THE ARGUMENT FOR “MORE MONEY” JUST GOT SHREDDED …
|| By FITSNEWS || This website has been saying for months that South Carolina’s government has more than enough money to adequately fund the construction, maintenance and repair of a functioning network of roads and bridges.
Government doesn’t need to raise gas taxes, it simply needs to do its job and prioritize spending – especially transportation spending.
This week, there are 400 million new reasons in support of our contention. We’re referring, of course, to the $400 million in new money the state’s Revenue and Fiscal Affairs (RFA) office is expected to certify this week.
In our humble opinion, every penny of this extra money should go to income tax relief. Why? Because our state’s people are dirt poor – and that money could dramatically empower our consumer economy.
But that’s not going to happen …
Nor, apparently, are state lawmakers going to pump it all into roads and bridges.
In fact S.C. House ways and means chairman Brian White – the “Republican-controlled” chamber’s top budget writer – announced this weekend his intention to submit a “supplemental appropriations bill.”
(Ka-ching, ka-ching).
Why wouldn’t White and S.C. Senate president Hugh Leatherman – ardent gas tax hike supporters – immediately agree to pump all of this money into roads and bridges?
That’s easy: Because doing so would prove there’s no need for a gas tax hike.
And they want that tax hike … desperately.
In fact that’s why they’ve been touting a so-called “shortfall” that includes hundreds of millions of dollars for totally unnecessary projects (while legitimate needs go unaddressed).
Fortunately one lawmaker, S.C. Senator Tom Davis, is standing up to his fiscally liberal colleagues, the left-leaning media and an army of lobbyists – all of whom are demanding gas tax hikes.
Supported by a handful of fiscal conservatives – including S.C. Senator Shane Martin – Davis has been filibustering for the past two days in an effort to force his colleagues to see the light on this issue.
Will he succeed?
Probably not … but this $400 million in new money (on top of the nearly $26 billion lawmakers are already spending) is proof positive there is absolutely no need to raise gas taxes on South Carolina motorists, who already pay a higher percentage of their income on fuel than residents of any other state save Mississippi or West Virginia.
80 comments
Obsession isn’t healthy, man.
Taxes aren’t the sin – the politician is.
Stop voting for the same jerks every damn time!
Starving the politicians doesn’t work – it’s like sanctions on Saddam… the poor are the only ones hurt.
We live in S.C. We are immune to progress, rational thought and normal social order.
Sherman soured the population on Republicans and the US Government… and then the Republicans soured them on the Democrats…
I think they’ve resigned themselves to corruption as a way of life, and feel that complaining about it or trying to change it is like complaining about or trying to change the weather.
Ain’t this precious. Without Grand Tango we are left with a discussion Hitler and Mao.
Go at it ‘boys’.
Grand Tango expresses no cohesive, rational POV whatsoever. He merely attacks. Your adulation is as misplaced as your brain cells.
Boz I change s/n’s so often because you stalk me.Can you just leave me the fuck alone so I can keep the same s/n and contribute?
Please.
I still say Tango was/is an attack bot. It wouldn’t be hard to build one using fuzzy logic a large but limited vocabulary.
He may be Fits…who the fuck cares…he was the smartest SOB on here on every issue….hire a fucking translator if you don’t understand genius…
I can offer my translations services for Tango speak.
No, he’s real. Wil follows him (when he does have anything on his blog). I suspect that he got all goofed out with the Bingham lawsuit, thinks he needs to lay low, that he’s helping Bingham, that he’s the undercover narc. What a joke, like posting on a free comment section is somehow not protected by the 1st Amendment. GT wants to believe he’s in the inner circle of the “club” in the state of SC, the political elite. There is no political elite in SC. There’s a bunch of people who are important only in their own minds, and only to themselves.
No, he’s real.
———-
Now, just holllld on, thar pardner!
Let’s not throw out the baby with the sanitary napkin!
