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Post by diamonddave on Nov 15, 2012 19:20:05 GMT -5
 I received a post card today with pictures of Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Larry Martin. That's two moderates and one conservative. Don't you wish we had better choices?  I got that card too. It's the 3 Stooges as far as I'm concerned. What happened? Ohio kicked out Moe & Curly, & the folks in Pickens County are still stuck with Larry  Knuk, knuk, knuk!!!!!!!!!!! |
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russo
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Post by russo on May 6, 2013 13:43:28 GMT -5
Larry Martin is in the news again.......seems like he's affiliated with a group that is interested in leading those in areas of government who aren't Christian into accepting Christ. Since I'm a Christian, I'm all for it! The problem that in my opinion has arisen is that Sen. Martin has sent out a letter on his official letterhead to state agencies soliciting donations (taxpayers funds) to assist in financing a golf tournament in Myrtle Beach on June 1st. Does this make any sense? I know that this isn't the place to use tax dollars, you'd think Martin would see that for himself. I believe this just points out how far out of touch he has become. He has risen to such a lofty position that he believes he can do whatever he wants, we voters in Pickens County need to show this jerk the door and see that he goes out at our earliest opportunity.
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russo
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Post by russo on May 7, 2013 8:42:35 GMT -5
UPDATE! Larry Martin says he allowed his name to be used to solicit contributions for the event, however he did not know that state agencies would be contacted. In fairness, if that's the case he has my apology.
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Post by diamonddave on Oct 22, 2013 15:03:24 GMT -5
Larry Martin is in the news again.......seems like he's affiliated with a group that is interested in leading those in areas of government who aren't Christian into accepting Christ. Since I'm a Christian, I'm all for it! The problem that in my opinion has arisen is that Sen. Martin has sent out a letter on his official letterhead to state agencies soliciting donations (taxpayers funds) to assist in financing a golf tournament in Myrtle Beach on June 1st. Does this make any sense? I know that this isn't the place to use tax dollars, you'd think Martin would see that for himself. I believe this just points out how far out of touch he has become. He has risen to such a lofty position that he believes he can do whatever he wants, we voters in Pickens County need to show this jerk the door and see that he goes out at our earliest opportunity. Well, the voters had what was probably their best chance to show that jerk the door last November 6, & once again they blew it. You can say what you will about how Barrack Obama was re-elected after 4 years of his wrecking the country & you'd be right, but at least with 2016 there's the 22nd amendment. With LM there'nothing to stop him from running again. By my math, what the Pickens County voters did after 32 years of LM with few companies coming close to Alice's mills was 8 times as bad. Sometimes you get what you vote for! |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2013 15:34:26 GMT -5
Received a note this afternoon that Ed Harris will run again for the State House position in Six Mile. Hooray!
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Post by alexsaitta on Jan 3, 2014 8:12:47 GMT -5
I went to the local state delegation meeting last night at Dacusville. There were about 70 people there. The subjects ranged from roads, to taxes to schools. I focused on the school issues. 14 people said they didn't want a 7th seat added. 2 said they did. The notion 6 school board seats somehow favors Easley, but adding a 7th seat in Easley won't help Easley, that "logic" is beyond me.
There was a lot of, are you really Republicans? The election for the Skelton seat has started. I would say Ed Harris will win that seat. It appears Hiott is going to be challenged too.
The level of unhappiness is slowly rising as income growth is limited, employers are pushing employees for more production and inflation is rising due to all this money printing. I think this comes to a head in a few years, and it is then when incumbents are really going to have to worry.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2014 14:04:08 GMT -5
;D I heard BR Skelton said he will not run again. ;D
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Post by columbia on Feb 25, 2014 15:40:25 GMT -5
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Post by liberty on Mar 12, 2014 5:57:56 GMT -5
Do you feel you have to be a government watchdog? More people are now paying attention to our elected officials, and getting personally involved to protect our rights. You have a chance to make a difference. Michelle Wiles is running for the 4th House District seat in the South Carolina Legislature. Will you support sending one of our own to Columbia?
For those of you who have not met Michelle yet, she has hosted several political forums and classes on the U.S. Constitution. She has worked on campaigns to elect good people to our state and local government. She voices her ideas on local talk radio as both a caller and an occasional show co-host. She interacts with many lawmakers in the Upstate and Columbia. Michelle ran, won, and performs the duties of Vice Chair in our Pickens County Republican Party.
Michelle Wiles is the real deal. Her conservative positions were in place before long before this election. She has been living her political beliefs all her life.
