Saturday, March 29, 2014, 5:30-8:30 pm

New Covenant Presbyterian Church, 301 Simpson Road, Anderson, SC 29621

Dinner, Entertainment, Silent and Live Auction

$20 a ticket: Make checks payable to Davis Garrett Fund

For tickets contact Paula Miles (864) 650-2820, Lee Ann Qualkinbush (864) 508-0364, Vicki Dixon (864) 915-0786, Maria Dunlap (864) 940-3080, Janie Clary (864) 224-1497, Anna Smith (864) 934-7022

A fundraising event to help with Davis Garrett’s medical expenses. He has been diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and the Garrett family has been crippled with medical bills.

From judgedansharp.comAs a young boy, Dan Sharp (candidate for Probate Judge) grew up on an apple farm in Walhalla. He was taught the value of hard work, personal responsibility, and free market tenets. His humble beginnings include learning about sustainable agriculture as a steward of God’s creation. These values are the foundation of his unshakable character.

Many candidates for office choose their party by convenience in an effort to get elected. Dan sharp has never been a Democrat, nor ever supported a Democrat. Dan Sharp has a lifelong proven tract record of choosing principle over politics. He is undoubtably a lifelong Republican!

The House of Representatives just passed the largest budget in South Carolina’s history. The $24 billion budget appropriates $1.6 billion more than last year’s budget.

It is unfortunate that excess revenues were spent instead of returned to taxpayers, however; we are encouraged to see a plan allowing counties to buy roads from the state. Nationally, South Carolina ranks number five for miles of state owned roads but is one of the smaller states (40th). One step for improving roads in South Carolina is not by raising taxes, but taking roads that the state owns and put the counties in charge.

We were sad to see two efforts to remove a full time security detail for a part time public official fail. Some previous Lt. Governors have realized that a full time security detail is a waste of taxpayer money and we agree. It was also disappointing to see a proposal to prevent local government from charging a fee for paying your taxes with a credit or debit card. This “tax on a tax” isn’t something we agree with and the Senate should put this back in the budget.

On the Senate side a weak ethics reform bill, which was largely debated behind closed doors, was passed back over to the House. The Senate’s version still allows self-policing for legislators. We hope that the House will fix this and strengthen this much-needed reform.

As the Senate starts the budget process we encourage members to keep all pet projects, pork and earmarks out of the budget and return any excess revenues to the taxpayer. Despite what many politicians think, tax dollars are not manna from heaven but money taken straight from the pockets of hard working South Carolinians.

Catholic Bishop hands check to school principal and family of Cameron Horne, third grade special needs student who transferred St. Joseph’s. The scholarship -issued by St. Thomas Aquinas Scholarship Finding Organization (SFO)- was financed privately by tax credit funded donations.

My colleagues on the Anderson County Legislative Delegation and my phones have been ringing off the hook from the fine volunteers on the Anderson County Fire Stations across Anderson County. I want to stress I have not been happy with some of the actions made by the commission. They own several vehicles for their employees personal use and they spend too much on traveling to conventions at high dollar hotels at the beach. These expenses don’t put out fires or buy equipment for our volunteer firemen. What can I do? Only two things:

1-The delegation votes on the budget of the Commission every year. I’ve been voting against these budgets in the last few years, but so far the majority supports their budgets.

2-Vote for members of the commission. Governor Haley appoints Commissioners by nomination by the delegation.

I appreciate all the passion to reform the practices of the commission, but I’ve encouraged my friends to direct all this energy to recruiting a slate of candidates committed to a common set of reforms, or pressuring any incumbent to support these reforms. My suggestions would be simple:

1-Sell all vehicles that are not fire trucks
2-Delete all travel expenses
3-Use all these funds to purchase fire fighting equipment

Below is the current make up of the Anderson County Fire Commission:

ANDERSON COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION COMMISSION

Appointed by the Governor upon recommendation of the Legislative Delegation for a four (4) year term, the dates of their term expiration, and the district they represent.

Mr. Glenn G. Holliday, 07-07-2014, School Dist. 1
Mr. Gerald Hanks, 07-07-2016, School Dist. 2
Mr. Stephen Sorensen, 07-07-2014, School Dist. 3
Mr. Preston Cox, 07-07-2014, School Dist. 4
Mr. Willard W. Wiles, 07-07-2016, School Dist. 5