GROUP GOT BAD INFORMATION FROM LOCAL GOVERNMENT
By FITSNEWS || This week we ran a guest column from Upstate, S.C. limited government advocate Joshua Cook blasting the S.C. Realtors (SCR) for its involvement in a tax hike vote in Greenville County.
According to Cook, the Realtors ran an advertisement inaccurately claiming that groceries would be exempted from the proposed levy – which the group is supporting (and Cook is opposing).
We received a response to Cook’s column today from Nick Kremydas, who referred us to a statement from the Realtors about the discrepancy released earlier this week.
According to the organization, the Realtors’ association based its ad on materials disseminated by Greenville County government. In fact, government leaders presented a fact sheet on the tax hike to the public in which it expressly claimed that food was among the exempted items.
“The sales tax would not be collected on rent payments, mortgage, food, medicine, income taxes, property taxes, gasoline or utilities,” the document stated.
The only problem? The government lied.
Unless food purchases in Greenville County are made with government subsidies, they would still be subject to an additional one cent tax per dollar.
“SCR is disappointed that information provided by local government about one part of the one-penny sales tax was incorrect,” a statement from the Realtors reads. “SCR has updated our information to reflect this clarification. SCR has asked local officials to correct this information and ensure voters have all the correct facts as they prepare to vote on this important issue.”
Beyond the statement, Kremydas took issue with Cook’s characterization of his group’s mail piece.
“(We) discovered the county’s error and issued a press release days ago addressing the error,” Kremydas told FITS. “We weren’t ‘busted’ – we brought the error to light. I don’t like our association’s integrity being questioned, when we make mistakes we admit and correct them.”
Fair points …
17 comments
The penny sales tax hikes disproportionately taxes SC Private Citizens to pay for SC Public Worker benefits. That is all these tax hikes are about. The General Assembly cuts money from local governments to pay for healthcare cost increases for 430,000 public workers then tells counties to raise taxes to make up for the cut funding.
“… “SCR is disappointed that information provided by local government about one part of the one-penny sales tax was incorrect,” a statement from the Realtors reads. …”
Out here in Taxifornia the real-estate interests have a vested interest in increasing taxes … to a point. Property tax assessments are constantly being increased so realtors here get fatter comm. checks.
When it comes to sales taxes, Taxifornia g’ment stupnagles are constantly parsing the definitions of what does and does not qualify for sales tax exemptions … Food that is cooked (restaurant food) is taxed, but food cooked in the grocery store deli department is not taxes … unless its a Walmart. … And of course many mobile barf buckets, roach coaches, drive-by taco stands skirt sales tax questions and collections, selling meskin “groceries”, microwaved or not … because they can … Go figure.
Yo, refer back to Econ 101. If my property taxes increase, the value of my real estate decreases. Hence, Realtors get LESS fatter comm. checks.
Not! The value of your real estate is not reduced when your property taxes go up … Its called inflation by both real estate uglies and the taxsuckers.
Econ 101 begins here: All inflation is caused by government, government prints the money and government can too easily print too much.
Dear SC Realtor’s Association ………..
ya know, from the bowels of SPAWAR Atlantic Hearts and Minds Info Ops lab………we smell a pile of B.S…….!!!!
Your members ……who are hard working REAL ESTATE Agents,…..understand just how uniform a MORTGAGE contract and boiler plate the “Forms” are.!! We highly suggest you review just how “uniform” the standard the county tax “hike” forms are from county to county…!!
This apology and after the fact “whoopie cushion” response is in fact exactly like a “Weapon’s of Mass Destruction” tactic…!!!
We highly suggest you kindly take the phone out of your pocket and have a hard thinking session..!!! Your actions are VERY traceable and can be used in a Court of “Law”…!!!!!
JUST….LIKE……Mine…..!!!!
If you do not think that a “Bobby Harrell” fuel receipt is any different than the wording on a TAX hike “form”……….you may want to review just how many subdivisions across our state are producing ANY LOCAL energy at all….!!!
The readers of FITSNEWS are sitting back and laying wagers at this very moment of whether you have a CLUE of how vulnerable your entire organization really is…!!!
You may want to USE that phone of yours to call your Association’s “counsel”…!!!
Don’t worry about it. Cook is a fraud and a wanna be.
Will, have you figured out why SCR is pushing this so hard??? I know their is a connection, as there always is, but what is it?
better question is why are the Koch Bros so interested in this? Building a database for 2016?
This tax builds infrastructure, which leads to the property the realtors sell.
And it does not effect the taxes of the real estate.
*there
Dear Greenville County civil SERVANT workers….. (yep…..every last one of YOU)
Dare to wonder just how DUMB the readers of FITSNEWS thinks you all are…!! We have some news for you…..your NOT dumb. We dare wager that very few of you were even aware of the information that was put out on this County media “flyer” before it was allowed to be disseminated..!! Your county “administration” is no different than any business or corporation in Greenville County. Yep, you guessed it, you have a COUNTY LAWYER and legal counsel that reviews all information for compliance of the LAW…!! Dare to wonder how FITSNEWS readers know that..? (……because they all know that they can check that I work for SPAWAR Atlantic and that we have our own LEGAL Counsel and IG Inspector to ensure to the best of our ability that the taxpayers dollars and war fighters needs are met….not our own..)
So….what is the point FITSNEWS is really trying to make with this article..? Well, the real point being made is …JUST how long is it gonna take for you to realize that your leadership and LEGAL Counsel are playing “Political Pong” with your integrity to enrich themselves…..!!!! All those NEW roads are gonna require MORE and MORE foreign fossil oil that our troops are getting killed for…!!
All….the…while……..you are actually ENSLAVED to a FOSSIL Oil based economy and are unaware of just what CHOICES you really have….!!!
You mean that MOST of you are aware of just how often NEW cell phones come out but yet how often are County Building codes updated to use the newest ENERGY production products. When is the last time that ever crossed your minds..? THINK..!!
Duh….!
Most of you there in your County Offices don’t even realize how the October timing of all this plays right into the hands of the Political Status Quo…!! (BIG OIL Network)
I may be wrong……but from the perch on which I sit inside the Military Industrial OIL complex………I doubt it….!!
{Boomerang 101, 404, 901……..Ashmore Bro. vs Tru-Luck Island Construction………..Beach Company vs Panther Mountain………..BOEING Lollipop vs. BMW Methane sip…….Twin Chimney’s vs. Bees Ferry Promenade…..}
The Realtors (the association, not its members) are all about sales taxes as it keeps the real estate taxes down. Makes it easier for them to sell houses, and to get roads, etc to the property.
The Realtors should have known better. All they had to do was read the documents, but as is the way of the big government crowd they prefer to let someone else tell the lies and they just “innocently” repeat them.
Kreymdas is part of the Florence political mob. They take over by any means necessary. The raise taxes by any means necessary. And they make money off of us.
yep, that is exactly who they are.
You can thank the SC Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors for preserving your Mortgage Interest Deduction. Look it up, it means you get to buy a bigger house, Bozo.
You can thank the SC Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors for preserving your Mortgage Interest Deduction. Look it up, it means you get to buy a bigger house, Bozo.
Fuck him.
yea. a Leatherman puppet, big government, lying POS.