“real” has connotations that I’m not comfortable with assigning to Damned Tango…
real
adjective re·al ?r?(-?)l
: actually existing or happening : not imaginary
: not fake, false, or artificial
: important and deserving to be regarded or treated in a serious way
Full Definition of REAL
: of or relating to fixed, permanent, or immovable things (as lands or tenements)
a : not artificial, fraudulent, or illusory : genuine [real gold]; also : being precisely what the name implies [a real professional]b (1) : occurring or existing in actuality [saw a real live celebrity] [a story of real life] (2) : of or relating to practical or everyday concerns or activities[left school to live in the real world] (3) : existing as a physical entity and having properties that deviate from an ideal, law, or standard [a real gas]— compare ideal 3bc : having objective independent existence [unable to believe that what he saw was real]d : fundamental, essentiale (1) : belonging to or having elements or components that belong to the set of real numbers [the real roots of an equation] [a real matrix] (2) : concerned with or containing real numbers [real analysis] (3) : real-valued [real variable]f : measured by purchasing power [real income] [real dollars]g : complete, utter [a real fiasco]
: in earnest : seriously [fighting for real]
: genuine [couldn’t believe the threats were for real]
: genuinely good or capable of success (as in competition) [not yet sure if this team is for real]
Examples of REAL
The movie is based on real events.
The detective Sherlock Holmes is not a real person.
He has no real power; he is just a figurehead.
The battle scenes in the movie seemed very real to me.
The team has a real chance at winning.
There is a very real possibility that we will be moving to Maine.
In real life, relationships are not perfect.
The actor looks taller on TV than he does in real life.
He’s always daydreaming and seems to be out of touch with the real world.
What is his real name?
Funny thing about it…FitsNews ain’t SHIT with out him….he has had the last laugh…reading liberals and socialists debate each other is quite depressing…why do you think there are no liberal talk radio shows that are successful and print media is going out of business?
It’s all a game.One time I was on Fits from Dayton,Ohio…and ‘Drayton’ was posted in a reply too me…another time I was in Tucumcari,NM…my location was disclosed by another contributor and then euwe max stated he grew up in Tucumcari…one day I was searching info for a flight on Allegiant Airlines and ‘sparklecity’ mentioned it in a post…’sparklecity’ shows up the other day for an 8 hour shift when all this hacking shit starts with GT.Weird.The gueer from Moore,Sc been around lots lately.
It’s all a game.Or is it? lol
He has commented widely on SC media sites, forums & blogs, under appropriated screen IDs. “Emily Peterkin” being the one he’s been publicly called out on the most. Lately, we’ve read here in comments that “T. Lawrence” was fake as well. In neither case has he used those posts and comments specifically to drive traffic to FITSNews. So, logically, there would be no reason at all to believe that Will Folks is being the “Grand Tango” SN.
It’s possible he is spooked by the possibility that his true identity might be revealed, somehow, in the process of discovery in the disguised Bingham suit. A real long-shot of a possibility, but he appears to be the type that would be wildly paranoid.
Either that or he’s in a coma.
Or just faking being in a coma. LOL
Meant to say “misguided” Bingham suit, not “disguised.”
Oh absolutely paranoid. Tough talker, quiet walker.
Tango is in legal trouble. That is all I will say.
Did he slap the P!$$ out of someone? Did he $#!T all over himself?
Didn’t you read the papers?
Maybe an experiment by who ever run and of the numerous Twitter attack bots.
The General?
An analysis (by someone here who has the time) of GT’s seemingly repetitive posts of similar language and phrases, and the infamous #$#%#&# (that is plural, by the way) might reveal they are replies to the immediate preceding post which contains words/phrases that trigger automatic responses. Not every time, but most of the time — so an auto-response gimmick could be at work. I do think that the GT he/she/they are still posting here….
That could be true, except for the forays of mine. I’ve engaged him in scripture, used videos, pictures, and solipsism… and he seems to respond with a consistently schizophrenic, bi-polar 9-year old world-view derived from a drug-addled reinterpretation of current Faux talking points.
Maybe GT is an original “half-percenter”..!!
I think you’re on to something there… riding around in circles on his driveway on a tricycle, his knees slapping his chest – elbows out… determined hunch and angry countenance..
DAMN! — glad I put my coffee down before reading this — into the files for this one…..
GrandTango’s syntax is easy to pick out. Moreso when you are able to see him logged into the world wide web.
“. . . . a drug-addled reinterpretation of current Faux talking points.”
Although a drug-addled viewing of Faux news is sometimes the only way to attain clarity . . . .
You know I smoked a lot of grass and I’ve popped a lot of pills
But I’ve never done nothing that my spirit couldn’t kill
And I walk around with these tombstones in my eyes
But I know Faux don’t care, if you live or if you die.
