Last year Supervisor Davis tried, unsuccessfully, to impose a new "Fee" (tax increase) on the taxpayers of Berkeley County to fund our Storm Water Management Program. A handful of taxpayers prevented the imposition of this proposed tax increase by attacking, on several fronts, the Administration's interpretation of the program's requirements . For the second year in a row, this small group of Berkeley County taxpayers is contesting the need for the large increases in our Storm Water Management spending proposed in next year's budget. These watchdogs insist that this program and its accompanying mandates can be met, as it has been in former years, with limited spending and, consequently, that spending increases are unnecessary. They have insisted that this program is, very simply put, a cash cow for our spendthrift government. Today's article in the P&C seems to validate that contention.
In the article, Mt. Pleasant officials now suggest that regular road maintenance could be better funded by doubling their existing Storm Water Management "Fees". We would suppose we are forced to give them credit for finally telling the truth and admitting they are using the proceeds of the "Fee" for other purposes than first intended but, that fact doesn't forgive them for insisting the "Fee", when first established, was absolutely needed to meet the requirements of the Storm Water Management Program.
This appears to be one of those "Hey, Mr. Obvious" moments. The Berkeley County watchdog group has been screaming for two years now that this Storm Water Management Program provides greedy governments with the perfect opportunity to impose new taxes under the guise of funding new federal government mandates. In fact, the SWMP is the perfect vehicle for a corrupt government to extort monies from the taxpayers.
The wording of this mandate (SWMP Permit) is extremely nebulous. Much of the list of requirements is open to interpretation. There are countless phrases such as, "may choose to", "can", "may wish to", "if possible", "at a later time", etc. A corrupt government could attach almost any of their existing activities to this mandate. Berkeley County officials have admitted that the activities connected to fulfilling many of the requirements of the existing SWMP Permit have historically been performed by the employees of various departments of Berkeley County government. The cost of performing these activities has simply been transferred over to the SWMP budget. If this volume of man-hours has been transferred to another budget, (SWMP) wouldn't it be reasonable to expect the budgets of the departments in question to have decreased? Not on your life. That would not allow this scam to work.
Forgive us if we are repetitive but these facts bare repeating. Our corrupt government wants to transfer the costs for work usually done by various departments to a NEW BUDGET with NEW FUNDING. That frees up a large portion of the general funding of various departments. This budgeted funding can now be applied to NEW SPENDING. This shell game and new taxation is justified by the contention that the government entity is under Federal Mandate. This contention is the foundation of this fraud. The corrupt government gets to "interpret" the degree of the requirements of the Permit and the amount of funding needed.
The taxpayers of Mt. Pleasant made the mistake of allowing the imposition of these "Fees" in the first place. Now, they have created a monster. The funds are there and, as usual, government officials are going to find a way to spend the money. In this case, being as the "Fee" platform has been established, government officials are free to increase this "FEE" (tax) as they please. Also, the taxpayers seem to have little or no control over where these funds are spent.
The taxpayers of Berkeley County haven't fallen into this pit YET. We still have the opportunity to nip this scam in the bud. The taxpayers of Charleston County and Dorchester County aren't so fortunate. At this stage of the game, it would almost take an act of God to extricate them from their Storm Water Management Program taxing nightmare. As taxpayers have learned from past experience, it is much easier to prevent a new tax than to disallow one after it is in place.
Since the last 3 1/2 years have proven that this "Hope(y) Change(y)" thing is not working, isn't it time for the taxpayers of Berkeley County to put an end to the Liberal mindset that seems to have polluted our County government? We have a great suggestion as to where we can start. First, we are speaking to the taxpayers who live in Council District 3. In case you haven't heard, there is an election being held next Tuesday, June 12th. You have the unique opportunity to save the entire County by electing a TRUE CONSERVATIVE, KEN GUNN to County Council. Secondly, to the other folks in the County, if you know anyone in District 3, give them a call and remind them to vote on Tuesday. While you are at it, ask them to vote against the incumbent and for the CONSERVATIVE, KEN GUNN.
