LOST REVISITED

We are certain all of you remember the famous Local Option Sales Tax issue from years back. BC government tried for several years to get "We the Taxpayers" to agree to this new tax. Twice we rejected it out of hand. It wasn't until County Council gave its word, in writing, that 100% of this tax would be credited to property tax relief that the taxpayers agreed to the increase. This was done by way of a referendum.

Fast forward to Dan Davis' first term of office. In the 2008/2009 budget year, the taking of the 29% was skillfully hidden within the budget, supposedly for only that budget year, and most taxpayers were blissfully unaware of the theft. However, when time rolled around for the 2009/2010 budget process, the cat was out of the proverbial bag when Mr. Davis, again, included the taking of the tax relief money. Mr. Davis realized he would face major opposition to this move so his faithful surrogates jumped to his defense. For months we heard how cash strapped the county was and if we didn't relinquish 29% of our LOST tax relief, the county would literally go belly up. We heard this story repeated by all four of Mr. Davis' Democrat supporters on County Council. This budget was passed and 29% of our tax relief was taken, again.

In the 2010/2011 budget process, the taking of the 29% was, once more, included. We hadn't heard such poor-mouthing from elected officials in all our lives as we heard from Mr. Davis and his other 4 Democrats on Council. "If the money from our 29% wasn't included in the budget, employees would have to be laid off." "The county wouldn't be able to meet its obligations." "The county wouldn't be able to keep the lights turned on." "All the poor little children would starve and they would be forced to sleep outside in four feet of snow." The taxpayers and the 4 Conservative Republicans on Council (Fish, Callanan, Farley, and Mrs. Davis) weren't buying this story. Finally, when Mr. Davis realized he had overwhelming opposition, he and his four other Democrats resorted to breaking Council Rules to adopt the budget. In defense of their actions, Mr. Davis and his four Democrat supporters on Council (Pinckney, Schurlknight, S.Davis, and Call) painted a very grim picture as to what would have befallen the county had they not taken our 29%.

Well, guess what? GE&P knows in advance that this revelation is going to shock one and all but.......THEY LIED. The truth has a funny way of rearing its ugly head when you least expect it. They are not spending the 29% of our tax relief money on employee salaries. They are not spending it on the light bill. They are not using it to meet county obligations. And, they are not feeding and housing those poor little starving, freezing children with it either. Would you like to know where our tax relief money is really being spent?

SIDEBAR: Since GE&P doesn't want to tip our hand prematurely and allow Mr. Davis to realize exactly how much we do know, we will only give you a partial list of his planned uses for our tax relief money. Here goes.

THE DAN DAVIS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES CAMPUS

$20+ Million. This complex is planned to sit on the 16 acres next to Ace Hardware in Moncks Corner. This is the land for which Mr. Davis has negotiated a purchase contract for $1.6 Million (that's $100,000 an acre based on the sellers assessment) without the knowledge of (the four Conservative Republican Councilmen) or approval of Council. This "campus" will not house county offices or agencies. It will house Head Start, DSS, and DEHEC. Last time we checked, these were all either State or Federal agencies. Isn't that sweet? There is much, much more to this story still to come.

THE STEVE DAVIS ST. STEPHEN COURTHOUSE/SENIOR CENTER/LIBRARY

This little project is cheap by comparison. It is projected to cost a mere $3 Million. But, this price doesn't include the cost of the land. Another $318,000 is budgeted for land purchase. Question: Even if you were to pay $10,000 an acre, wouldn't that be a purchase of almost 32 acres? Now, that's a parking lot. On a completely different subject, can anyone help us out and tell us how to correctly spell the word "kickback"?

At this time, we won't go into the projected purchase/renovations of the Food Lion ----$4.75 Million or the construction of a new Emergency Operations building------$9 Million.

All of these and many more of Mr. Davis' pie-in-the-sky ideas (not mentioned yet) would be wonderful, if we could afford them. But, in fact, we can't. When Mr. Davis first took our tax relief money, it was supposed to be for only one year. After three years, he still contended the county would go broke if he didn't keep taking it. Now, we learn exactly how he plans to spend our hard earned tax relief dollars.

Even when we combine the 29% of our tax relief derived from the Local Option Sales Tax with the $10 Million bond that has been issued, (that means more debt) the financing of all of Mr. Davis' new projects still falls short by multi Millions of dollars. Where do you think this additional shortfall will come from?

GE&P has a suggestion. If you think these plans reflect an acceptable expenditure of our tax relief money, sit at home and watch a sit-com next Monday night. If you disagree with Mr. Davis' plans, come to the County Council meeting and voice your disapproval. The Council meetings are held in the Council Chamber at the Administration building in Moncks Corner at 6:00PM on the second and fourth Mondays of each month.

NOTE: Tomorrow we will discuss the fact that Mr. Davis wants to strip County Council of its power of oversight by changing Council Rules. This maneuver you truly won't believe.