I don’t have time today for much, but here are a few topics that might interest y’all:
- Senate finance panel weighs $400 million in tax cuts as part of roads deal — I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that anyone who thinks the first step in raising badly-needed road funding is to cut an unrelated tax by $400 million shouldn’t be allowed to serve on a finance committee.
- One Killed in Oregon as Protest Leaders Are Arrested — I’m curious to know more about exactly what happened on that road last night, but it sounds like the cops have pretty well decapitated this movement, even if not as cleanly as they might have liked. But the other occupiers are still occupying.
- Zika Testing Is Urged for Some Newborns — This is the scariest thing to come from South of the Border in my lifetime. Way, way worse than Killer Bees. At least that was a threat we could laugh at.
- Federal jury finds 2 Midlands men guilty of operating gambling ring — These guys shoulda known: State government controls all the gambling in South Carolina, and doesn’t look kindly on anyone poaching on its turf. Why couldn’t they have shown some respect and gone in for prostitution or shylocking instead?
- Benjamin’s State of the City address — Thoughts on this? I missed it, but The State‘s story (linked) provides a bulleted list of what it covered.
- Special anti-Trump edition of National Review — I’ve meant to blog about this for days. No, I haven’t read it, but I respect the conservatives who were willing to stand up and be counted in this way.
Anyone have any other topics?
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I hadn’t noticed South Carolina having an excess of revenues for education, DSS, etc., so the tax cuts are a problem. The absence of any plan to eliminate the STIB is also a problem. STIB at present seems to have the sole function of insuring that money is distributing politically rather than for the general benefit of the state, and given the comments I’ve heard from some legislators I don’t see that changing if STIB survives.
I’m right there with you on the subject of the Transportation Infrastructure Bank.
I thought the story about the young guy arrested with a “machine gun” and silencer plotting to kill at least thirty people in Milwaukee’s Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center was rather a big deal.
The alleged perp, Samy Mohamed Hamzeh, was recorded by FBI agents and informants.
There’s a bit of irony in the selection of targets. Modern Islamic extremists consider Masonry to be an abomination. But those who pay attention to / have researched the threat know that the harbinger of the Islamic revival in the late 19th century was Sayyid Jama ̄l ad-D ̄ın, a/k/a al-Afghani. He’s regarded as the ultimate source of much modern Islamist thought and activism. From the 1860s through the 1890s, al-Afghani roamed freely across South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and even Europe, using Freemasonry as a vehicle for spiritual reform. He operated through Egypt’s Masonic lodges and was the head of that movement in Egypt.
As it turns out, Muslims in repressive regimes at the time realized that the British import of Freemasonry offered a cover for secret meetings that the police would not bother. So al-Afghani could establish a network dedicated to Islamic revival using an organization that was not a threat to the status quo.
My main point is that law enforcement scored another big win and saved the lives of many innocents. That’s good.
A hit on the Masons? I was sure this had all the earmarks of a hit by the rival Moose Lodge.
Hey, if the victims were to be Masons, I’d expect us Catholics to be suspected before Muslims…
A machine gun with a silencer, huh?
Too bad they didn’t include a picture with that.
I wonder what it was, really…
We have politicians that honestly believe South Carolina citizens are taxed way, way too much and that’s what holds South Carolina back.
These legislators are also known as pandering fools.
I know folks that had rather have the lying video poker folks back, or put casinos at Myrtle Beach than pay their fair share of money so that the roads they drive on or in at least decent condition (like that would solve the problem- it won’t – casinos across the country are closing in many areas, and revenue continues to fall).
I call these folks free-loaders. They want something but don’t want to pay anything for it.
They expect road paving employees to work for the same wages as they did in 1987. Yet these same people wouldn’t work a second for the same pay they made in 1987.
Sorry, but until I see a prioritized list of where specifically any new tax revenue will be spent on roads, I won’t ever support it. Whichever roads are currently in poor condition are a result of prioritizing new roads over repairs. What assurances do we have that fixing roads will be the #1 priority?