District 3, Incumbent Councilman, Bob Call has voted to:
- continue to take 29% of your property tax relief, increasing your property tax bill almost 20%.
- close the Goose Creek Satellite Office forcing you to foot the bill to drive to Moncks Corner to conduct your government business. Closing this office saved the County $50,000 BUT when you multiply the 27,000 annual visits to this office by the number of miles from this office, to and from Moncks Corner and, then, by $.59 a mile travel cost, you come up with almost $500,000 in additional cost to the citizens. Does this sound like a fair exchange to you?
- buy the fairgrounds property in Moncks Corner ($1.6 MILLION) to build the $20 MILLION "Dan Davis Health and Human Services Campus". Since this purchase, due to changes of authority, parts of this complex will not be built by Berkeley County. Being as this parcel was for sale for over 15 years with no buyer and is more acreage than was needed for the original expanded project, the taxpayers are now left with quite a white elephant.
- give himself a raise.
- have the Berkeley County taxpayers provide him with an I-Pad.
- deprive the School System of their fair share of FILOT revenue prescribed by law.
- impose a SWMP "FEE" on taxpayers living in the unincorporated areas of Berkeley County. This "FEE" would eventually trickle down to Goose Creek and the other incorporated areas.
- purchase the Carolina Nursery property on speculation.
- arrange County Council Rules so as to deprive the 4 Conservatives on Council the ability to participate in any aspect of County government. This arrangement totally disenfranchised the 4 Conservatives and placed County Council under the control of the Liberals.
We have decided that this list could go on into perpetuity so, suffice it to say that Bob Call, over the last two years, has voted with the Democrats to support every aspect of the Supervisor's Liberal agenda. It is a fact that Mr. Call ran as a Democrat the first time he ran for County Council. He lost that race. When he realized he could not get elected in District 3 if he ran as a Democrat, he changed the "D" behind his name to an "R". The big problem for the taxpayers is that he brought his Liberal Democrat philosophy across the isle with him.
We encourage all Berkeley County taxpayers to wake up, get informed, and vote for the true Conservative in every election. If we don't stop the Liberal Agenda pretty soon, it will be too late, not only for our County but for our Country.
2 comments:
GE&P, another example of excellent and accurate reporting on a major item for ALL citizens in the tri-county! It's unfortunate that other media, TV and newspaper, won't get the accurate information our to their customers! We definitely have an "up hill" battle, but a battle worth taking on!! The recent Recall Election in Wisconsin is the perfect example of what regular citizens can do to take back their government! Berkeley County can take a "huge" step in that direction on 12 June 2012 in District 3! The next two elected officials we need to remove should be Councilman Jack Schurlknight and, of course the King of corrupt government, Supervisor Dan Davis!!
Councilmen Pinckney and Steve Davis, I hope you can find the time to read this blog concerning the Stormwater issue! Just as you showed and demonstrated your "courage" for YOUR constituents county-wide during the Stormwater Fee final reading last year, YOU MUST continue to demonstrate your "courage" and vote on the final reading for the 2012/2013 Budget to maintain the approximate $75,000 cost taken from the General Fund year before last! Don't even consider using the approximate $382,000 in last years Budget as a baseline that was UNFUNDED! It was very obvious to me during the discussion of the second reading at the last Council Meeting that the staff and the Supervisor were just grasping at straws and demonstrated their total incompetence and lack of confidence in presenting any meaningful explanation for the huge increase for Stormwater Mgmt in the new budget! I talked with many of your constituents when you made your "bold" and objective decisions last year and they were ecstatic! Obviously, Councilmen Call and Schurlknight must feel that their constituents in the unincorporated areas WANT to be forced to pay the fee or have their taxes misappropriated! As one of your constituents, I am counting on you again!!
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