FEEDBACK

6/28: NCAA should stay out of politics

To the editor:

NCAA should stay out of the political arena and in the sports arena. The last bowl game I watched was in 1970, so you can see how important collegiate sports is to me. ACLU stands for Anti-Christian Lawyers' Union. What does NCAA stand for?

-- J.W. Barker, Batesburg, S.C.

6/28: Ridiculous comparison

To the editor:

This is ridiculous to compare the two in deed! Leave heritage and the Confederate flag alone. Tell the NCAA to take a hike. Stop wasting my tax dollars on history gone by and for Pete's sake get on with business. Stop belly aching about a 200-year-old Yankee mistake!!! Thank you!

-- Wendy C. Spivey, Columbia, S.C.

6/28: Leave flag alone

To the editor:

Our State bowed to outside pressure and took the flag off the State House and put it on the grounds in the Confederate memorial. We should never touch that issue again. That should be the end of it. As bad as the economy has been the last three years, tourism has been up. Enough said.

-- Larry Wolfe, Lancaster, S.C.

6/27: Palmetto idea not good

To the editor:

The NCAA should lift its moratorium on the Confederate flag flying at a Confederate memorial on Statehouse grounds. Not that it will matter since any bowl game 2-5 days before Christmas will not be well-attended. Even Clemson and FSU fans don't go to football that week. The stadium idea is not and never was a good one.

-- Ginger Johnson Sottile, Mount Pleasant, S.C.

6/20: Bad example

To the editor:

With investors with Carolina Investors giving only 15 cents on the dollar to their investors, I would look for other investment firms to "belly up" and try this procedure. I sure hope they continue with all the criminal indictments
for each and every officer and CEO .

-- Boyd McLean. Gaffney, S.C.

6/15: State needs more impact fees

To the editor:

This state needs to amend the present developer impact fee legislation so as to allow communities, especially in high-growth coastal communities such as Horry County, to impose it on all new construction in a way that it helps to supplement all services, including public education, that growth creates.

Its imposition would help eliminate the manipulation taking place with property tax versus sales tax as a means of financint the public's necessities. Sales tax and/or caps on residential/commercial property now before our governor for his signature is definitely not the way to go. Both merely pass the long term debt responsibility down to the lowest wage earner or retiree on a fixed income and owning little if any property.

Real property owners should take the bitter with the sweet. Appreciating property is a wonderful investment, but a portion of property tax is deductible. In addition, its sale can return a pleasing profit, but with those benefits come higher property taxes.

-- Bob Logan, president, We the People of Horry County

6/13: Environmental and economic health are connected

To the editor:

I read with great interest your editorial (Commentary, 6/13) on the report generated by the Council on Coastal Futures in Sunday's Florence Morning News. I would be very interested in the actual report and how to acquire a copy.

(Editor's note: If you want a copy of the report, please send an email to feedback@statehousereport.com and we'll send you a copy.)

Our grass roots group in Florence has been campaigning for the same protection of our only natural resource Jeffries Creek, which is threatened by degradation from rapid commercial sprawl of big box development. We have been fighting more than 16 months to protect this watershed from the storm water pollution of a planned SuperCenter and other big box developments.

The connection between environmental health and economic health is one we have been stressing, but thus far has fallen on deaf ears. Thank you so much for your insightful and lucid editorial.

-- Carolyn Jebaily, Chair, Responsible Economic Development, Florence, S.C.

5/31: Disagrees with analysis

To the editor:

I disagree with your analysis (Commentary, 5/30) of the Governor's pigs..It is time we have a Governor who has enough principle to stand up to the Legislators who unfortunately happen to be 90 percent private business surrogates instead of representatives of THE PEOPLE....Standing up to Pork for Private Business risk needs to halt and halt soon or our state will be so far in debt that voters will be forced to fund public services with their own private funds, in addition to taxes. Millions of tax dollars here and millions of tax dollars there to "For Profit Businesses" will mean NONE for tax dollars anywhere...Enough is Enough! Pork is Pork with or without a pig.

-- Bob Logan, We The People of Horry County

5/30: Libertarian applauds Sanford

To the editor:

You say that Governor Sanford "...embarrassed state lawmakers. He embarrassed fellow Republicans, whocontrol the House and Senate." Good for him! It's about time.

You speak of honey versus vinegar, but "honey" is just another word for going along with the Good Ol' Boy system of government. If the people had wanted someone who would just go along with everything, they wouldn't have elected Mark Sanford.

I believe that Sanford was elected because the people wanted to see change, and see more efficient use of taxpayers' money. I am very glad that he has decided to take a stand.

I applaud Governor Sanford for embarrassing legislators who can't seem to eliminate pork from their diets.

-- Doug Kendall, Columbia, SC

4/28: Sounding like Ted Kennedy

To the editor:

Your article on tax cuts (Statehouse Report, 4/18) sounded as though it should be printed in The New York Times. The last paragraph is a familiar tune spouted by the Dems: "....It's nice for lawmakers to give tax cuts to their rich friends."

Take a look at what Florida and Georgia have done with their taxes and the growth that they have seen from Companies coming in and the revenue that it has brought to the state.

