September 22, 2013 A well written and balanced article from Lindsay Buchanan at the Morning News today. The Senator says it’s not personal. Yet he has refused to meet or talk with the Chairman of Council since their last meeting on this matter in February 2013 to try and work out a compromise. He has refused to take, or return his phone calls, even messages left at his Senate office with Dianne. Yet he held a meeting at FMU March 25 at 6:30 p.m. to as quoted from his letter, “get together with leaders of our community to discuss the major issues facing our state and community.” The Senator sent out a letter to those he wanted at the meeting and not one county councilman was invited and the major topic of discussion, (The Capital Projects Sales Tax) and how county council should not go forward with this referendum, and on the next night held another meeting of the mayors in Florence County and told them there would be no compromise on this issue. Before I became Chairman, the first of December of 2012 I heard from Mayor Stephen Wukela, that the Senator was opposed to the council’s plan to have a referendum on the tax since it was not just for roads, in particular secondary farm to market roads, long before the projects list was even considered by the Capital Projects Sales Tax Commission. I immediately requested a meeting with the Senator to try and work on this problem. After many phone calls to his Chief of Staff Robby Dawkins requesting a meeting before Christmas, in late January I called Dr. Fred Carter to ask for his assistance in getting a meeting with the Senator. When I was finally allowed to talk to the Senator in his Columbia office in late January about seven weeks after initially contacting them, we tried to compromise with him, we suggested that almost 100 million for roads could be done but that we needed an amount to fix critical life safety needs in Florence County, but he would have none of it. His reaction to my request, That is a local problem, it’s up to the county to fix it. At that meeting in Columbia in January 2012, I gave the Senators staff proposed legislation and asked the Senator to work on legislation that had nothing to do with the CPST issue, it was a matter dealing with state statutes 4-9 and 4-19 relative to County Fire Departments, and how the legislature had amended one to not impose the millage cap from act 388 but did not evidently realized that many fire departments at the County level are also set up under 4-19. This matter is crucial to fixing a problem with fire protection and rural fire departments in Florence County, and yet we are being ignored. The Senator has not made any effort whatsoever to assist us with this matter even though I have contacted his Chief of Staff by phone requesting this help. After a meeting with Dr. Carter on the CPST controversy at which I expressed my frustration with the Senator’s refusal to help us with a totally unrelated matter, he asked me to email him a copy of our needed legislation in the fire service and he would get a copy to Columbia and see what he could do. Again nothing has happened. Really, this is not personal? Now someone is conducting a push poll in Florence County, asking the citizens what they think of Allan Wilson, and James Schofield, and asking questions that are deliberately designed to mislead the citizens about information on the proposed referendum. Oh yes, don’t forget, Senator Leatherman by himself, tried to get the Senate Finance Committee to remove 30 million dollars from the local government fund this year, even though the state had more revenue this year. That is in stark contrast to the previous year when he fought with the House to get the local government fund an additional 40 million which ended up at 30 million thanks to his great support. Thankfully, the Senate refused to pass the budget this year, until the Senator relented in his effort to punish every county in South Carolina, simply because the Association of Counties had the audacity to write an opinion letter stating that what Florence County was attempting to do with the CPST referendum was completely in accord with state law. It’s not personal, is that why he attempted to pass House bill 3412 with amendments he put on it, Article 10 which would allow the County Transportation Committee (headed by his good friend Sherwin Welch) to ask for a referendum to impose a penny sales tax, which (4-10-1120 “The revenues of the tax collected under this article may not be used to defray debt service on bonds issued to pay for projects authorized in this article.” Of course the Senator was upset with the Haynesworth Law Firm (Bond Attorneys) for writing an opinion which said what the County of Florence was doing was completely legal. Then in 4-10-1130 “A county may impose the sales tax provided in this article in addition to any other local option sales taxes already in effect in that county.”, even though in a morning news article at the time he stated related to this legislation that you can’t have more than two penny taxes at one time. He also stated that if this legislation passed, the debate over the CPST in Florence County would be over because this bill would remove the county’s ability to do anything but roads with the Capital Projects sales tax. Attorneys that I had read the proposed statute said it did not change the present capital project sales tax in that regard, it just added a new one at his disposal. Additionally, he added language under Section 11. Section 12.28-2740(B( of the 1976 Code is amended to read. ---“provided that members of county or municipal governing bodies may not be appointed to a county transportation committee.” As is currently allowed, and he did all of this at the close of the legislative session so that no debate could be had on the matter except at passage of the state budget, thankfully, I don’t believe he was successful at this one. So really, it’s not personal, you try to punish those who don’t agree with you on what a state statute says, and that is not personal? Yes it may not be personal, but it sure doesn’t bode well for cooperation between the parties. From the Article this Sunday September 22: HartsvilBackdoor tax? The senator also pointed out a question raised by many in the county since examples of the referendum question for the new tax came out — a legal phrase at the end which states there is a possibility of property taxes in the county going up in the event the tax did not raise sufficient funds to repay the bonds council has planned. “The way I read that is that this is a backdoor property tax increase on the people,” Leatherman said. • le Messenger • Does anyone really wonder who is conducting the poll, in which the question is stated as something like do you support this when the county is just trying to get a back door property tax increase? • • You really should see copies of the Morning News article August 27, 2012 in which the Senator promised another 90 million dollars for the original Cpst projects, in which he stated something to the effect. The state DOT estimated we would be 70-72 million short to complete project six, “So I got 90 Million just to be safe.” • Then look at a letter I sent him on project #6 requesting his advice as to whether or not the 90 million was assured and whether or not the county should continue to allow money to be spent on this project in light of his recent conversion that there would not be enough money to fund these original CPST road projects, simply because that does not support his argument at the Supreme Court. • • You really should see his response letter to me which the envelope was addressed but not the letter itself, “The Honorable, The Honorable James T. Schofield” (how