You know how you can tell if a person’s got a strong enough personality to get through an extended bout of altered consciousness? You can sometimes tell how much stress or confusion they can take before they snap… well, I don’t think I’d risk a drug-addled viewing of Faux news… I might not make it back.
He’s real, and he’s reading all this every hour. He’s chomping at the bit to reply.
The fact that he can spell has always given me the willies.
Haven’t seen much of Grand Tango since I suggested he resume his Haldol and Thorazine a couple of weeks ago…
Maybe it worked. (But then, again, maybe it didn’t)
comon’ Will, you know it’s true.
Nice. That’s a real positive attitude. Sounds like a rubber chicken speech at the last central planning dinner of the “progressive” Fascist elites.
(You say the Drudge headline, right? “Teamsters cut retirees’ pensions, spend more on blue state politicians.” … top right if you can’t find it.)
Truth hurts I know.
Good news is…for a person like yourself, there is no better place to live than S.C.
Dittos to that!
Just bought an option on factory space closer the the coming renovated deep water port in NC.
Don’t count Somalia out so easily!
Excessive taxation is the tool of the greedy politician.
????? $73.. per-hr @mi3//
….
???https://WorldStarHipHopMobile.com/board/hop…
“Taxes aren’t the sin”
Taxes are theft.
Theft is sin.
If you want to call the gas tax “theft” then never use public roads. Either pay your dues or hike through the woods to get to work.
It is theft. It’s not even debatable.
Just because it goes for something most people use doesn’t make it “not theft”.
Pull your head out of your ass.
If government didn’t have a road monopoly there’d be plenty of other options.
“If government didn’t have a road monopoly there’d be plenty of other options.”
Woooooo, that’s a knee-slapper! If that’s what you believe then I am afraid you are too far gone!
we could, for instance, choose to use the canal system with our own inner tubes and canoes…. or walk on muddy roads past bands of thieves with our belongings on our backs to our place of employment.
…or you could focus on the simple proof, that neither of you have refuted with your lengthy diatribe’s:
Taxes are theft.
Theft is sin.
yeah… and there’s proof of sasquatch… shut up is why!
You’re just can’t make an argument and are ignorant of the history of roads, so knee slap away.
“Just because it goes for something most people use doesn’t make it “not theft”.”
What makes it “not theft” is that you pay when you fuel your car, which probably drove on public roads just to get to the gas station. I wonder what pays for those roads to get repaired?
“If government didn’t have a road monopoly there’d be plenty of other options.”
It would be damn funny to watch a private company try to deal with tens or hundreds of property owners just to get the rights to build one road. Without eminent domain they would be at the mercy of the land owners. Maybe one day the world will end and some dystopian society will give this system a go for the lulz. That’s probably the only hope you have for this scenario.
“Maybe one day the world will end and some dystopian society will give this system a go for the lulz.”
It already happened, you’re just too ignorant of the history surrounding road pre-state monopoly.
Educate yourself:
https://mises.org/search/site/document%204084%20Privatization%20of%20Roads%20Highways
“What makes it “not theft” is that you pay when you fuel your car, which probably drove on public roads just to get to the gas station. I wonder what pays for those roads to get repaired?”
You might have an argument if every penny used for road construction/repair came from gas tax, but it doesn’t.(and even then, we can get into great detail and discuss this supposed voluntary tax)
“Taxes aren’t the sin – the politician is.”
Hate the tax but love the politician? In most cases I prefer it the other way around.
And I would not mind paying a penny here and there if it saves me from having to pay to get my car’s front end aligned regularly . . . .
South Carolina = Potholes-R-Us
Tax is evidence of civilization.
Thinking tax is theft is evidence of social development arrested in adolescence.
“Thinking tax is theft is evidence of social development arrested in adolescence.”
No, it’s logical consistency, which is bothersome to you.
It’s consistent with those who only recently came down from the trees, or out of a hole.
It’s consistent with cretins so enamored of their own stink, they believe that a world without any pooled resources would benefit them.
It’s consistent with the fantasy that being tax free would provide the greatest good for the greatest number… and that their paycheck would not only still be written, but increase exponentially.
It’s consistent with puberty.
You’ve made nothing but ad hominem’s and no argument.
You claim that others wallow in stink, yet it appears you create and then wade through your own. You’re an intellectual disappointment.