If they say 100% of new revenues will go to road and bridge repairs, then we can talk. But then there should be a five year limit on the tax increase so that we can determine whether they actually used the money wisely before making it (like all taxes) permanent.
Doug you are so tiresome on this issue. There are plenty of paving projects ready to go that only lack funding. I just got off of I-26 eastbound between Lake Blvd and I-20. It’s deteriorating at an alarming rate. The DOT is probably a much better steward of people’s money than Goldman Sachs or J.P. Morgan. J.P. Morgan just gave Jamie Dimon a 35% pay raise. And please don’t even mention that they are private entities. What these big, reckless banks do has a profound affect on the welfare of all Americans. After all they were the ones who foisted the worst economic downturn in 80 years. All the DOT is trying to do is pave a few roads. Won’t happen without money. Since the gas tax has remained the same for 30 years seems like a pretty modest proposal at a time when gasoline is selling for $1.60.
You’ve got the money and you’ve had the money. Show me the list of prioritized repairs. Where is it? Tell me which roads ate being repaired TODAY with the money they have. I know they wasted six months fixing a curve on a back road in Blythewood that wasn’t in bad shape … oh, and that fixed road was one of the first ones to wash out in the flood and was closed the longest. Rimer Pond Rd. I also saw one road near Blythewood that was full of potholes recently . They came to fix them one day and filled in half of them.. not by size, not by location like one side of the road, but just half of them. They literally went past some potholes to fix others. That’s government efficiency.
Yes, the bad roads are the big banks fault. It’s always someone else’s fault.
I know they wasted six months fixing a curve on a back road in Blythewood that wasn’t in bad shape
-Doug
You know no such thing. Knowing and inferring are two very different things. Just ask George W. Bush about what the British learned. It may not have looked in bad shape to your untrained eyes but it was probably a legitimate, low cost safety project. Doug there’s a real shortage of money in this state to fix roads. Since the end of the Bush recession people have been driving less and in substantially more efficient cars. (That did change a bit last year). Why is so hard to understand that there just isn’t enough money in the maintenance budget. It’s not made up. It’s not my opinion. No one seriously denies it. Why don’t you give Richland Maintenance a call some time and ask them about the potholes rather than bitch and moan on Brad’s blog. Perhaps there’s a reasonable explanation.
I know that curve Doug. I disagree with you. I thought that curve was very dangerous. They could have probably straightened it even more.
I am on that road every single morning with 2 of my children.
However, I have no problem if with an increase in funding, they also create an officer of inspector general inside the highway department that is a watchdog with teeth.
Only bud can turn a discussion about a curve in a road into an indictment of George Bush.
A budget is a budget. Someone decides to spend money in one place instead of another.
Actually the big banks are indirectly at fault for the bad roads. They ruined the economy which led to less travel and less money available for road maintenance. Good point Doug.
Same economy that you claim Obama has fixed for the past several years? That one? Or is it a different economy?
Jeez… I suppose you don’t put your money in banks, don’t invest in any mutual funds, don’t have a mortgage, don’t take loans.
The I-95 at I-26 interchange (getting onto I-26 from I-95 south) is in terrible condition. It’s like the surface of the moon. It’s in terrible condition. I am on that interchange on a regular basis due to my extensive business travel.
Also, large trucks have to almost stop to navigate that on ramp without tipping over. It’s pathetic.
Broad River Rd is a mess. The bridge over I-20 is awful and is so overloaded I would not be surprised if it actually collapses one day resulting in many deaths.
Barry, I lived in the closest neighborhood to that curve for 15 years. They closed the road for MONTHS and there was rarely any work going on during that time. It wasn’t dangerous except for people who exceeded the speed limit significantly.
Imagine if those millions of penny tax dollars were actually spent on roads instead of bike paths and kickbacks. But, no, NEXT TIME there’s a big pot of money, they’ll spend it wisely. Past performance has no bearing on future excellence.
