Some talking points for tonight's Delegation meeting ....

Laws broken by School Board 1. SC law 12-43-285 Setting millage rates - what to do if rates are too high and revenue is collected over and above because of millage rates.  Revenue collected because of wrong percentages set for collect-ability 95% instead of 103 %- What to do!  Revenue gained for price variations: For instance gasoline is now 1/2 of what it was budgeted- tremendous windfall to the Schools.  In all cases over-collected revenue should be put in a separate account by County Treasurer and either refunded or credited to tax payer.  This money does not belong to the School District and if the State was funding the Schools like is required by law in our Constitution, Article 11 Section 3, none of this would be a problem. 2.  The School Board has recently refinanced $320,000,000 of bonds that they do not own and can't own according to the Constitution's 8% of appraised property rule in the county. This not only violates the Constitution but the original findings on the "Greenville Plan" by the SC Supreme Court saying that there was no evidence that the the SCAGO dummy corporation was the alter ego of the Pickens County School Board.  There are $789,000 in overages this year in the first quarter. $3.2 million for the year. 3.  The School Board Financial Officer said that he was moving funds from one place to another which is a violation of the Article 10 Section 5's  part "  Any tax which shall be levied shall distinctly state the public purpose to which the proceeds of the tax shall be applied."  Also if you have money for the replacement of a roof that does not need replacing as budgeted, that money cannot be moved  to operating expense items because of the personal residence owner discount on their taxes. This all means that money that has been taxed without the home owner discount, cannot be used to pay for the home owner discounted items. 4.  The people of Pickens County do not want the unvetted Syrian refugees. 5.  The people of Pickens County do not want to pay $6.5 million dollars for a student union building at Tri-County Tech.  This is the State's responsibility. (Article 11 Section 3) and it causes the County to exceed the 8% rule for general obligation bonds for education.  Pickens County has spent tens of millions of dollars on a career center and staffed it with teachers to do the mission of Tri-County Tech. These are some things that the State has let us down on. Junius Smith