Oconee Politics

[alexsaitta]

I read your post and then read on the internet. I think the reactors are actually below one of the rivers. Worst case is they could just flood the entire plant to cool everything off, I guess. Regardless, it makes sense to have potassium iodide pills at the ready.

[SeekingWisdom]

Has anybody heard/read this story about Bill Sandifer, the Oconee Sate House member from back in November? www.fitsnews.com/2010/11/24/what-happens-in-panama/

This guy seems to be, not only a liberal in conservative's-clothing, but also as corrupt and morally bankrupt a politician as there ever has been. Is there any wonder that our sate and our country are in the desperate condition that we're in when we keep electing men & women like this as our political representatives? God please save us from ourselves!

Oh, and DiamondDave, did you notice the advertisement on the right-hand side of the page at the above link? It's an ad thanking Larry Martin for creating more jobs instead of more government...LOL I thought you might enjoy that.

[diamonddave]

SeekingWisdom,I wasn't able to connect to anything online that had anything about Larry Martin, but I did get something in the mail from the group that paid for the ad. On the cover was a man that is looking for work, and speaks of SC's 9.9% unemployment rate. When you open it up, there's a message that we should all thank LM for supporting jobs, along with a picture of LM, & it looks like he's kinda grinning from ear to ear. Could that be because when it comes to getting those fat paychecks from Alice for having to take a dive under the Governor's desk, he's thrilled that it's a woman this time, & he doesn't know what to think of it?
Here's how we can thank LM, when Kohl's opens it's new store in September beside WalMart, let's all be sure to shop there & buy the stuff that Alice imports from China & outsourced over 1500 Pickens County jobs, after 2 decades of taxbreaks being passed in Columbia that put Pickens County at a disadvantage to its neighboring counties wirh industrial recruitment, which as a result has kept industries with thousands of good paying jobs from coming near Alice's mills, 4 of which are now closed except for the import operation that supplys Kohl's in 1 of those mills.
By the way, these ads are being paid for by the SC Realtors Association, which is a group of Columbia area realtors. It's been told there are some Columbia area folks that want to run somebody against LM, but he aparently has some friends in high places there as well.

[diamonddave]

Oh, excuse me folks, I went back, & I found what SeekingWisdom was talking about. The message is to email Paul Campbell, Harvey Peeler, & Larry Martin & say thank you. Well. I say, let Campbell & Peller's constituents show our appreciation in their own special way, but if you want to show LM your appreciation, you might as well wait until September.
Sorry

[SeekingWisdom]

You could show the SC Realtors Association your appreciation for running that ad, by encouraging others to sell their homes themselves on Craig's List or through ForSaleByOwner.com ;D

[diamonddave]

Here's another idea, if we have the opportunity next year, vote Larry Martin outta there! ;D
Unfortunately, we can't do that with Paul Campbell or Harvey Peeler.

[SeekingWisdom]

You know, I'm no particular fan of Larry Martin, I just have a distrust of any politician who's been entrenched in such an ineffective good'ol-boy system for so long. I don't trust him based in part on that, but mostly because I don't like how he's voted on a couple of issues...that's why I'll never vote for him. I've heard all the rumors about him from others before, the ones you speak of here on the board, but because I don't have any knowledge of the facts behind these rumors I'm not going to give them any weight. Now, Sandifer on the other hand seems to have the liberal voting record, and people in the know are talking enough about his bad behavior, to give weight to the rumors about him. Why don't you like Campbell or Peeler?

[diamonddave]

I don't know much about Paul Campbell or Harvey Peeler, they're just the other 2 fellows in the internet add, so I just thought I'd mention them, if for no other reason than credibility that I did find the add. Paul Campbell represents Berkley County(District 44), & Harvey Peeler represents Cherokee, Spartanburg, Union & york Counties(District 14). The folks living in these counties will have their say next year, either in the primary or general election.
However, I have had Larry Martin figured for 30 years, & it doesn't take an Einstein to figure him out, all you have to do is follow the money trail, which has never been more than 8 inches long. That's the length of an Alice paycheck, minus the stub. Knowing whose hand was at the other end, the fact that a pitifully small amount of industries with good paying jobs have come into the area close to Alice's mills ever since LM has been in Columbia half the year while collecting those paychecks is nothing if not totally predictable. This not only has benefeited Alice, but other Pickens area textile mills, over half of which have now closed. Not only that, but it continues to benefeit what few remaining manufacturing operations that are still left standing in the Pickens area, & they will do absolutely anything to keep LM in power.
I'm certainly glad that you'll never vote for him, & I hope there are enough others like that out there this time, because this is a change that's long overdue.

[alexsaitta]

Only a few weeks after praising the Oconee School District for better managing their budgets (all the saving they did in good times), I now have egg on my face with this latest development.

See article. Like the Greenville School Board which has raised tax rates the past two years, Oconee will do the same. So much for living within their means.

When I look at their latest financial audit, I see a fund balance of $25 million on June 30, 2011 relative to a $79 million budget. That's 31%. No doubt they have savings. Our district's is $18 million on a budget of $97 million or 18.5%.

I tend to agree with the council member who said they have savings to cover their budget shortfall. Their school board doesn't need to be raising tax rates.

I do credit Oconee. They are going through a building program and their total debt is $51 million, as opposed to our district which is in the $350 million area.

I think they are in better shape than we are, but at this point it is Pickens that is living within its means, as opposed to Greenville (which rarely has) and Oconee (which was, but seems to be moving in the wrong direction).

The bottom line is the economy is improving, but this won't continue more than a year or so. Another recession is likely. If a district can't live within its current revenue stream, 2 or 3 years from now, it surely won't be able to.