I’m right there with you on the penny tax. It’s turned into a slush fund for politicians.
The bridge over the Wateree on I-20, near Camden, is truly awful. Scares me every time I cross it. I think there is a list of bridges in the state are substandard/dangerous. They should be the first priority. None of that revenue should go anywhere else but roads and bridges. I think Doug’s suggestion of an initial five- year limit may make it more palatable to conservatives.
I’m ok with that.
But I fear South Carolina is facing a major road or bridge collapse in the next few years if something doesn’t change.
South Carolina’s roads are more crowded than ever.
Brad, if you haven’t yet read all of the “Against Trump” essays that are available online, I encourage you to do so. I think there are 22 or so brief essays included in the “symposium”, in addition to various other pieces concerning Trump.
What’s interesting is that there is quite a variety of arguments. I read some that I thought were a little too broad, or off-target, or beside the point, but there were at least a dozen with which I concurred wholeheartedly.
I mean, Glenn Beck talks trash about Bill Kristol all the time, but they were on the same side here.
Here’s something interesting, if not exactly newsworthy:
I get email from many of the GOP candidates’ campaigns. Sometimes, they’re personalized (Jeffrey, Thursday’s debate will be the last before voting officially begins in the Republican Presidential nomination process, and in the blink of an eye, the South Carolina Primary will be here!).
Well, for reasons I don’t understand, the Cruz campaign thinks my name is Bill:
Dear Bill, Unless the report below is wrong, I haven’t heard back from you yet regarding my final push to win Iowa…
Yeah, Ted, I don’t think you’ll be hearing from Bill.
That reminds me…
Awhile back, I downloaded the Lumosity app. It provides you with little daily brainteaser games to keep one’s gray matter ticking.
The app is constantly offering me encouragement no matter how badly I do on the games, calling me “John.” Nice going there, John! and so forth. I forget how that got started. Maybe I invented a pseudonym when I registered, to keep from getting constant sales pitches urging me to sign up for the paid version of the service.
Anyway, I find this reassuring. No matter how badly I do on the games, I can always say to myself, “Lumosity is dumber than I am. It thinks my name is John…”
Of course, if “John” someday wins a contest to meet the girl who used to be in the Lumosity ads, I’ll be out of luck…
I’m picturing Lumosity as Simon, the officious TV producer from “A Hard Day’s Night,” telling me, “If you don’t cooperate, you won’t get to meet Susan.”
Or, in this case, Emily….
It’s probably OK. I heard she was a drag. A well known drag.
Some excellent reporting on the gas tax debate in the Senate by The Nerve. Tom Davis makes too much sense. There’s plenty of excess money projected to come in to spend on fixing roads… except Hugh Leatherman has his own plans. The same Hugh Leatherman who runs a “minority” owned business that takes in millions of dollars of state money for roads.
http://thenerve.org/news/2016/01/27/road-tempers/
South Carolina does not have “excess money” — not with such needs as DSS caseworkers to protect children’s lives, and poor, rural schools.
And Tom Davis is a great guy. He does not, however, always make sense…
They have the money to make a prioritized list of areas to address. You can’t have everything. Start with the most important items first. Fix roads or new roads? Which comes first?
Maybe they prioritized which potholes to fill first.
Do you trust Hugh Leatherman to deliver the type of reform needed for schools and roads? He has the power, not Nikki Haley.
It’s apparent that Senator Leatherman has little shame and no opposition to his appetites. I wonder if Bryan could chime in with an opinion regarding tar and feathering, whether it’s a crime or civic duty.
Hypothetically, of course. Just a notion. Right now.
For the rest of you: where’s a person to get a pitchfork at a reasonable price?
In this country, it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, in order to encourage the others.