You use manufacturing as a defense for your argument though it has been in decline for the last 35 years. Due to high taxes and heavy government regulation most manufacturing jobs have gone to China and Mexico. Any reasonable thinker knows that you do not put your hopes in a job at the textile mill after high school. "Mom and dad worked at the mill and that's what I will do once I get out of high school." That type of thinking will land you on the unemployment line.

It's time to write off manufacturing jobs due to big government driving the costs up so high that we can not compete for jobs that can be done for much less overseas. You were moving more toward the center with your articles but this one sounded like something from Ted (I can't cross a bridge) Kennedy.

-- Jay Auld, Bluffton, SC

4/27: Legislators need to know more about finances

To the editor:

It is evident if you look at the daily agenda and then turn on the live play of the House or the Senate, that no in-depth discussion is going to take place on any given day - or certainly not where any constituent can see.

The games, oh, I'm sorry, rules, are just setups so that ONE individual can hold up or bury legislation that has been discussed in a sub committee where the public can attend and comment. It seems to me that if legislation is of great concern to a representative, then they would make an effort to attend, listen, or speak to the sub-committee members and the public, rather than tack their name on legislation when it is favorably reported out and has finally hit the full Senate agenda.

I would think as a dedicated elected official, that they would at least take the time to review bills on each days agenda rather than holding them up under the pretext that they need to "study" the bill.

As a former government finance officer for 18 years, I can see why the budget got in the mess it's in now. The budget procedure at the local level is very complex and only a DEDICATED elected official will take the time to really understand governmental accounting. With the State having many more layers of power, and taking less time to speak to the ones who know the process, it's no wonder that it isn't on the agenda until the 11th hour.

The chaos could be minimized if the "Budget Power Officials" would talk to the finance professionals (and some really great ones are out there) who know the system and can explain the long-term repercussions of legislation actions. Instead, decisions are based on the many lobbyists and how much pressure they apply; or even worse, legislatures trade "wants" with other legislatures which gets into specialized legislation which this state doesn't have the time or funds for any longer.

Cost cuts:

• has anyone MANDATED that state agencies reduce the vehicle fleets to only absolute needs; how about has any one cut out the redundancy of pagers, cell phones, & car phones;
  
  
• how about the waste of money spent using moving companies every time an agency moves instead of "inmate labor";
  
  
• doesn't anyone look at state surplus before they go out and purchase office equipment and furniture new (the counties do and a lot of times the "surplus" has hardly been used at all).

If these SIMPLE things can not be mandated, then I'm sure I won't see the redundancy of "health and human service" agencies being dissected and centralized in my lifetime - that's going to take some real hard work.

Thanks for keeping me informed and for letting me speak my mind.

-- Deborah Shealy Nye, CGFO, Leesville, SC

4/21: Tax article was breath of fresh air

To the editor:

Seeing your web page for the first time was a breath of fresh air. Your article on taxes was a boost. I had written a Letter To The Editor, which was published about 3 weeks ago in the Sun News, essentially saying the same thing....Such an abundance of tax cut or tax substitution and exchange legislation this election year was making me dizzy and I said so in my letter.

This Election year certainly is bringing the tax maintenance politicians out of the woodwork and so far, the few I have seen, are all regressive as hell. Such ideas of replacing ALL Property Taxes with a 40 percent increase in Sales Tax from 5c to 7c wins the prize. Then we have the one that suggests replacing Golf Course Property tax with a formula based upon the Golf Course Businesses gross profit. That beauty was of course endorsed with legislators who own courses and is gaining muster in the legislature.

To put icing on the cake, we have three proposals to cap Real Property Tax assessments to 15 percent at each 5 year Assessment anniversary unless the property sales. Horry County alone stand to lose over $1.5 million annually on that one.

Then up steps some segregationist who wants to use tax credits to fund Private schools and let parents choose which one they want to send their kids to based on the amount of credit they receive. Problem is, those Private Schools, are not required to live up to any standards of education including the qualifications of their teachers! In addition, the credit some poor families will get, would not fund one year in a Dog Training Course let alone a year for their kids...

So its press and regress in our State Legislature where over 90 percent of them are Business Execs or else work for a Business Exec....I say throw all the bums out and start fresh with representatives who truly represent ALL the people and not just the Business Community. Bigger is not better but enough is enough!

-- Bob Logan, President, We The People Of Horry County

4/19: Chart was helpful part of story

To the editor:

I am the Democratic candidate for House District 32, currently represented by Republican Doug Smith. Although the district is mostly an upper income, traditionally Republican district, some of the precincts are former mill villages where the people will be hurt more than helped by the proposed income tax cut.

Your chart (Statehouse Report, 4/18) helps me show individual families how little they have benefited and how much they have lost by some of the recent tax cuts. I'd love suggestions from others on how to make voters understand the long-term disadvantages of some of our poorly-conceived tax cuts.

-- Alice Hatcher Henderson, Spartanburg

4/7: Evenhanded column

To the editor:

Nice job on the filibuster piece (Column, 4/4). I found it pretty evenhanded and interesting. While you confess to support the seatbelt bill, you did so in an open manner with no surprises. Wow, that's what journalism used to be!!

-- Chris Sosnowski, Charleston