Michelle has met with hundreds of concerned people like you who worry about gun rights, road conditions, and government spending in South Carolina. She has also talked with county and city government leaders about their needs. The response has been overwhelmingly positive throughout her campaign. This is our chance to put someone in office that will place Pickens County first when she represents SC House District 4 in Columbia.
Did you know your tax money paid to Columbia is not coming back home to Pickens taxpayers? The SC Legislature mandates that Pickens County provides services to its citizens like magistrates and jails, and the Legislature is supposed to provide funding for these services. The state legislature has cut funding to counties over the past three years, leaving the Pickens County Council with the problem of making up for the millions they were shorted. That means your tax money paid to Columbia is not coming back home, but you might have to pay more local taxes one day to make up for it. You are paying taxes twice for the same services.
Do you want to pay more gas tax? There are legislators constantly trying to raise gasoline tax to pay for road repairs, but the appointed board that decides which counties will get road repairs favors the lower part of the state. They build roads no one asks for in our coastal counties. The problem is not a lack of funding for roads. The problem is a lot of waste. Raising the tax on gas is a lazy way of addressing the real problem of too much waste and misplaced road priorities.
Enthusiasm for Michelle’s run for SC House is amazing as she meets with community volunteers. People are quick to express their dissatisfaction with our current leadership, and ask for the same approach to government that Michelle has championed for years.
VOTE June 10th! VOTE Michelle Wiles!
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Post by alexsaitta on Jan 8, 2015 18:51:19 GMT -5
Tonight was the delegation meeting in Easley, at the old West End Hall. I said this to the delegation.
The next few months you will hear a lot of calls to spend more money on this or more money on that. As always, there will never be enough money. At some point, the focus needs to be on reducing unreasonable spending. If we can reduce that, we can redirect that money toward core services.
For example, state law gives school district employees 12 to 15 paid sick days a year – 59-1-400. That’s beyond the norm. It is also unfair to ask taxpayers who maybe get 5 paid sick days a year, to pay for government employees to get 12 to 15 paid sick days. This is in addition to breaks and holidays and vacations that full-time employees are given.
There are so may sick days given under the law, that our school district pays employees a bonus for not using them. Each year the district pays out about $300,000 in bonuses to employees leaving the district or retiring for sick days not used, but accumulated. That’s education money spent on those bonuses, that could better be used redirected to instruction, the classroom or paying existing employees.
Another example. By law (59-25-45) the district has to pay some employees medical coverage for working as little as 15 hours a week. Others as little as 20 hours a week. Like the sick day law, this may have made sense years ago, but things have changed. I would raise it to at least 24 hours, if not 30 hours a week.
Again, it is unfair to ask taxpayers to pay for medical coverage for government employees working 15 and 20 hours a week, when they have to work 30 hours a week to get coverage themselves.
Those are two examples of laws that need to be changed, so school districts free up money that can be redirected to instruction, the classroom or existing employee pay. I hope you will consider supporting these two changes.
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Post by alexsaitta on Jan 13, 2015 9:27:45 GMT -5
The next few posts are from Steve Hayne's notes he sent out concerning last week's delegation meeting.
The Pickens County Legislative Delegation held a public meeting on January 8, 2015 at the W.A. Carr Conference Center at West End Hall in Easley, South Carolina. The state legislators in attendance were Senator Thomas Alexander (Senate District 1), Larry Martin (Senate District 2), Representative Gary Clary (House District 3), Representative Davey Hiott (House District 4), Representative Neal Collins (House District 5), and Representative Joshua Putnam (House District 10). Senator Martin led the meeting, addressing the audience and calling them up to speak.
5:30 PM Senator Martin welcomed everyone and started the meeting. Representative Hiott gave the invocation. Everyone said the Pledge of Allegiance. Then each member of the delegation introduced himself, telling the audience about their districts and committee assignments.
Organizations active in Pickens were scheduled to make presentations as part of the agenda.
5:38 PM The first person to address the delegation was Eleanor Hare of the League of Women Voters. Mrs. Hare identified herself as a computer scientist then spoke about voting machines and available technologies. The SC Election Commission will be soliciting for voting machines in 2015. My note taking could not keep up with the numbers being given, but Mrs. Hare gave me a printout of the information that was also given to the delegation. That information included comparisons of different types of electronic voting and ballots along with the costs of hardware and software licensing.
It was pointed out that voting machines in use now are used no more than five times a year, and only in use for ten years. The machines are used about twenty times before they become obsolete.