do you do that in Word that creates the envelope from the letter header?), in his response where I ask for his advice of whether to continue funding project six expenses, which he totally ignores in his response and as to the question of whether or not the 90 million would be forth coming he basically says, when the time is right the board will consider it, well the time isn’t right, it would undermine his case . • • Look at the argument from the Attorney General, that the commission should have included money to finish the existing projects, even though the Senator had boasted he had enough, “Just to be Safe”, even though the commission created to write this ballot question had four out of six members from the previous commission and not one of them, to include Mr. Welch, the Senators personal friend and head of the CTC in Florence County stood up and tried to add money to the new CPST for the original CPST road projects, and no citizens asked us to do that at the public meetings. Why would anyone do that when the Senator assured us he had the 90 million, does he now not have it? No just a convenient but illogical argument to suit his goal. Block the citizens right to vote on the new referendum at all cost. On another matter, Let me see if I have got this right! It’s ok for the Senator to get the SIB which he chairs to borrow 500 Million dollars , financed by funding from the 50 million he is pulling from the state budget each year to fund state road infrastructure needs, see article (thestate/.../gov-nikki-haley-signs-500-million.html Cached) leveraging it the maximum amount possible and risk that in a recession that the state taxpayers might have to bail out a shortfall, but in Florence County, it is not ok for the citizens of Florence County to authorize bonds in which the revenue projected has been purposely understated and even with that figure of 145 Million in revenue only a maximum of 125 million can be borrowed. Additionally, council may only finance around 110 million of the projects and let the rest be pay as you go in case of a bad recession council so it has a method of not moving forward on the last projects ( due to a tremendous recession or depression) unless they could be done without property taxes to pay off the bonds? Lake Florence County Council is fighting for the right or our citizens to finance capital needs of their choosing with a referendum allowing them to express their opinion on a given list of projects. We are fighting for their rights and hope we are successful before the Senator is allowed either with this court action ( Hearing on October 1st) or through legislation next year, to as stated in our brief to the Supreme Court, “ Cripple the ability of Counties” to deal with serious capital needs such as Courthouses, fire stations etc with a law specifically passed to allow the local citizens make a decision of what is best, and not let one Senator to roll back the clock to pre home rule days when the public had little input into what happened at the county level, and state as he has to me when I asked him at our last meeting in February, “Senator, what are you going to do if we have the public meetings required by the state law and the CPST Commission hear from the citizens that they want something besides roads? His answer, “Then I guess we will just do nothing.” WE cannot afford to do nothing in Florence County, the issues of the Courthouse, Fire Departments, Roads, Water and a Radio System are too great. Leaders should have principals that guide them, not a misguided effort to protect to what he says the will of the voters was in 2006, which can be found nowhere in that ballot question that the voters approved at that time. I believe the will of the voters could best be expressed on November 5, 2013 and this is this best way to resolve this issue. The will of the voters of Florence County should prevail, not the will of any politician, Attorney General, or Court. I for one will not surrender my principals of letting the voters decide important matters like the Capital Projects Sales Tax, , even though the Senator has been a personal friend of mine for many years, which included working with him to pass the local option sales tax, and the capital projects sales tax in the past in Florence County. I take no pleasure in fighting with the Senator on an issue of great importance to our citizens, especially someone who has done more than any other person I know of to move our county forward over the last many years. I and my father who is not deceased have supported Senator Leatherman every time he has run for office. Without Senator Leatherman’s efforts over his many years of great service to our citizens, many of the great assets we have would have not been built. Our ability to attract industry and new citizens to our community are largely due to his outstanding efforts in these matters. That is why I am as baffled as anyone why the Senator has fought us so hard in this matter and refused to compromise or meet us to talk about a solution, and then we get to the unbelievable point of a petition being filed against the county of Florence by Allan Wilson, the Attorney General of SC, even though we are only trying to fix critical public safety issues such as the Radio System, EMS, Fire, and water system improvement such as a water tank for Pamplico to insure good fire protection. It just simply does not make any sense to me. Someone asked me last week, how we could resolve this matter and stop the negative effects to the Senator and the citizens of Florence County. Let us both admit that mistakes were made on both of our parts at the outset of this matter, I personally am willing to do that. My opinion, The Attorney General of South Carolina should withdraw this petition which is before the Supreme Court. Let us sit down with our good Senator and work for the betterment of our community and a partnership of cooperation. Let Florence County citizens have the same opportunity and right that the citizens of Aiken, Newberry and Orangeburg have afforded themselves of. No matter the outcome of this issue, I pledge my support to work with all members of the legislative delegation, to work to improve public safety in Florence County and to change state laws which so greatly hamper the efforts of County Council in managing their budget in an efficient manner for the public. Senator Leatherman has always been my friend, and that friendship on my side will not change. I respect him greatly for all of his accomplishments on behalf of the people of our City and County, I simply cannot stand up and tell the citizens of Florence County that the greatest need we have right now is road paving, when I know, that is simply not the truth, I wish it were. I wish that we had Fire services consolidated and supported financially as it needs to be in Florence County, I wish that we had all of the EMS facilities we need, I wish that there were sufficient water lines to lower people fire insurance rates and give them better fire protection, I wish we had a radio system to protect the lives of our citizens and fire fighters and public safety officers in our county, but the simple truth is we don’t and you can bet that as long as I live, on County Council or not, I will work to that end. As the Lord gives me strength to continue, I will do so, despite the odds, and despite the pain this conflict has caused me, because you see, I promised you my best when you put your trust in me and elected me to this office. I hope and pray that I don’t ever let you down. James T. Schofield Chairman Florence County Council
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 16:21:43 +0000
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