I had to smile when I saw this. Finally a bit of justice for the good guys:
Planned Parenthood case took ‘stunning’ turn. From MSNBC.com: 🙂 🙂 🙂
The anti-abortion activists behind the undercover Planned Parenthood videos were indicted by a grand jury during an investigation initially conducted to look into Planned Parenthood’s alleged wrongdoing. MSNBC’s Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber joins Jose-Diaz …
http://www.msnbc.com/jose-diaz-balart/watch/planned-parenthood-case-took-stunning-turn-609107523577
They were indicted for having fake drivers licenses.
Charges will be dismissed.
Here’s a PERFECT example on today’s The State webpage. We all know that there are roads in Richland County that are either in bad shape (not crumbling, but in need of repair) and there are other roads that need widening due to improper planning during the high growth years. So what does Richland County think is a great place to spend millions of dollars?
“The estimated cost to build a stadium at Richland Northeast, if the district chooses to pursue it, is $7.1 million. At Ridge View, a stadium could cost $8.9 million to take into account a more challenging topography.”
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article56926028.html#storylink=cpy
$17 million dollars for high school football stadiums. And don’t tell me “Oh, but that’s bond money which is different from regular tax dollars”. That’s the problem. They cry poor about the roads while building $20 million dollar elementary schools with all the bells and whistles (but still churning out average students). Nobody in office has a clue about prioritizing spending and good stewardship of other people’s money.
Do we want better roads or more football stadiums. Choose.
Keven Cohen stated on his radio show the other day that the new River Bluff High School cost $138 million. Can anyone corroborate that? If so that is a stupendous amount of money that could be used for infrastructure issues.
Speaking of infrastructure we haven’t talked much (if any) about the colossal tragedy of the Flint MI water supply. This is a good example of what happens when you run government like a business. Gov Snyder should immediately resign as this venture capitalist has clearly demonstrated his lack of competence in governing. This example clearly demonstrates why we absolutely, positively do not need a business person to be elected POTUS. The two skill sets don’t match. It also demonstrates that our infrastructure, in this case the water pipes, need attention and money. And please let’s not go down this path of pointing out examples of waste in government. Sure we need to get rid of waste; who would argue that. But it’s not possible to eradicate every scintilla of waste before we act. That’s a fools errand. Flint MI underscores the foolishness of that approach.
Bud, I visited River Bluff HS a couple of months ago. My jaw dropped when I arrived, from what I saw $138 million wouldn’t surprise me.
The situation in Flint seems like a failure of government at every level.
I’m not sure the local government carries much blame. Local elected officials were removed by the state and replaced with emergency managers appointed by the governor. And Detroit put them in an ugly position in having to pull water from the Flint River in the first place.
On the other hand, this is a problem that cannot be solved without government intervention.
Yeah, the fact that the local officials had to be “relieved of their command” (so to speak) is evidence of their failure.
I haven’t known what to say about the Flint situation. I’m slightly confused about it.
For instance, Bud blames the governor, which I’ve heard others do. But I don’t get why. What was the governor’s involvement in a city’s water problem? Unless Michigan is like SC, only more so, with regard to central control (our legislators HATE letting local governments handle their own business), AND the governor is a LOT more powerful than ours… it doesn’t make sense. Why the governor?
Although, as always, I agree that it’s foolish to speak of running government like a business, or to think there’s significant overlap between the skills needed to succeed in business and those required to accomplish things in public life.
I just don’t understand why we’re talking about the governor…
Michigan has a law which allows the governor to appoint emergency managers in any city the state government deems to be in financial crisis. Flint is one of those cities. Any decisions made by the local (now unpaid officials) must be approved by the emergency manager. Governor Snyder appointed the emergency managers in Flint.
In this case, Flint had decided to change their water source to a different supplier. Detroit, which had been supplying their water, fought them, and when they (Detroit) lost the battle, they terminated Flint’s water supply before the new supplier had pipelines laid to Flint, forcing Flint to pull water from the Flint River.
The Michigan version of DHEC told Flint that water from the river did not need to be treated, so it was not. Without treatment, the river water corroded the lead pipes feeding the homes of Flint.