The position of the League of Women Voters is that it wants paper ballots, and the LWV opposes the use of bar codes on ballots (humans cannot read them) except for a bar code that is identical on all ballots and used only to align the ballot in the scanner.
5:48 PM Next was Cherie Walker, Director of Guardian ad Litem Children’s Services Council of Pickens County. The delegation was given a report on the program and the following figures: 10,551 children came through the program statewide in 2014 and were served by 2095 volunteers. 619 of those children were in Pickens County, served by 125 volunteers. Pickens County is the 14th largest county in the state, but 4th in child abuse cases. Ms. Walker asked for help and recruitment of more volunteers.
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Post by alexsaitta on Jan 13, 2015 9:28:26 GMT -5
More from Steve's email.
5:53 PM The Agenda had “Comments from Public” printed on it with only Johnnelle Raines, Upstate Director of South Carolina Parents Involved in Education (SCPIE) listed.
Mrs. Raines began by thanking those delegation members who have helped in the effort to fight Common Core in this state. She then stressed that the new standards being created in SC are nothing more than a rebranding of Common Core standards, and SCPIE position is that this is not acceptable. After stating SCPIE’s concerns Mrs. Raines continued with the views she and many people in Pickens County share. Support Senator Lee Bright’s anti abortion bill, S.96. Restore State funding of public education. She asked the delegation members to sign a petition to stop the Pickens County School Board from raising property tax millage in the county. Support Senator Larry Grooms’ bill, S.24, which would have education funds follow the child. Support Representative Chip Limehouse’s bill, S.3087, that seeks to close our primaries, and again the delegation members were asked to sign cards that petition our state government to close the primaries. No gas tax increase. End Obamacare in SC. Fight Obama’s amnesty. Fight homosexual marriage in SC. She asked for a bill to create a textbook review board. Finally, Mrs. Raines reminded the delegation that “We the People” are their boss, and asked them to remember their oath before God.
5:58 PM Cheryl Lee of the LWV was supposed to speak, but she was delayed. Eleanor Hare spoke briefly in her place.
The people who signed up to speak when they arrived were called up. The firs was Junius Smith, President of Conservatives of the Upstate. Mr. Smith provided the delegation with information about SCAGO, the dummy corporation that owns all the School District of Pickens County (SDPC) properties. SCAGO was created to institute what has been called the Greenville Plan for building new schools beyond the 8% limit on bond issues by the school district. The delegation was made aware that the SDPC does not own revenue bonds, only general obligation bonds. SDPC is spending money outside of its authority, and spending motions were made at a time when the Liberty district had no representation on the school board. (Ben Trotter had resigned at the time, and a new replacement had not yet been elected.) SDPC put Pickens County residents over $400 million in debt. If SDPC takes control of SCAGO bonds, they break the 8% limit on bond issues. Talked about spending & technology that gets obsolete. SC Constitution says the State is supposed to fund education.County cannot afford the spending/State needs to pay for it. SC Treasurer – Mixing revenue & general obligation bonds.Six school districts in SC have the State paying for their schools.
Board has sold SCAGO properties & should have had SCAGO receive the money.
Pickens County should not try to be Greenville County because we have different kinds of industry and tax bases.
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Post by alexsaitta on Jan 13, 2015 9:30:11 GMT -5
More from Steve Hayne's email about the meeting:
Henry Wilson interjected at this time, swearing he would only need 30 seconds. Mr. Wilson pointed out that he had just gotten elected in November. Then he made the statement that on the subject of the millage increase he “keeps hearing from two ends of the same barking dog.” Mr. Smith loudly made it known, “I am not a dog!” Senator Martin kept the meeting moving forward by thanking Mr. Wilson for his input.
Cheryl Lee from the LWV had arrived. Even though Mrs. Hare had spoken on her behalf, Ms. Lee made the following brief points.
Wants independent commission to look into ethics, and referenced Larry Martin’s bill, S.1.
Wants LGF fully funded, and explained the LGF.
Education- Abbeville case- Rethink funding education. Pickens County is OK, but other counties are less fortunate. Underfunded rural counties already have high millage rates trying to keep up with the rest of the state.
6:16 PM Weldon Clark spoke. Wants LGF restored to 4.5%.School Board shorted $300 per student. County will need a new jail.
6:18 PM Dan Winchester, President of the Pickens County Taxpayers Association thanked all the delegation members and made his points. Ethics- Martin’s bill- outside group needs to monitor Roads- inequities of STIB $100 million projects- counties must match 30%. Pickens County has annual budget of only $52 million, so it will never qualify for STIB projects. Do not pass STIB bonds with money that would go to other counties.
