Skip to main content

SC Senate Proposed Budget Effectively Bypasses Horry County


SC Senate Proposed Budget Effectively
Bypasses Horry County

By Dennis Mitchell


The SC Senate Finance Committee budget for next fiscal year follows a similar pattern with many years past – Horry County gets crumbs while other counties around the state get the cake.


The county will receive some funding from the Department of Transportation budget and some money will come from the Department of Education for teacher salary increases. However, in the special project appropriations area, the area where earmarks for specific projects are included to help counties with capital projects, the county will receive approximately $15 million while other counties receive considerably more for their projects.


Most of the special projects money comes to Horry County from the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. The two biggest are $5 million for the Myrtle Beach Downtown revitalization project and $2 million for a multi-purpose pathway between Conway and Myrtle Beach along the rail line owned by Horry County.


With all the important road projects Horry County is facing over the next several decades, why couldn’t the county get more from the state’s nearly $2,2 billion in excess revenue available for special projects? The answer appears to be those senators representing Horry County in Columbia just don’t have the clout to get it done.


Sen. Hugh Leatherman, when he was alive, certainly got significant appropriations for Florence County. Any driver can see how Florence County benefitted over the years by traveling Hwy 378 from Horry County to Interstate 95. Once you cross the Florence County line, a two lane road becomes a very nice four lane divided highway. Horry County certainly contributes many more tax dollars to the state than Florence County but receives little back for local needs by comparison.


Horry County’s most senior senator, Luke Rankin now completing his 32nd year in the Senate, should have the influence in Columbia to bring more money back to the county. However, it seems Rankin’s influence is limited to picking judges, saving Santee Cooper from being sold to private utilities. after the proposed nuclear power station debacle, and obtaining Santee Cooper land, in a residential neighborhood, for a dog pound.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Rankin Senate Issues Hurt Horry County Residents

Rankin Senate Issues Hurt Horry County Residents By Dennis Mitchell A recent article by a Columbia news outlet claimed senators are looking to change SC Senate rules in order to remove Horry County Sen. Luke Rankin from his chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee.   The desire to remove Rankin from the committee chairmanship apparently results from his opposition, during the last session, to the SC Justice Act, which proposed to amend liability law to make each defendant in a personal injury lawsuit liable only for their percentage of liability that led to the injury or loss. The passage of the act was important to small business owners, especially those in the hospitality industry.   Twenty four state senators, a majority in that chamber, signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation. However, the bill was stalled in the Judiciary Committee for over a year and, when it did finally get to the floor for debate, a powerful Democratic senator was successful in tabling the am...
Read more

Rankin Out of Touch

  Luke Rankin is out of Touch with Voters Horry County Senator Luke Rankin put himself in a political box last week that he will find it difficult to get out of as reelection time rolls around. With reform of the process which elects judges in the state being a hot topic among the voters and other elected officials, Rankin chose last week to voice support, in an hour-long speech on the Senate floor last week, for the current process. As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Vice Chairman of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission, Rankin has a lot of say in who becomes judges in South Carolina. He probably can’t be blamed for wanting to keep that power in his hands. However, 695,791 voters in the recent South Carolina Presidential Primary election answered a question included on the ballot of whether the current process of electing judges in the state should be reformed. Over 91 percent, 634,345 to be exact, said YES. When 9 out of every 10 voters disagree with the positio...
Read more