Letters: Property Taxes are Driving Some South Carolinians Into Poverty

Mr Hodapp, you are absolutely right! The property taxes in my county are outrageous. There is something inherently wrong with taking a person’s home because they do not have the ever-increasing amount of extortion money that it takes to keep your home for yourself. One of the biggest, and worst, items on my tax bill seems to be tied to school taxes. It is as though the schools and school boards have a blank check for anything their little hearts desire each year, and they desire quite a bit. Then you have councilmen who have an unquenchable thirst for more parks and recreation crap. I believe Mr Folks would agree that parks and recreation are not a core function and purpose of government, yet we always have councilmen pushing for more parks. Why can’t people be content with the ones we already have? I suspect a lot of these council persons make money from shady land deals for more unnecessary parks.

As a citizen, I used to enjoy listening to my local police on a scanner. It gave me an idea of what was going on in my neighborhood, my community, and my county. It gave me the means to avoid areas where trouble might be brewing, or perhaps a bad traffic situation causef by a wreck. Earlier this year, my Sheriff and Police Department decided to become the Secret Police and encrypt all of their radio traffic. Apparently they have adopted the “us vs them” attitude that so many police agencies have adopted and are adopting each day across our nation towards their citizens. Why? Motorola plays a never ending game every few years where they discontinue support for existing two-way radios and public safety (police, fire, EMS) have to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to stay on their network. This costs more money. There are alternatives to Motorola.

Cities, counties, and school districts, need to start living within their means. We are not an infinite source ATM for them, even though they treat us like one.