NAACP Covers George Washington Statue at Columbia MLK Rally
Call me crazy but I don’t think Martin Luther King’s dream included petty anti-Americanism from a “civil rights” group that takes it’s orders from rich White Nazi. But when the NAACP held it’s rally yesterday in Columbia they “boxed” a statue of the first President of the United States so that people attending would have their delicate sensibilities offended by actual American history. Via Atlas Shrugs here’s the picture:
Way to bring everyone together! I’m sure people will be willing to listen to your arguments about getting rid of the Confederate flag after witnessing you desecrate a statue to the father of our country, which happens to be the only country in the world where Blacks aren’t getting wiped out or sold as slaves. Nice work.
This is exactly why I support C.O.R.E. over these commies.
Nikki Haley Pushing Transparency Agenda Early
Which is why I voted for her, she’s serious about facing the problems of our state and has real solutions that all rational people could get behind:
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina legislators quickly warmed to Gov. Nikki Haley’s legislative priorities hours after she took office Wednesday.
The Senate Rules Committee approved a rule change that limits voice votes because they don’t show the public what individual legislators wanted with important issues.
The Senate Rules panel also approved a measure that keeps state budgets from advancing for 72 hours so the public and legislators have more time to see how taxpayers cash is being spent. And it also required faster disclosure of ethics complaints against senators once the chamber’s ethics panel finds enough evidence to move forward with an investigation and hearings. All three measures now move to the Senate floor for consideration.
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, a Charleston Republican, co-sponsored the spending bill waiting period measure. He said it may let the public or legislators catch a temporary law change in the budget bill that has unintended consequences.
Meanwhile, the House put a bill on its calendar that requires more roll call votes on budgets in a move that allowed it to bypass committee hearings. The same measure cleared the House with a 104-0 vote last year, but died in the Senate.
“We appreciate the House and the Senate taking these important first steps toward making sure legislators vote on the record and look forward to working with them to make it permanent law,” Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey said.
The advancing legislation delighted Haley’s top allies in the Legislature.
And the people who voted for her. A more transparent government is the foundation from which South Carolina can build a brighter economic future and Haley is making this government more accountable to citizens. This is exactly what South Carolina needed. The budget rules are especially important in a state that is so plagued by local financial mismanagement.
Recession Thinning Ranks of South Carolina State Troopers
We aren’t the only state where police services are being limited by budget constraints and frankly a slower response time is better than no service at all.
Still, this is a problem:
South Carolina Public Safety Department director Mark Keel says people may notice a slowdown in trooper response time to highway incidents as continuing budget cuts are thinning the ranks.
Keel told The State of Columbia that there are 163 fewer troopers patrolling South Carolina’s rural highways and interstates than in 2008 and there is no money to replace them.
Some small rural counties may have to share a single trooper per shift and larger counties may have just three troopers patrolling the interstates and highways at night.
Last year, the average response time for the Highway Patrol was 30 minutes. Keel says he expects that will show an increase for this year and could get worse.
Like I said a problem, but one that has no easy solution. Raising taxes will only limit investment and no matter how business friendly our state is there’s only so much business that can be done in in this economy. Unless the economy as a whole picks up we’re all going to have to live with less service.
Governor-Elect Haley Announces Fiscal Crisis Task Force
I voted for her so expect some coverage here every time she does something I approve of, and as inflation starts hitting America hard due to the Fed’s Zimbabwe strategy it’s more important than ever for our state and local leaders to step up to the plate and start limiting the damage to South Carolina that’s coming once people realize the financial crisis hasn’t even really kicked off yet:
Some tough medicine along with the great ideas. SCBudgetCrisis.org can be found here. The bios of some of the members of her task force were in her website’s press release:
he Fiscal Crisis Task Force includes:
George Schroeder, Chairman. George Schroeder was Director of the South Carolina General Assembly’s Legislative Audit Council for 33 years before his retirement in February 2009. Prior to his service with the LAC, he was Director of the Joint Program Review and Investigations Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly, Legislative Assistant to the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and served as an Intelligence Officer with the United States Army. Mr. Schroeder recently was the recipient of the National Legislative Program Evaluation Society’s 2010 Outstanding Life Achievement Award presented at the National Conference of State Legislature’s Annual Meeting.
State Rep. Nathan Ballentine. State Rep. Nathan Ballentine was elected to the State House of Representatives in 2004 where he has served on the House Education Funding Act Study Committee. A 1998 graduate of South Carolina Bankers School, State Rep. Ballentine works at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (Wachovia) and studied finance and insurance/economic securities at the University of South Carolina. He has served on Finance Committee at Riverland Hills Baptist Church and as Treasurer of Leadership Columbia Alumni Association.
Congressman Henry Brown. Congressman Henry Brown was elected to the United States House of Representatives on November 7, 2000. In 1985, he was elected to the State House of Representatives and served continuously through 2000. He was appointed to the House Ways and Means Committee in 1989, and in November 1994, he became the first Republican ever elected to serve as chairman of Ways and Means. During his tenure on Ways and Means, Congressman Brown was also elected chairman of the Joint Tax Study Commission and served as a member of the Budget and Control Board, the Legislative Audit Council, and the Joint Bond Review Committee.
