Tag: SC General Assembly

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.

Continue Reading →

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.

Continue Reading →

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.

Continue Reading →

Government Monopoly Fever Spreading…

The urge to establish a government monopoly in sectors of the economy seems to be getting irresistible for local governments in South Carolina.

Currently this trend is being seen in county flow control ordinances that force municipalities and private waste haulers to dispose of their collected garbage and other solid waste at landfills owned or designated by county government.

Why is this such a big deal?

Because it supports inefficiently run government landfills and costs taxpayers money.

Continue Reading →

Curtis Loftis Exposes Unreported Pension Fees

It became more obvious Monday why the S.C. Retirement System Investment Commission wants to silence S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis.

Just a few days after his fellow commissioners voted to censure him, Loftis issued a press release in which he detailed an additional approximately $114 million in unreported fees on the commission’s annual report and financial statements.

The unreported fees are associated with the approximately $3.3 billion “Fund of Hedge Funds” listed in the report, according to a March 4, 2013 letter Loftis sent to Suzanne M. Bernard, a principal in Hewitt EnnisKnupp, Inc., a consulting firm for institutional investors.

Continue Reading →

Curtis Loftis Criticizes Underperforming SC Pension Fund

South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis again criticized the underperformance of the pension funds controlled by the S.C. Retirement System Investment Commission recently.

Speaking of the year end results for 2012, Loftis said, “It is unfortunate that the SC Investment Commission chooses not to tell the whole story about the state’s $27 billion pension fund. Our fund performs in the bottom third compared with our peers. That low performance is costing us big money. By being below average, South Carolina is leaving $175 million on the investment table.”

Since assuming the office of treasurer, Loftis has been a critic of the SCRSIC for poor performance, wasteful spending, lack of transparency and conflicts of interest.

Continue Reading →

SWA Asks Chamber to Support Flow Control Monopoly

The Horry County Solid Waste Authority is trying to enlist the help of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce with lobbying efforts to maintain the solid waste flow control monopoly the SWA currently enjoys in the county.

Officials from the SWA will make a presentation this morning to the chamber’s Legislative Policy Council, chaired by George Mims, urging defeat of the Business Freedom to Choose Act, currently under consideration in the SC Senate.

The Business Freedom to Choose Act would ban flow control within the borders of South Carolina. Of course, since Horry County is the only county of the 46 in the state to have legislatively mandated a government monopoly over solid waste disposal, the SWA is hoping the Chamber will see the fight as local.

Continue Reading →

The State Farmers Market and Ethics Reform

The seriousness with which SC General Assembly members are taking ethics and government reform this legislative session can be measured, in large part, by what happens in the budget with respect to the purchase of additional land at the state farmers market in Lexington.

The site has considerable environmental issues. It was a toxic chemical waste dump for many years. To this day, there are a number of EPA warning signs on the property and restrictive covenants that seriously inhibit the available uses of the land.

Nevertheless, proposals are back in Columbia for the state to pay approximately $13 million to add three additional lots to its holdings at the current farmers market.

Continue Reading →

Flow Control ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ Lawsuit Update

The Horry County Administration Committee will hear an update at its Friday meeting on plans to hire a law firm to sue the State of South Carolina if the General Assembly passes legislation to outlaw solid waste flow control within the state.

The ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ lawsuit would be one of the highest forms of political folly ever seen in this county of almost continuous political follies.

Couched by county council members as their line in the sand for ‘home rule’, it is anything but.

The Horry County Solid Waste Authority and then county attorney John Weaver sold county council a bill of goods in 2008 about the authority’s need to have flow control in order to stay in business.

Continue Reading →

Expanding Flow Control Monopoly in Horry County

As the S.C. General Assembly considers legislation this year that would make flow control of the waste stream illegal throughout the state, Horry County government is planning to expand waste operations of the Horry County Solid Waste Authority and carry the fight into the courts to maintain its government monopoly over the waste business within county borders.

For over three years now, Horry County has legislated that all waste generated within the county must be disposed at the county dump, also known as the Horry County Solid Waste Authority, at rates dictated by the SWA.

This is nothing more than maximizing the income stream for the county created SWA, which operates as a quasi-governmental authority, without the SWA having to compete in the free market against private companies. And it must work well because the SWA has cut no jobs, even in the depressed economy, and each of its over 100 employees received a $500 Christmas bonus in 2011 and 2012.

Continue Reading →
1 … 4 5 6 7 8