 7.2 mil increase in property taxes. Just for good measure, council also increased the road tax charged on every vehicle registered in the county by 67%.

Sold to the public as a means to increase public safety, the tax increase was really Horry County Council bowing to the will of county employees for a pay raise.

As council member Harold Worley said during debate of the tax increase, “Not one penny of the tax increase will go toward putting one extra officer on the street. Response times will not go down nor will community policing increase because of the tax increase.”

Adding insult to injury, the road annual tax was increased from $30 to $50 per vehicle, ostensibly to provide more money for maintenance of roads in the county road system.

Just a few months later, county council voted to use approximately $16 million in excess revenue from Ride II tax collections not for roads, but to buy a new radio system for public safety.

Five county council members will be up for re-election in 2016, but only one, Gary Loftus, voted to increase taxes.

Five of the six council members voting to raise taxes were elected or re-elected in 2014 and hope the voters will not remember this tax increase in 2018 when they face election again.

The statewide issue that was most intriguing was the removal of the Confederate battle flag from statehouse grounds.

This was done in just several days of a special session called by Gov. Nikki Haley. It demonstrated the General Assembly can act quickly when it wants to.

This special session followed a five month regular session when the General Assembly did absolutely nothing about the most important issues in the state – road maintenance and repair, ethics issues and school funding.

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.

Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

SC General Assembly, Much Ado About Nothing

It seems that it takes national news making events to make the SC General Assembly work at all.

This year’s edition of the SC General Assembly may be known as the group that removed the Confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds and little else.

In the past few days, momentum seems to be building for removal of the Confederate flag in response to the massacre of nine Black citizens at a Charleston church.

Removal of the flag was nowhere on the SC General Assembly radar at the beginning of the legislative year, or last week for that matter.

But now it will be debated in a specially amended legislative session next month and members of the SC General Assembly are falling all over themselves to demand its removal.

A bill to require police body cameras throughout the state was passed after a North Charleston police officer shot a fleeing Black man in the back two months ago.

Both events were covered by major national and international news organizations so they got the attention of the legislators.

Does it really take a major tragedy to get the SC General Assembly to act?