State Sen. Tom Davis. A graduate of Furman University and University of Maryland School of Law, State Sen. Tom Davis is former chief of staff to Gov. Mark Sanford and a former member of the South Carolina State Ports Authority board. State Sen. Davis has also served on the Beaufort County Planning Board, the Lowcountry Council of Governments, the Historic Beaufort Foundation and the Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority.
Ashley Landess. Born in Spartanburg, Ashley Landess is President of the South Carolina Policy Council. Her 23 career in communications includes public policy work as well as consulting for private businesses and charitable organizations. Landess has been President of the South Carolina Policy Council since January 2008. Prior to assuming this position she previously served as its vice president for public affairs from 1998 to 2008. Landess served on the South Carolina Lottery Commission, the Governor’s Health Care Task Force and was appointed to chair the School District Consolidation in 2005 by Governor Sanford.
Looks like a good start. And none too soon considering how far tax revenues will drop in 2011. I’m glad Haley is going to be governor in these dark times.
SCDOT: “Hey, Who’s Up For Raising Gas Taxes So We Can Keep Wasting Money?”
Yet again we see a professional bureaucrat, unaware of the Laffer Curve, deciding that you and should pay more so that he can continue throwing money at his cronies. This time it’s Department of Transportation Secretary Buck Limestone who, faced with the same recession related drop in funds all Americans are dealing with, has a not so novel suggestion – raise taxes on fuel:
COLUMBIA — A tax increase at the gas pump for the first time in more than two decades could hit drivers next year.
Lawmakers will consider a recommendation when they return in January to raise the gasoline tax by 5.5 cents, from 16.75 cents to 22.25 cents a gallon, along with a financial doom-and-gloom message from state Department of Transportation Secretary Buck Limehouse.
Limehouse told lawmakers in a letter he sent Monday that funding is the agency’s biggest challenge. The state gasoline tax pays for road improvements and construction, safety upgrades as well as bridge replacement. That cash is used to pull down federal highway dollars.
The state rate hasn’t been increased since 1987 and is the fourth-lowest in the nation.
The Tax Realignment Commission, a panel of financial experts appointed to study the way the state taxes residents, recommended that the Legislature raise the gas tax as part of a trade-off to lower the overall sales tax rate. The panel recommended the rate fall after a year to 21.75 cents.
Limehouse’s comments came as an update to his annual “State of the SCDOT” report that provides the agency’s latest operational and financial standing. He said the next step is in legislators’ hands: increasing the gas tax is up to them.
“We’re going to have get adequate funding from somewhere,” he said.
Right. The suggested increase is supposedly being proposed to off set an income tax decrease but good ‘ol Buck must be smoking some serious Keynesian wacky weed to think a tax on resources is going to create revenue. Let me see if I can explain to supporters of this why this is a monumentally bad idea.
Gasoline is a resource that is necessary for many of the small businesses we rely on, who will either pass the increased cost along to us or will reach a financial breaking point and move on. The small farmers, contractors, couriers and even the delivery driver from Dominos all survive on what is actually a pretty thin profit margin. As do many part time workers who can only get to work using a car. In conjunction with gas prices going up as a result of Peak Oil and the loss of oil rigs to other countries following the Obama administration’s drilling moratorium these taxes will break many small businesses, especially when you’re talking about delivery heavy industries.
Gas is already being predicted to hit $5/gallon just because of market forces, another five cents a gallon may not seem like much to some bureaucrat, but when you’re delivering your fresh produce to several locations and have a 5-6 trucks filling up a couple of times a day it adds up.
People will alter their behavior to avoid paying taxes, which should be a given in a state that has a population boom caused by north-easterners fleeing high tax states for the Palmetto State . As gas inevitably gets more expensive increasing taxes on it becomes self-defeating because the higher the price of gas the less driving people will do. Those who can’t limit driving will cut expenses in other areas, like entertainment and shopping, to make up the difference. South Carolina will lose economic activity by making people decide between more expensive gas and a expenditures somewhere else.
And what exactly is the payoff here? One need not be an efficiency expert to see that the SCDOT could make due with less money if they did what all Americans are doing now and tightened their belts. The SCDOT benefits package is generous to the point of madness, especially as America circles the drain economically. I dare say there is some fat to be trimmed there.
But look at the self reported expenditures of the SCDOT and you’ll find an organization rife with waste. For example SCDOT spends $191,247,115 for Personal Services which includes a $139, 864 salary for the Executive Director (in a state whee the median income is $39,316) and $4,461,036 in overtime. Another $953,338 was paid out to Per Diem workers. Do you think maybe some pay cuts or lay-offs could be considered before recommending a tax?
The average wage for a SCDOT civil engineer is nearly $70,000. When you count the generous benefits they probably make closer to $90,000. There was a time when people took civil servant jobs for the security knowing they would make less money than the private sector, not they take them so that they can milk the private sector dry and demand more. And when they don’t get it they embezzle it, as we saw in a case from Florence a couple of months ago. Maybe they should get less benefits when there’s a recession?
Americans are being forced to live within their means and it is time the government agencies who work for us start doing the same. before trying to squeeze more money from people already hurt by the recession, why not try sharing in the sacrifice they keep calling on us to make.