Marion County Letters to the Editor: published March 11

Clarification of Crime Watch meeting needed

Dear Editor,
Regarding the March 4 crime meeting announcement … while I understand and appreciate the need to cut for space, the eye-catching headline leads to an announcement so mangled that it's untrue.
Also, the time and place of Sunday's meeting are gone. The way it reads, I'd interpret that the candidates will be at the City Council meeting. I'd dismiss the March 8 date as a misprint. While I can't imagine anyone believing the opposition will speak at Council, if anyone does come specifically for that, the candidates' credibility could suffer, if thought of as no-shows. Plus, the telephone numbers of the people to contact for the meeting were cut.
To wrap it up, please make sure you correct and apologize to anyone misled by the information. Gratefully, the announcement was correct in the “other” newspaper.
Thank you,
JoAnne Hickey

Editor’s note:
To clarify, the crime watch group meets monthly at 3 p.m. on the Sunday before the Tuesday Marion City Council meeting in the Episcopal Church of the Advent on Main Street in Marion. The group met with two of the candidates running in the April 14 city elections this past Sunday. For information, about the crime watch group, call Van Edwards at 423-1273 or Teresa Scholz at 423-6850. We apologize for the editing mistakes and any confusion they may have caused.

Food bank thanks donors

Dear Editor,
The Harvest Hope Food Bank of the Pee Dee thanks all of its donors, including the media, churches, schools, businesses, individuals, civic organizations, other non-profit organizations, etc. for their support in 2008. Harvest Hope and its member agencies had a 40 – 50 percent increase in clients last year and we could not have been able to assist them without your help. Together, we have provided more than 20,000,000 pounds of food and related items to help feed hungry people. You helped make this possible! Through your support, you have clearly demonstrated your personal concern for those who are hungry. You have given the greatest gift of all – HOPE – and we thank you!
Harvest Hope Food Bank is a 501©(3) non-profit organization and a regional distribution program that collects, stores, and distributes food and related items to more than 400 qualified agencies engaged in feeding needy, elderly, and ill families, children and individuals in 20 counties in South Carolina. The home office is located in Columbia, the Greater Greenville Branch is located in Mauldin and the Pee Dee Branch is located in Florence. The Pee Dee Branch serves 8 counties: Chesterfield, Clarendon, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Lee, Marion, and Marlboro.
Now we need you to help us re-stock our shelves. Whatever you can do to help us feed hungry people would be deeply appreciated. Fight hunger and feed hope with your gift to Harvest Hope Food Bank of the Pee Dee. Every $1 you send provides 10 meals for hungry children, women and seniors. Your donation and your time, no matter how large or how small, make a difference.
The mission of Harvest Hope is to provide for the needs of hungry people by gathering and sharing quality food with dignity, compassion and education. Please continue to help us fight hunger and feed hope by sending your most generous gift today.
Thank you!

Writer says to say no to new tax

Dear Editor:
If you or the members of your county council have not yet been asked to consent to an increase in the motor fuels tax, you probably will be asked soon. When I learned of the proposal several weeks ago, I determined I would oppose it for the reasons set forth below.
I am not a reflexively anti-tax person, so my opposition to the proposed 3 percent motor fuels surtax to fund South Carolina’s part of I-73 is not because it is a tax increase per se. The proposal, a localized tax to be levied only in Horry, Marion, Dillon and Marlboro counties, is, by virtue of that fact alone, a bad idea. It represents a shifting of a tax burden back to local governments, hardly an innovative idea, since in Horry County we have been down this road before (no pun intended).
Those who have served in the General Assembly for a while and who support this pass-the-burden-to-local-governments proposal have had ample opportunity in their years of service to push for a statewide increase in the motor fuels tax to fund the transportation needs in S.C. Such a move would have been not only an acknowledgement of the responsibilities the state has in this area but also a recognition of the benefits the whole state — not just the four counties asked to tax themselves — receives as a result of road improvements. No doubt such a tax increase would be a difficult thing to accomplish, if for no other reason than the reflexively anti-tax mentality that pervades the legislature. It would nevertheless be the right and equitable thing to do.
Even before the economic downturn, an almost pathological opposition to raising taxes prevented legislators at both the state and federal level from adequately addressing a number of national and state needs, not the least of which are roads and other infrastructure problems. This abdication of initiative and responsibility leads inevitably to crisis, and crisis decision-making leads to expediency. Expediency, in the case of I-73, is leading to a passing of the buck to the only level of government left. Thus, the local governments of Horry, Marion, Dillon and Marlboro are being asked to do what legislators in Columbia and Washington would not do -- act to increase the motor fuels tax.
This tendency to keep shifting the burden down the line may be good politics for the one’s doing the shifting, but it is an unfair and condescending intergovernmental relationship in which the lowest level of government is consulted only when it can be of use to one or both of the other levels. If such a proposal makes its way through the General Assembly and it falls to the four participating counties to opt in or opt out, I hope that decision will be referred to the voters in a referendum.
There is one other thing that concerns me about this proposal. We are in the midst of a severe retrenchment in state and local government at this time, and as cuts are made, essential services are being affected. There seems to be little willingness to raise taxes to avoid those cuts, and that is probably a good economic decision, all things considered. But it would seem to me that if taxes must be increased, that the first area to which the increased revenue should be applied is to stem cuts in essential services.
If the current proposal for a localized increase in the motor fuels tax were not on the table at this time, I am sure that any effort to increase state or local taxes to maintain essential services at current levels would be met by a resounding chorus of opposition from the very same people who are supporting the motor fuels tax increase.
In Horry County, I have discovered that one’s failure to fall in line behind any scheme to fund the construction of much needed roads is regarded as heresy. However, history teaches us that heresy is neither necessarily, nor always, a bad thing.
As you give this proposed tax increase your careful consideration, be aware also that at this writing the General Assembly has before it a proposal to cut state aid to county governments, a move that will further stress county budgets, perhaps necessitating a choice within your county between further reductions in programs and services or tax increases. This dual assault on county governments, pushing state responsibilities on them and cutting the revenue the state shares with them, is yet one more example of the short shrift local governments (and the concept of home rule itself) often receive in Columbia. This too is an issue that needs to be addressed by the General Assembly.
Chip Brown