Flint residents have been aware of a problem for over a year. Michigan’s DHEC and Snyder denied there was a problem, dismissing warnings from many sources. Whatever issues the local government had, they did not cause the lead poisoning of the thousands of children in Flint.
And now they are saying that the filters they have been distributing to the citizens of Flint may not be good enough.
According to the latest reporting, the Flint debacle was the result of a stimulus package gone bad. It wasn’t an austerity measure after all as you can read in the report at the link:
Where are the adults when one needs them?
Yes- $138 million is about right. I was on that site when they were doing site prep work. It was incredible.
China Construction built that school.
I am in Kershaw where the tax-payers balk at fixing the leaking roof of one of the high schools.
I too was on site when the building was about 50% complete. If you want to see how some of the money was spent, take a look at the expensive etched glass railing at several locations on one wing plus stainless steel railing scattered through-out the building. The company who furnished and installed the glass railings is Viva Railings located in Carrollton, Texas. The package total was in the $1 million range. The project is one of the highlighted projects on their website if you care to check it out. Just type in Viva Railings in the search box. You will have to navigate until you find the one under the category Shoe, Shoe Glass and it will show the photos of some of the railings your tax dollars paid for.
All of the products were imported from India and/or China, fabricated in Texas, and installed by crews from Texas. Great, not one dime of the decorative railing money spent on local labor or material. Think about it. Approximately $1 million that went totally out of the state on this one item. How much more was spent on out of state subcontractors and material suppliers. Well, at least the architects were local, Carter Jump Cease.
Well- they did buy lunch and eat dinner when they were working on the high school – so there is a little local money.
When I was on that site, a food truck (and not a nice looking food truck) came out to the site and construction guys overwhelmed it. One of the employees out there told me that the food truck came out there every day and sold a bunch of lunches.
Of course, who knows if the food truck was paying any taxes on sales. From the looks of it that day, I doubted it.
We don’t ever need a single football stadium.
Of course, that’s me. But we don’t govern according to what I think is important, or you think is important. We have to take into consideration what other people think is important.
How many times have we had this conversation?
In a republic, you, Doug Ross, will ALWAYS see money spent on things you don’t think we need. Always, if the system is working as it should. And guess what? SO WILL I. That is a GIVEN. It is not a legitimate reason NOT to spend money on things we DO need. Only if you get to be absolute ruler will you be able to say “choose one or the other.” That just does not happen in a representative democracy. Nor is it supposed to.
Yes, argue against the things that you think we shouldn’t spend money on. We should all do that. But accept that quite often, you are going to lose that argument, and that is NOT an indication that the system is screwed up. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. And it makes ZERO sense to say, when that happens, that we should therefor not spend on actual needs, such as safe roads.
Government will always, always, ALWAYS spend more than you want it to, more than it would if you got to make every decision and set priorities as though it was your personal budget, and that does not mean it is broken…
Give the people the actual choice to influence priorities and we’d see a different result. All the different bonds, taxes, fees, etc. go into separate buckets that can’t be accessed for priority items. Why can’t we do away with the hospitality tax and channel it to a general fund? Why do we need a feeakin’ penny for roads but can’t spend those pennies on fixing roads?
The system is by design too complex and convoluted for the average citizen to understand or impact.
One sentence in the National Review article really caught my eye. It cites Trump’s candidacy as a warning to the GOP and a lesson, including: “If (the GOP) cannot advance a compelling working-class agenda, the legitimate anxieties and discontents of blue-collar voters will be exploited by demagogues.”
Well, when has the modern GOP ever shown much if any concern for the working class? Only when pushing the hot button of cultural issues, certainly not on economic issues. It’s the very disdain for the working class (the “47%” and “takers vs. makers” type comments) and the deification of the wealthy that has, in part at least, made a frighteningly-strong Trump candidacy possible.