6:21 PM Chris Watson limited his comments to roads. He asked for a 5% cut across all state agencies to put the money into roads. He finished with a statement saying that the State cannot consider increasing road taxes when the tax is not currently being used for its intended purpose.
6:24 PM Alex Saitta, member of the School Board, began with a request to get rid of unreasonable spending, then talked about two issues facing the School Board. His first point was the number of paid sick days school employees are given under the law, which is 12 to 15 days per year. SDPC pays out $300,000.00 in bonuses to employees to not use their sick days when they quit or retire. He asked to change the law to help school districts avoid this expense of paying people who are walking out the door. Mr. Saitta also pointed out that under state law, full medical coverage is mandated for some school district employees who work as little as fifteen hours per week, and others get medical coverage for twenty hours a week. It was pointed out that most Pickens County residents are not able to receive similar benefits. Again, he asked for a change in the state law, and gave the specific sections of code that need to be amended. He then proposed the savings be used to improve instruction or give a pay raise to current employees.
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Post by alexsaitta on Jan 13, 2015 9:30:46 GMT -5
Next was Steve Haynie, the best looking person in the room. The first topic was the LGF. It was pointed out that even if members of the Legislature disagree with the 4.5% funding level, that is the law as it stands now. Pickens County Council needs to pay for a new county jail, and at this time we do not have any corrupt members of the County Council, an anomaly! Senator Martin was thanked for being the only member of the Pickens County Delegation to stand up for funding the LGF.
Next was the subject of roads. If we are not spending 100% of the gas tax on road maintenance, then do not raise the gas tax. A request was made to support Eric Bedingfield’s bill to do away with the STIB, and also consider getting rid of the appointed boards so that all the responsibility would rest in the SC Department of Transportation. It was pointed out that even though the state gets reimbursed 80% for federal road projects, if we cannot afford the 20% in the first place, do not spend it.
As a follow up to the situation of appointed boards being part of the problem with roads, the same was brought up about our state education system. The Superintendent of Education will have her hands tied just as her predecessors, and cannot take full credit or blame for our education system. The people have no single person they can hold responsible. Get rid of the appointed boards. It was also mentioned that our SC Constitution calls for the State to pay for education.
Not having read Senator Martin’s ethics bill (S. 1) yet, it was made clear that the House and Senate Ethics Committees need to end, and the State Ethics Commission should handle all ethics issues.
Finally, it was pointed out that the new Speaker of the House, Jay Lucas, wants the Speaker to be term limited to four terms. If that is good for the Speaker, then committee leadership positions should be term limited as well. (Senator Martin heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Representative Hiott heads the House Agriculture Committee.)
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Post by alexsaitta on Jan 13, 2015 9:32:13 GMT -5
6:34 PM Robert Sams spoke next. Wants a road tax increase. 27 years since last increase.
Allowed trucking industry to get weight limits increased. Remove sales tax cap on vehicles.
Other states have better funding for roads.Wants a shorter legislative session. 2nd Amendment in schools- 15 hours of education on gun safety is asinine and a waste of time. NC has allowed fracking. Wants SC to be alert about our water supply that is downstream from NC. Tourism—likes Doodle Trail and rivers. Talked about benefits of farm tourism. Asked the delegation to review the 2010 Census.
6:40 PM Garvin Bolding introduced himself as an advocate of higher education. He made it clear that property taxes are killing him. He talked about a Christian organization called Rebound that he credits with saving kids’ lives. Feels the lottery funds for education should be switched to paying for primary education.
6:48 PM Rus Smith began by saying he wants to come to a meeting where rules are followed, referring to Henry Wilson speaking without being on the list. Mr. Smith then spoke on education funding issues. The Legislature is not following the SC Constitution. SC Government is supposed to pay for schools. The money is being spent on other things. 54 mills have been added because of revenue bonds. Wants State to take over bond payments. Wants bill introduced to have all tax increases go through a referendum. Wants law against “fee in lieu of taxes.” Used and example of a business owner advocating a property tax increase who will not be affected by the increase. Mr. Smith ended by saying he appreciates the job all the delegates do.