You can’t really expect me to explain what you missed in the history of civilization… here, on the internet in this little box… especially since you’re obviously bent on remaining ignorant.
Don’t bother reading anything, or actually trying to express your alternate universe from first principles… you’d just get all tangled up trying to explain where toilets came from.
Outhouses are just fine.
Fucking hell….this tax cut = improved economy bullshit is wearing quite thin Fits. The data is in on numerous cases where this doesn’t work. The same goes for trickle down.
It’s almost as tired the constant links you embed to your own stories…inside your own stories. Fucking annoying.
You, sir, are a greedy taxsucking fool.
Am I?
Two words, Brownback – Kansas
Nuff said.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rexsinquefield/2015/05/04/kansas-economic-growth-is-on-the-rebound-look-at-the-real-numbers/
I’ll see your link, and raise ya two (from right leaning sites mind you):
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121068/kansas-tax-cuts-deplete-budget-brownback-proposes-more-cuts
http://www.wsj.com/articles/sam-brownbacks-tax-cut-push-puts-kansas-out-on-its-own-1402448126
New Republic is ‘right leaning’ LOL.
And the lefty lucy wall screed urnal spew is more than a year old.
But that says a lot about you.
Ah…choosing the news that fits your world view. The classic Fox News model.
You should read the literally dozens and dozens of unbiased articles that remove the theoretical application of conservative tax policy and concentrate on the actual facts of how Brownback’s tax policy is crippling Kansas.
And…I did read the article. Funny how there is no mention of the MASSIVE budget hole created under Brownback. Only accolades for being a top performer in cutting taxes as rated by a right leaning anti-tax group.
“Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s cut Kansas’s credit rating. Moody’s downgraded the rating to Aa2, third highest, from Aa1 on April 30, saying revenue reductions “have not been fully offset by recurring spending cuts.”
In response to larger-than-projected revenue losses, Brownback proposed slowing the rate of future tax reductions in January as well as boosting levies on cigarette and liquor. Those suggestions have been resisted by lawmakers, and the path to a budget resolution remains unclear.”
The race to the bottom continues…
Will, Will – don’t you know you don’t spend “anticipated” money. Only spend money you have in hand.
Yeah, whatever… once the books are closed for FY2015, that money will be available pretty soon; thus, the General Assembly will be busy writing a surplus proviso which will sprinkle that gravy around the state on stupid pork projects, not the road repairs we need. Let me guess, you’re a gas tax hike supporter and this surplus is a nuisance.
No – I think the funds – if there are any – should be used to bring things like technical schools back up to 2008 funding levels. Funny how tech schools have fallen so far behind when Nikki Haley claims that workforce training is how we won Volvo. What a joke.
Something needs to be done and one time money isn’t going to cut it. Here in Spartanburg County alone there is probably a 100 million dollars worth of road repairs to existing roads needed now. That’s not including building new roads, just properly repairing the roads that are currently falling apart. I have driven on them and have photographed them. There are 46 counties in this state. What is being proposed is not going to make much of a dent in this problem statewide. Look at the asphalt conditions on the state roads around your house. If it looks like alligator skin, then the road bed is probably shot and needs to be properly rebuilt in order to support an asphalt overlay.
We have to plan for the future growth in this state because it is coming whether you want it to or not. Do the right thing for your children and grand children’s future when it come time for them to drive on South Carolina roads.
Waste not want not.
General Assembly, please open a year to clean up DOT and the Infrastructure Bank and then come back to see us, the voters and taxpayers.
Those bags of dark green money at fist glance appeared to be bags of pot – and there is your alternative to the gas tax . . . . .
This gang of criminal lawmakers are so chicken shit, everyone of them keep blocking a VOTER RECALL BILL. What is it going to take to force them to Obey We The People? Getting in their faces and swinging baseball bats?
The question I think one should ask is where are the CAFR reports? You know the reports that show the inner workings of public officials and entities… and while the reports are sold to the public at large as being mundane… that is when the public should be paying the closest attention…
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report | The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) is a thorough and detailed presentation of the state’s financial condition. It reports on the state’s activities and balances for each fiscal year. http://www.ofm.wa.gov/cafr/
“They’re dense. Only the hardiest of souls would dig into a city or county comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR), called “kafers” by those hip to the inner workings of public finance and auditing.” http://www.governing.com/topics/finance/gov-are-annual-financial-reports-useless.html
This site refers to the CAFR as the “governments best kept secret”
Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports | Government’s Best Kept Financial Secret
http://www.wanttoknow.info/banking_finance/cafr_comprehensive_annual_financial_reports
INSANE!
