kilkenny's Blog

The devaluation of the dollar may be a good thing. After all who in the world can afford to buy a shirt made in America that costs $40.00 when they can buy the same shirt made in Indonesia for $12.00. This difference is that the average American manufacturing employee makes $17.00 per hour vs maybe $2.00 and hour in Indonesia. In addition the American manufacturer must meet(and pay for) all EPA/OSHA requirements, workers comp., retirements, 401Ks, medical plans, state/Fed/local taxes, and probably some other things. These all add up to increase the cost of the manufactured product. The US may never again be able to compete in routine manufacturing with the rest of the world. Unless the value of the dollar drops significantly and the associated costs also drop.

Blogger---Wow, great job to have unless you are including paid vacation days which is another story because the county employees get those too. Also is your salary paid directly by the tax payer as are those of county employees?

Ellie I get 2 paid days off per year. I spoke to a number of people in various occupations and none of them get close to 13 paid days off per year. Yes, to some of the others I was being conservative with the numbers I used. They would actually be somewhat higher if true salaries were available for all employees. Anderson County is not a bad job to have. These numbers may be something to consider when we ask why our infrastructure (roads in particular) aren't getting repaired.

Mr.McAbee initiated an ordinance to give county employees Good Friday off in addition to the current 13 paid holidays (14 during a voting tear). First of all what other employer gives 13 paid days off a year other than maybe the education system? Let me know if there are any. Consider this too, there are about 900 county employees, lets say they average $10.00 per hour in wages, then 900 x 10 = $9000 dollars per hour times 8 hours per day is $72,000 dollars per day times 13 holidays equals $936,000 dollars per year employees are paid for not working. If we use the 14 days (every other year) this totals $1,008,000 dollars in salaries paid for not working. If Good Friday is approved of course this will be 15 paid days (or three work weeks off!) at a total of $1,080,000 of pay for not working. Is this really running a lean mean budget concept during these tough economic times?!

Just a thought, or is it just my imagination, but OPEC is meeting today (Dec 17) to discuss cutting production in order to raise prices. Why then did gas prices start going up the evening of Dec 16. This new higher priced gas is not yet even in the system. This is a rip off. One station owner told me the last time prices were going down that it took several days for it to be reflected at the pump because the tanks still had the higher priced gas in the underground tanks. OK, so why does it go up so fast when the cheaper gas is now still in the tanks? Shouldn't it also take several days for that gas to be used up before the new more expensive stuff arrives? Rip Off!

Brian---Great ideas. I would like to add that it might be a good idea to have all of the awards presentations done between the 6pm and 7pm hour so the award winners can be on TV and then leave if they desire (as they usually do) before the business part of the meeting begins. I would also suggest that these awards be done on maybe a quarterly basis. I would also recommend that the presenters not read the entire certificate. Some of those certificates read like books. The first paragraph should be enough. I would start the 7pm hour with citizens comments and then get down to business. This way those concerned about county affairs won't have to set in those hard seats for hours on end. My posterior would greatly appreciate the expediting of these meetings.

Yes, the way the Preston/Cunningham affair was handled was very shabby at best, but probably not illegal in and of itself. The collusion that occurred to make it all happen is the illegal part. Anyone viewing the meeting couldn't help but see that some type of collusion had to occur for all of those pre-written legal documents to fall into place. There is where the court case comes in.

Queen, I agree. I have met both of them at council meetings and they seem to be concerned about moving forward with an open government and eliminating the bickering that has been so pervasive during a lot of meetings. Lets face it they will need all the time they can get to try to get this county back into a degree of equilibrium and wipe out its title of "laughing stock" throughout the rest of the state. They will need at least two years of hard work to try and get this done. They are walking into a real mess.

Gee gotta agree with Republikin when she used words like "perceived new power", "self-centered", "mob mentality", "Neanderthals", "hate", "power", and "money". She nailed McAbee, Thompson, and Greer right on! Way to go Rep.