Attachments:

[Deleted]

I've seen it all now. www.independentmail.com/news/2012/may/30/oconee-county-sheriffs-candidate-bartee-arrested-a/

[alexsaitta]

I knew Oconee Schools were going to run out of money sooner or later. They've been giving bigger raises to employees than most districts.

Looking at the numbers, there were looking at a big tax increase, I just didn't think it would be that big.

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Alex it was approved by County Council last night. The SDOC millage increased 8.7 mills or total millage for school operations at 110.1. Total county millage is set at 213.0.

Thanks

Ken
Kenneth E. Nix
Oconee County Auditor
415 South Pine Street
Walhalla, SC 29691
[phone] Phone
[phone] Fax




Confidentiality Notice: This email message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.


From: Alex Saitta [mailto:[e-mail]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 8:04 AM
To: Ken Nix
Subject: Fw: Question

Ken,

Have you calculated the millage increase for the Oconee School District?

Alex

[alexsaitta]

School districts surrounding Pickens County have significantly raised tax rates this year: Anderson 1 raised taxes 5.1 mills, Anderson 4: 5.2 mills, Greenville: 4.7 mills, and Oconee 8.3 mills.

The reason this is occurring is for two reasons. One, most school boards would rather raise tax rates and then have to make the tough decisions to keep them living within their means. Two, the state legislature raised the limit on how much school boards and local counties and cities could raise tax rate. That is one reason we had a big tax increase in the city of Pickens and also in Liberty.

The legislature added section (A)(2) of this law last year.

SECTION 6-1-320. Millage rate increase limitation; exceptions.

(A)(1) Notwithstanding Section 12-37-251(E), a local governing body may increase the millage rate imposed for general operating purposes above the rate imposed for such purposes for the preceding tax year only to the extent of the increase in the average of the twelve monthly consumer price indices for the most recent twelve-month period consisting of January through December of the preceding calendar year, plus, beginning in 2007, the percentage increase in the previous year in the population of the entity as determined by the Office of Research and Statistics of the State Budget and Control Board. If the average of the twelve monthly consumer price indices experiences a negative percentage, the average is deemed to be zero. If an entity experiences a reduction in population, the percentage change in population is deemed to be zero. However, in the year in which a reassessment program is implemented, the rollback millage, as calculated pursuant to Section 12-37-251(E), must be used in lieu of the previous year's millage rate.

(2) There may be added to the operating millage increase allowed pursuant to item (1) of this subsection any such increase, allowed but not previously imposed, for the three property tax years preceding the year to which the current limit applies

[Deleted]

GREENVILLE IS JUST AS BAD AS OCONEE

Greenville County Schools is dipping deeper into its reserve fund for another $1.2 million to help offset a $2.6 million deficit in its budget because the state didn’t allocate the amount expected.

The school board approved taking a total of $14,825,000 from the fund to cover general operating expenses this year. That’s $1,218,000 more than it had planned when the budget was adopted in June.
Because of Gov. Nikki Haley’s vetoes, the state budget process wasn’t completed until after the fiscal year started July 1, and when it was finalized, it didn’t include a “hold harmless” spending proviso worth $2.6 million to the district that had been included last year, district Finance Director Jeff Knotts said.
The district is making up the rest of the difference by shifting $1.1 million that had been designated for special education to the general fund and replacing that with an additional $1.1 million the state was required

[alexsaitta]

In the past I’ve talked about how many school district really have not balanced their budgets in the wake of the Great Recession, because they didn't want to cut spending in the wake of falling and then too slowly growing revenue. Our district made some tough decisions in 2010 and 2011, and that is the reason our budgets have balanced the years following that. Until recently we had built up savings, so that had put us is better shape than most. Our financial situation is starting to weaken again as the board spent most of that savings, but our budgets are at least balance without tax increases, borrowing or spending savings.

I’ve focused on the surrounding districts and how they’ve balanced budgets by running down savings (Oconee) or raising tax rates (Greenville 6 of 7 years) or both (Anderson 1 and Anderson 4).

I was reading an article in the Seneca Journal that talked about how Duke Power’s assessed value in Oconee is falling. In Oconee, the county council has to approve all school district tax increases. This is from the article…

The superintendent said spending into the fund balance (saving account) will be in the neighborhood of $4 million this year. Translation: The Oconee school district budget is spending $4 million more than it is bringing in, and it is spending savings to make up the difference. The article went on to say how the school district wanted a tax increase, but the county council refused to improve it in a 5 to 1 vote.

It is difficult for me to believe, now starting the 6th year of an economic recovery when revenue has been growing for years, the Oconee school district still hasn’t balanced their budget, and by such a wide margin. The day of financial reckoning is approaching. Their savings is running out. The article said this year their account will fall below the 20% threshold required in county policy. By law budgets have to be balanced. And looks like the county council isn’t going to let them raise taxes at all or by much. Unless there is something not mentioned in this article or these figures provide are wrong, it looks like a coming financial shortfall is going to hit over there. Either expenses will have to be cut significantly or taxes raised a lot or a combination of both.

Councilman Reg Dexter made the point – “The school system may have to look at the same thing: reduction in force”.

Continued below.

[alexsaitta]

Continued from above.

On top of that, and what I think most will miss is, a recession is becoming more likely with each passing year. This recovery/ expansion is already longer than average, and a recession will compound all financial problems when it hits.

Oconee is not unusual; another point I've made a lot. Many of the school districts are facing the same longer term financial situation (deficits) because they didn't cut expenses down to the current, lower, much slower revenue growth path they are on now. The next recession will be hard on many school districts around the state.

On the bright side there is no recession in sight and revenue is growing, so districts (as well as households) still have the time to get their financial houses in order.

[alexsaitta]

It looks like Michelin is putting a small operation in Oconee County.

www.gsabusiness.com/news/53183-michelin-site-among-mystery-projects-in-oconee-county