SELL SANTEE COOPER!!
It’s worth well over $10 Billion dollars CASH!
Is the Legislature even close to doing it’s legal job, by not selling Santee Cooper to pay SC Bills and build our future without selling SC Citizens into perpetual Bond Bill Slavery!
Not anymore – not since Nikki Haley convinced them to purchase the land for Volvo.
Good Point.
But, that does not preclude the sale.
In fact, it makes it much better as it’s just another of Santee Cooper’s already existing profitable businesses. Volvo is just a tenant, and a real good electric customer for the new owners.
We need to sell Santee Cooper. Especially now, as electric companies are already starting to feel lost revenue pressure from customers back selling solar and other electricity into their networks. This could effect a sale negatively in the future. The time to sell is best: right now.
That’s nutty…$10 billion wouldn’t run the state for 5 months, then what? We’re screwed out of a major positive force for development in the state (not to mention cheap power). No worries, though. Some benevolent investor-owned (read, “for profit”) outfit like Duke or SCE&G would swoop in and look out for ya…
Mike, I don’t see your reasoning as it makes no economic sense. I didn’t say we should stop taxation at present levels and just run the State on the money we got from Santee Sale. Check your rates. Santee’s rates are the same and in come cases higher than SCE&G and Duke Power.
I guess you just want to pay that 20 cents (only the beginning) gas tax for roads and interest on the $500 million the State Borrows with interest. Plus, the additional $250 million they plan on Bonding for the Educational improvements. Plus, the additional property taxes you will have to pay to meet the Federal lawsuit we just lost to fix the I-95 corridor of shame. Which every school district will have to pay and be passed on to you. Or, just more Bonded interest money.
I’d much prefer the $10+ Billion in cash to sell Santee or the probable $7 Billion we would get taking it public. With the State still owning 51% and controlling the Board.
In 1930’s Santee Cooper made economic sense. In 2015, it makes no sense at all. The State doesn’t belong in the power business and it can be run much cheaper and even better by private companies that are still rate base controlled by the SC Public Service Commission. That is why all SC citizens have had among the lowest power rates in the entire USA. And, will continue to have, whether we sell or take public Santee Cooper.
Now that you’ve changed your position to going public with 51% ownership, I would have to address that differently, but I am going to stick to the basic premise you first brought up (the outright sale of Santee Cooper for $10b). I didn’t say anything about “stopping taxation” or running the state on the proceeds; I was simply putting the amount you threw out there in context. I was giving you a pass on that $10b figure, but you obviously know that it wouldn’t bring that amount in a sale (assuming it could even be sold) due to pending changes in greenhouse gas-related regulation, bond debt, and a host of other structural reasons. This is much too complex for this forum (and wasn’t even the topic anyway), but you’re wrong on rates – go do a little research on SCE&G’s rates in comparison to the state owned utility (hint – one of the main reasons for our rate averages here in pressure from Santee Cooper’s rates). Not only that, but Santee Cooper (as an authority) rebates cash to the state, and plays an important role in development and recruitment that a private entity would not. “Sell it off!” makes for a cool rallying cry, but it’s not that simple. If it was, there wouldn’t be as many municipal / state-owned utilities around.
Disagree; Santee Cooper is worth 11.3 Billion in assets alone. See their 2014 financial filings. Debts are easily assumable. Therefore, $10 Billion is probably on the low side. Especially in the present investment climate. There would be a bidding war. It might go as high as over $20 Billion. But, this is all speculation. I still believe, and this is in my M&A business, that a public offering would easily bring in around $7 Billion for just 40% of the company. SC would still control 51%.
Taking it public is an obvious route. But, selling it all together should definitely be studied.
This is such a big deal and could change SC citizens lives immediately; that the Legislature should at a minimum put together a research committee to study the entire issue. Then open it up for public debate. We need to see the real numbers. Now, before they go out and borrow $750 million in Bonds and send us the bill.
Legislatures raising the gas tax = serious repercussions upon themselves as tens of thousands of South Carolinian’s obviously are shaking their fist at them and are not satisfied with just the fall of the former speaker of the house, bobby Harrell.