Rep---Yep, guess I am late to dinner. If however we (the county) have that $1.14 million available, wouldn't it be better spent on infrastructure repair? After all that was the big push behind the capital projects tax. All I heard was how desperately we need road and bridge repair. Looks to me like if roads and bridges are that bad then the money should go there. Apparently roads and bridges are not that bad. Even Mr. Hopkins said he didn't mind losing a big chunk out of his budget for the buy out. Too many conflicting statements coming from the county. Do we need road repair or not? It looks as though we sure didn't need the capital projects tax to pass since we seem to have all of this loose money just floating around!

Several things don't add up. How was the number $1.14 million arrived at? It is much more than what his contract called for. Can anyone explain where that number came from based on the contract? Second Mr. Hopkins campaigned long and hard for the one cent capital projects tax, yet when a large chunk of his budget was taken for the buy out of Mr. Preston he commented in the paper that it was no beg deal! Apparently he doesn't need the money for road repair. Also when Michael Thompson and Ron Wilson ran four years ago they made comments to the effect that they would give Mr. Preston very bad grades on job performance and would even fire him. There was no yelling about anticipatory breach of contract and a buy out. The new council members have said nothing negative about Mr. Preston so why is this breach of contract now such a big deal?

Regarding global warming if you go back and read any of the major news magazines of the 70s there are articles about global cooling and a possible new ice age appearing. Now a mere 30+ years we are yelling about global warming. The globe may well be warming, but I believe it is natural phenomenon such as sun spot activity that causes it,not mere mortal activity. After all this globe has had ice ages and warming periods way before man came on the scene. Sometimes man over estimates his ability to affect things and way under estimates good old Mother Nature. Also trying to estimate what is happening in the global environment using short periods of time such as 20-30-50 or even 100 years is irrelevant. We need to look at periods of time in the 100s or better 1000s of year periods to get a real picture of what is going on.

Wouldn't it be interesting if the Independent Mail bought out WRIX and then both file for bankruptcy and ask for a government bailout. Ah, only in America!

1-opinion--Very well said. I would bet you have a crystal ball based on the last sentence of your statement.

Well its been a whole week since a post was made on this thread and now another shooting has occurred in Homeland Park. Lets get to the nitty-gritty. Why? Why was there another shooting in this area of town? How would you stop it. Apparently the Gang Taskforce is at a loss for answers.

Keeping jobs in America is and will be a very difficult task at least for manufacturing jobs that we all seem to fixate on. The reason is that a worker in Mexico, Taiwan, etc will do the same job for $1.00 and hour vs $15.00 in the United States. That $15.00 and hour worker in America actually cost more like $65.00 and hour by the time you figure in state taxes, local taxes, Fed taxes, workers comp, medical, dental, OSHA, EPA, and any law suites that the company may face. Why as a CEO would you stay in America? Only those jobs that are really unique or can only be done in America will stay here. That leaves the usual service jobs for many Americans. In many third world countries the worker is paid his dollar an hour and that is it. We are in a world market and the natural flow of things will cause manufacturing to move to the lowest cost area of the world.

Not being dead yet I often wondered what kind of language they used in Heaven. I guess Angel has show us and derogatory four letter words are apparently not off limits.

And the answer is--- "Only the Shadow knows"!

String, here is my thinking on the 1% tax. One, Anderson County has currently an 8% unemployment rate. Two, thousands of additional people in Anderson County are retired on fixed incomes or can't work and are receiving welfare or social security payments. None of these folks I'll bet want a tax increase. Three, the country is in a recession (or at least very bad economic times). Four, reassessment bills will soon be coming and will be quite high considering they will be using 2006 as the base year when houses were worth a good bit more than they are now. Five, many in Anderson County feel their current tax dollars are not being properly accounted for or prioritized for infrastructure projects. This is a big reason why three Council members lost their seats during this past primary election. Six, the estimate that 38% of the taxes will come from non-residents is a stab in the dark. There is no scientific research to back that number up. I could say it will be more like 2% and be just about as right. Seven, there is too much pork in the project list. This tax was originally marketed as to repair roads and bridges and that is what should be on the list, not all of the other stuff including the east-west connector. Bottom line is this is a very bad time to be asking for a tax increase.

