SUPERINTENDENT BROKE THE LAW IN PUSHING $200 MILLION TAX HIKE
|| By FITSNEWS || The Superintendent of the government-run school system in Berkeley County, S.C. was indicted this week on one count of using taxpayer resources to influence the outcome of an election.
Dr. Rodney M. Thompson was indicted by a state grand jury convened by attorney general Alan Wilson for his role in manipulating a November 6, 2012 voter referendum.
That vote raised property taxes on Berkeley County homeowners by $200 million.
According to a statement from Wilson’s office, Thompson “did authorize and agree to the production and dissemination of pro-referendum campaign material” related to the election.
All of Thompson’s efforts “promoted and supported a ‘yes’ vote,” Wilson’s office stated.
The use of taxpayer resources to influence the outcome of elections is flagrantly illegal … yet this law is habitually violated in “Republican-controlled” South Carolina. Especially by government-run schools.
Thompson, if convicted, faces up to a year in prison and fines “five hundred percent of the amounts at issue.” He is the second Berkeley official (district communications director Amy Kovach was the first) to be indicted related to this scandal – but other indictments against additional district bureaucrats could be forthcoming.
Kovach was indicted last February on the same charge as Thompson. Then last September she was indicted on forgery charges related to a false invoice which attempted “to establish that she had intended to have public funds repaid to the county” for pro-referendum campaign materials.
Ah, government-run “education.”
Gotta love it …
Thompson is currently on “administrative leave.” With pay, of course … (editor’s note: eye roll).
Meanwhile taxpayers have shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees to defend these scammers.
18 comments
Please explain how the tax money can still be collected now that the architects are indicted?
They had a referendum.It passed fairly easily.No one seriously believes that the efforts of Thompson had any real affect on it.
This is a crime? How are Haley, her cabinet, and three-quarters of the state legislature not in jail?
Why just three-quarters and not all?
I figure there must be a handful who aren’t crooks.
“Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.” ~Thomas Jefferson
“That vote raised property taxes on Berkeley County homeowners by $200 million.”
In Berkeley County only homeowners pay property taxes? Interesting. I guess businesses, rental property, etc. skate by for free.
Dr. Rodney M. Thompson, this must be a Dr. that ended up in the bottom half of his class.
Q: What do you call a doctor who was at the bottom of his class?
A: “Doctor”
Can’t do it in schools–but OK in tax-exempt churches?
Alan, this is low hanging fruit. You can reach higher!
That said, $200M is $200M. Keep grabbing fruit wherever you can.
You have to push a healthy mix of hunting squirrel, deer, and elephant. Can’t focus on just one.
That’s what she said.
Meanwhile, millions of dollars remain missing in Jasper County – and nothing has happened to anyone. Tom Davis? Anyone heard from Tom Davis?
What!!!
And, Alan Wilson hasn’t even looked at Lexington District 5’s massive tax increase that was a based upon complete lies, in a campaign funded and pushed directly from the District’s own offices.
I guess Lexington is immune from State and Federal laws under Wilson.
Is it just coincidence that Papa Joe and Mungos’ best friend/personal attorney were/are law partners…you know… Jake Moore and Mungo Family and Moore live in District 5 – a developer’s gold mine? Of course they’re protected.
Ha! Lex-Rich 5 uses taxpayer dollars for all kinds of campaign activity, including tax hikes and “favored” candidates for school board. They even hired Democrat campaign consultants with taxpayer money. They will be fine, lawmakers and other politicians are scared shitless of them and the Mungos.
Every school district in state is guilty of this practice