I don’t think “working class” when I think of Mitt’s “47 percent” outrage. I don’t think he would have used that term either, even in his own mind. There are probably a lot more working class people in that number than he thinks, but again, I don’t think that’s what he meant.
And I’m not sure what you mean by “deification of the wealthy.” Yes, they do go on about how great “job creators” are. But conservatives also extol people who work hard to put food on the table and pay a mortgage.
Where the right-wing falls down is in failing to recognize how many of those hard-working, “deserving” folk rely on the things they excoriate, such as Obamacare, or food stamps.
File under “Another Day, Another Example of Government Stupidity”
“The admiral in charge of Navy intelligence has not been allowed to see military secrets for years”
“Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch has been barred from reading, seeing or hearing classified information since November 2013, when the Navy learned from the Justice Department that his name had surfaced in a giant corruption investigation involving a foreign defense contractor and scores of Navy personnel.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/27/the-admiral-in-charge-of-navy-intelligence-has-not-been-allowed-to-see-military-secrets-for-years/
Doug’s a real glass-half-empty guy when it comes to government. What would be REALLY bad would be if he weren’t being barred from seeing classified material, or if he weren’t being investigated, or if you weren’t reading about it in the Post — all of which would be highly likely in the private sector.
No question, it’s an insane situation, and now that it’s run so long, he should have been relieved and assigned to less-sensitive duty LONG ago. I suppose the Navy didn’t think the investigation would take this long. No one would take much note if the investigation had lasted a month. But by now, someone should have said, “OK, this is obviously going to take a while,” and transferred him — long, long ago.
Keep in mind that he hasn’t been found to have done anything wrong. He just hasn’t been cleared, therefore this absurd situation.
And it’s especially outrageous because it’s lasted 800 days. Only once when I was growing up did my Dad, a career Naval officer, hold the same post for that long (when we lived in Ecuador). All his other assignments were a year, or two at most.
I take that back. He MIGHT have been stationed in Orlando (shore duty at a training school) for three years — but that was after I was grown and married and living far away, so I’m not sure…
On the gas tax issue, I think we need a clean bill raising the gas tax. Changing highway authority is likely a good idea, also. We have too many “special” license plates in this state for sure (designating politically appointed commission members).
On cutting other taxes, I see that as a separate issue. Our sales tax needs some overhaul and would be my choice for the first trade-off. But I think the legislature should let any offsetting taxes ride for at least a year and build a large reserve fund. Recession will be coming again, sooner or later. That’s the time to have some capacity for smoothing out revenue dips and cutting taxes where it would help boost economic activity. Local and state cutbacks were a big cause of slowing job growth after the 2010 end of the federal stimulus act.
An option for some of the money would be to pay off some of the higher-yielding bonds (near 5%) that are callable, saving money for the future. Personally, I wouldn’t like it because I love those high-yielding tax-free SC bonds, but I think it could benefit the state. I doubt we would be issuing at high rates for a while, and during a recession, we could very likely borrow at killer-low rates.
I’m with you on your analysis, Harry. A lot of people don’t realize how much state government cutbacks (across the country), held back growth after the recession.
States are beginning to use analytics to determine how much to reserve/add to rainy day funds to even out the effects on government services during recessions. Data driven decision making is a huge trend in public administration, but politics often inhibit making good data driven decisions.
I am also for a clean gas tax increase bill. We won’t get it – but that’s what I prefer.
As part of that increase, I’ve long advocated for an ombudsman and small staff to be a watchdog over the funds and publish an annual report on the monies raised, spent, and specific work done along with completion dates, photos, etc…
But that makes way too much sense.
Agreed, Barry. But since we won’t get what is obviously necessary to ensure the tax increase funds are spent wisely, the answer should be NO. Let’s see some political compromise that Brad harps on. You want the money, you have to allow it to be spent with oversight. And I would prefer it be temporary (five years) so we can see evidence of addressing the problem.
I have no problem with that. It makes good sense. It’s reasonable.
It won’t happen though and we know that – and that is the sad part.