A CITZENS SPEAKS OUT IN SUPPORT OF RIGHT OF 11,000 PETITIONERS
A CITZENS SPEAKS OUT IN SUPPORT OF RIGHT OF 11,000 PETITIONERS
At the May 15th meeting of Florence County Council, Murray Jordan spoke in rebuttal to remarks made by Councilman James Schofield concerning the petition to lower the $30 Road Maintenance Fee. Mr. Jordan, who is not a member of FCCIA, announced to Florence County Council that he was speaking for himself and on behalf of the thousands who signed the petition.
Unfortunately, the local paper, the Morning News, limited coverage of Mr. Jordan’s remarks to two sentences. However, the Morning News announced its support of Mr. Schofield and County Council’s decision to take the petition to court and printed an op-ed written by Mr. Schofield supporting this decision. The Morning News also announced that remarks made at the May 1, 2008 Florence County Council meeting by Mr. Schofield, in opposition to the petition, could be found on its website scnow.com. Mr. Schofield’s op-ed can also be found on the Morning News website.
We are in favor of both sides of an issue being made public. And for this reason, Mr. Jordan’s remarks appear below. The text of our news conference concerning the petition drive appears on this home page along with supporting documentation. Mr. Schofields’s op-ed and remarks before Florence County Council can be found at scnow.com.
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County Council address for May 15, 2008
Mr. Chairman and members of Council:
I want to begin by quoting one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson: “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical”
I stand before you as one voter who is representing the intent of many, and certainly the eleven thousand voters who signed the petition to reduce the road maintenance fee from 30 dollars to 15 dollars. We are not beguiled or hoodwinked by the misnaming of this fee, a fee that only four dollars and twenty cents is actually designated for “dirt road maintenance”.
The rhetoric expounded at the last council meeting challenging the intent of the voters was technically flawed. Challenging the technical correctness of the wording of the petition to try to duck the intent of the voter, and then labeling the challenge of the voters to this hated fee as “perverted nonsense” is at minimum insulting to all of the voters in the county.
”PERVERTED NONSENSE???” Let’s address that insult:
Since when is taxpayers questioning or complaining about unfair taxation perverted? To stand in silence implies agreement. Members of Council, eleven thousand voters are not standing in agreement, they are standing in opposition!
When the voters stand in silence and do nothing when elected office holders are doing wrong, the voters get the kind of government that they deserve, the worst kind of government.
Councilmen Schofield said that 24 of the 46 counties in South Carolina have similar fees, but he had not heard of any voter effort to remove them. One simple reason is that the other counties do not have a Florence County Citizens in Action.
Chairman Smith, you yourself said on May First, that this is an equitable tax. I looked up fee and tax in dictionaries copyrighted as far back as the 1847 Webster’s. They all basically described a fee as a payment for services. The inference is that the fee is paid by those for whom a specific service is rendered. On the other hand, a tax is levied upon the whole tax base because it is in the interest of the people as a whole. The meanings have not changed in over one hundred and sixty years. In reality, this fee described as for Road Maintenance should be charged only to those who actually own property with an address on a dirt road. I have not driven on a dirt road in this county in several years and therefore I should not be charged with maintaining dirt roads as I have not used them and therefore should not be paying a dirt road maintenance fee. On the other hand, taxes are levied for the benefit of the whole and therefore the Public Works Department should be funded with property tax millage, like it used to be, with millage which is based upon the value of the property. We had millage dedicated to operate public works. Where is that millage? What did you do with it? Did you remove it from the tax burden of the taxpayer? I think not. Chairman Smith, this so called fee does not fit the description of a fee. You described it on May First as a tax. It is not equitable and not fairly imposed. It benefits the wealthy because it reduces the property tax on the expensive vehicle and it takes from the poor who drive the vehicles with low values and therefore should be subject to less tax, not more.
Throughout the Bible, a common theme is that taking from the poor to give to the rich is EVIL… EVIL!!
How many times do you have to tell me that a bottom feeding catfish is a beautiful mermaid to make it true? A hundred times? A thousand times, a million times? NOW THERE IS A DOG THAT DOESN’T HUNT!
This is nothing but smoke and mirrors!
What happens, Councilmen, when you are elected to office? Several of you spoke against this reviled fee before you were elected. Then your concerns change! We have seen the phenomenon all too many times whereby upon being elected you abandon your professed concern of being for the people and for conservative government and spending? Do you take a pill? Do you get a vaccination? Is there a secret ritual or ceremony? Many of us voters would really like to know. You know who you are!
Councilmen, the intent of the voters is very clear, whether technically flawed or not! They want the fifteen dollars of additional fee removed immediately! The council has only two honest choices. One, remove the fee, or two, put the issue before the voters with a referendum on the November 4 ballot. The voters are entitled to this. The voters of Florence County are not a “Flock of Dolts”
Mr. Chairman and Councilmen: two words that we should all strive to guide our lives by are wisdom and integrity.
Prayer: Lord, open the hearts and minds of these councilmen that they may see the error of their ways and as our elected employees, lead them to do the right thing and heed the will of the voters. We know that Character does count! AMEN.
Paraphrasing the words of the Terminator… As voters; we’ll be back, on June 10th and November 4th.