I too want safe bridges and roads and the necessary services needed in this county. Some people seem to think more taxes are required to meet these needs. My opinion is the money is there already in the budget, just not being properly accounted for nor is it being properly prioritized. How would I find out for sure? Someone convince me how to do this. Maslow had some great theories he just did have to deal with a tax structure in any of his steps.

Obviously there are an infinite number of scenarios we are all guessing at. How about this that Joey wants a buy out before the new council comes in, conducts their audit, finds something wrong and has him found guilty. Maybe he feels if he is out of the picture, there will be less likelihood of prosecution. Just a thought.

Good point Jane. Creating a baby takes only a few minutes. Raising one to become a productive responsible citizen takes about 18 years or so on the average. Where are the parents? Why should we taxpayers have to pay to take care of these children either through welfare programs or as a last resort as jail inmates? What ever happened to responsibility?

I see that once again (Oct 11,08) the Belton Woods apartment complex has made the news for yet another shooting. I still say the Gang Task Force needs to hold their meetings there. Turn out should be very good. Can nothing be done at that complex?

Venter---You have just come up with a great idea. If the prostitutes can keep the politicians busy enough they won't have time to meddle in government and "fix" things that aren't broken in the first place. PS My scheme may require hiring on more Ladies of the Evening! This will provide even more job creation for the County. I'm tell'n ya this is a win win situation. By the way at the risk of someone without a sense of humor reading this I would say regarding the ad above for the Williamston Wellness Clinic to take care of addicted gamblers, their business could pick up. Once again more job creation for the county. Lets say that an additional 1000 people become addicted to gambling and are treated at the Williamston Clinic. By the same token the taxes derived from gambling would take care of the 10s of thousands of people in the County who currently do not have medical or dental care, need food, help with utility bills, and other services. So we would add 1000 people to the "need help" rolls, but would have removed several thousand in the deal by providing for their needs!

Step one for the Council would be to fire the guy who attempts to film the Council meetings. Last meeting (Oct 7)you couldn't see for the static on the film. A few weeks ago he forgot to show up. And I think one time he left the lens cap on there was sound, but no picture. (Come to think of it I hope its not just my TV!) Anyway either fire this guy and get someone else or dock him a nights pay for each time he screws up. At this rate I may actually have to start going to those meetings and setting in those rock hard seats for hours on end! Anyone want to start a cushion concession with me? Clemson should have a lot of those rental seats they could let us borrow on Tuesday nights. M-M-M, the way Clemson has been playing we could probably also borrow them on Saturday afternoons if needed.

Venter, yes, but when the economy does come back that dad-gum casino will be a gold mine!

I believe there is a Capital Projects Sales Tax meeting at the Civic Center tomorrow, Thurs Oct 9 at 6pm. Haven't heard much about it. It is open to the public. Hope all can attend.

Just another little thought on this casino gambling. Since the people pushing the Capital Projects Tax (CPT) are saying that 38% of the income from that will be from out of state/county people lets look at the casino. A casino located in Anderson county would pull from at least the two neighboring states. That (using assumptions like are used in the CPT program) would mean that two thirds or 75% of the gambling revenues would be coming from out of state/county. Wow another plus for gaming. To stretch this a bit further since most of the people of Anderson County seem to be against gambling and would not participate then all of the revenues from the casinos would not cost Andersonians a single cent!

Nicole---Keep up the good work. In the Bible Genesis 1,26 gives man dominion over every living creature and in 1,30 He has given "green herb for food" to every living thing. Obviously He does not expect us to let them just die. So to all who profess to be good Christians, it would be very difficult to argue against animal protection,unless there is a hypocrite or two out there. Nah, that can't be!

wyatt---Glad to hear someone has the same retirement as I do. I don't feel so alone now. I have my mason jar behind the World Books I never use. I couldn't afford Funk&Wagnel. I thought too about a casino boat on Lake Hartwell. Unfortunately had a boat been put out there on the water several months ago it would now be on dry land and therefore probably considered to be an illegal casino. Regarding 401Ks and the stock market those too are both gambles and we are all losing now. It is interesting how gambling and the "sin" there of is defined. If it is pouring money into big business or the schools, its OK. If it is for economic growth, job creation, recreation, tax elimination it is a sin.