6:53 PM Rick Tate was the last person on the list of people who signed up to address the delegation. Mr. Tate talked about closed primaries, asking for an explanation of why Republicans would want someone outside the party picking candidates. Education- Republican Party Platform supports a system of the money following the child. US Supreme Court backs money even going to a private school. Ethics Reform.Reiterated tearing down our current way of managing roads in SC. Education again- Put Department of Education at top. Right now our Superintendent of Education has no direct accountability to the people. Mr. Tate specifically addressed Senator Martin about the panel that selects candidates to be judges in SC. Mr. Tate asked for a system in which the Governor picks judges with the advise and consent of the Senate. He reference the system created by James Madison in our US Constitution.
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Post by alexsaitta on Jan 13, 2015 9:32:54 GMT -5
More from Steve Hayne's email.
6:59 PM The people who had signed up wishing to address the delegation were through. Senator Martin asked the audience if anyone else would like to speak. Carol Walters spoke about the Calvary Home For Children. She sent that kids are sent to them in groups by DSS. The children taken from their homes need concern.
Wayne Atkinson spoke about bill S. 3, Senator Martin’s domestic abuse bill. He has concerns about 2nd Amendment rights being diminished by the bill. He stated that the 2nd Amendment requires responsibility from the people, but gun control is a slippery slope. It was pointed out that abusers prohibited from getting a gun can still get a weapon. He felt the abuse bill is good, but wanted the gun control taken out. He also said that in SC someone convicted of DUI can still drive a car. Mr. Atkinson also spoke on the topic of SC abortion laws.
Senator Martin addressed Mr. Atkinson’s concerns about the gun related provision in S. 3. Louisiana passed the same provision in 2013, and that is where he got it from. The bill is not about gun confiscation, only the right to possess a gun upon conviction. LEO’s do not take away weapons. The convicted person is to separate himself from his firearms by his own means, either giving them away or selling them.
7:08 PM Rick Tate spoke up to say that restrictions/restraining orders do not work. Senator Martin responded by saying that SC has one of the highest (#1 or #3) in domestic abuse death rates, and 70% of those deaths involve guns.
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Post by alexsaitta on Jan 13, 2015 9:34:02 GMT -5
Final notes from Steve Hayne:
7:10 PM Jeff Willis was the last person to speak to the delegation. He thanked the delegation for what they do for Pickens County, specifically saying they do a great job! He then described three tax funding issues: the School Board, the new jail, and crumbling roads. All three come from different funding sources, and all three could raise taxes independently without considering each other. He wants the State to set the priorities of who raises taxes and when. The delegation was told not to allow all taxes to go up at the same time.
7:15 PM Senator Martin wrapped up the meeting.
Henry Wilson came over and asked me if I had written the numbers down that he talked about because he was concerned that he may have mentioned the wrong statistics. I did not write down any of his statistics, I just listened. He had a sheet full of handwritten statistics from his own research into tax issues facing the School Board.
Representative Putnam stuck around talking to people about the LGF one at a time. He spent a good bit of time with me to let me know he has learned by doing a lot research into the history of the LGF and the original revenue streams that funded it. He is putting some work into understanding the issue.
Four things really stood out: LGF, roads, school funding, and children’s services and advocacy. People who can be described on opposite sides of left and right were all in agreement on the need for the LGF to be restored to its full funding.
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upset
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Post by upset on Apr 21, 2015 11:21:10 GMT -5
www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/pickens-county/2015/04/18/state-gop-investigate-pickens-republican-convention/26008629/
 Why are Representatives Gary Clary, Davey Hiott and Neil Collins running for the Republican party with a person who is from Concerned Citizens of Pickens County? The comments on the article are better than the article*********** I think the Concerned Citizens of Pickens County and their leader Robin Miller should be attending the Democrat convention, not the Republican one. You kicked me off your FB page just because I opposed all your tax increases. You've kicked so many other Republicans off your FB page too. Your names were probably banded because they were all your Democrat friends!  |
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Post by columbia on Apr 29, 2015 17:49:05 GMT -5
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Post by diamonddave on Jun 22, 2015 13:50:18 GMT -5
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I received a post card today with pictures of Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Larry Martin. That's two moderates and one conservative. Don't you wish we had better choices? 
Why are Representatives Gary Clary, Davey Hiott and Neil Collins running for the Republican party with a person who is from Concerned Citizens of Pickens County? The comments on the article are better than the article*********** I think the Concerned Citizens of Pickens County and their leader Robin Miller should be attending the Democrat convention, not the Republican one. You kicked me off your FB page just because I opposed all your tax increases. You've kicked so many other Republicans off your FB page too. Your names were probably banded because they were all your Democrat friends! 