Conseratives Of The Upstate: November Newsletter

During the past six months, Conservatives of the Upstate has communicated some very important information to the people.

We have given a detailed history of the General Assembly, the Pickens County delegation, the Pickens County School Board, and the Pickens County Council.

* We pointed out that the people have lost their right to vote on the new school construction as required by the constitution of this state. We noted that Senator Larry Martin has refused to help us with an appointment to present our legal case to the State Attorney General; who at this point denies having spoken with Senator Martin about this issue.

* The Chairman of the School Board of Pickens County has admitted that they have been overcollecting taxes each year by underestimating the worth of a mil and the collection rate of the taxes at 95% rather than 100% - which they have been doing for the past 20 years. This has allowed the county and the school board to over collect $60 million, put the money in a contingency fund, and spend it on whatever they wanted. Even this spending procedure is illegal because the county and the school board cannot legally spend money collected for general expense on bond retirement or vice versa on bond money for general expense. Its even worse when they try to tell the teachers that there was not any money for needed supplies. So when these politicians tell you they have not raised your taxes, it just means they found another way to skin the public.

* Senator Martin is moving ahead quickly to change the laws that have been violated, and intends to do so at the next session of the General Assembly. Rumors have it that he intends to raise your taxes with some more of his statutory laws with help from his cronies like Senator Thomas of Greenville, and Senator Alexander of Oconee County. They intend to fire the Governor of this state because he made a mistake, shift more tax burden to the home owner, and change laws so the counties can rip you more. Senator Martin voted against the Governor over 275 times, On his watch, the state retirement plan is underfunded by over $20 billion dollars, while 17 counties spent billions on school construction. State spending increased 40% over three years while in the midst of over 11% unemployment.

* The performance of the schools has not been good because the system is broken. We did not need to mortgage every piece of taxable property in the state. We need vouchers. Our legislative delegation got the state performance test changed in Columbia so there will not be anything to compare performance year over year. If one looks at the state spending in proportion to the federal government, the state has done worse, but neither have done justice to the American people.

* Utiliity companies feel like they can come on your property, put in roads, lines, and poles in an unruly manner, and not be responsible for getting the property owners permissiion. We have had property owners threatened with emminent domain and other legal untruths, and they are forced to take legal action at great expense to protect their property. Our group appeared before the County Council, and pleaded with them that the DSO ordinance that they passed was illegal and unwanted. They have tried to sieze road frontage that has been legally paid for by the owners without compensation.

* At our November 12, 2009 meeting at the Blue Ridge Bible Church at 769 Belle Shoals Road, we offered help to any one in the general public to protest their county taxes. We gave out forms and delivered information to assist in the success of your claim.