National Healthcare Debate

If you feel the same way that we do, PLEASE, write to your representatives in Congress, as well as any other influential people, such as Obama, senators Snow & McConnell, and Representative John Boehner. Let them know how we feel! They represent US!

I sent one today as well and is following this one and just in case you missed my opinion feature in the Sun News 09/17/2009 that also will follow.

As you can see there are a lot of us who feel very strongly about this Health Care issue, so if you are one of those people please write an E-Mail or FAX to your Congressional Representatives

Subject: The National Health Care Debate

Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:31:01 +0000

Honorable Senators and Representatives;
    I am a retired Obstetrician & Gynecologist, born, raised, and educated in California. I now live in Myrtle Beach, SC and practiced for the last 18 years of my medical career in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I strongly believe in the fundamental goodness, planted within each human being and I have practiced medicine with this in mind my entire career. Nobody should be denied fundamental rights, including the right to emergency, life threatening medical care. I never practiced medicine in that manner and I don't believe that our present day actively practicing doctors do either.
   With these precepts in mind, I am here to state emphatically that Nationally governed and universally mandated medical care cannot work in the present set of working precepts that I have heard stated by President Obama and his Senate and House supporters. If government could have made a success of Medicaid and Medicare they would certainly have done so by now. You, "the government", has had well over 30 years to refine and streamline these government run programs and the only change has been the steady increases in the cost to the taxpayer and the steady decrease in reimbursements to the practicing physicians. To show their good and honest intentions, the President first stated that he would work in a bipartisan relationship with the Republican side and address the problem of Tort Reform as one example of this "good and honest intent". The latest Senate Health Care Bill, included a statement indicating the need for Tort Reform; but did not include one single change in our present medical liability tort system or even any future time when it would be addressed! The American Public is being fed a very large pile of "organic waste". Who would ever trust you lying and conniving politicians with the wealth and the health of our country, without much more scrutiny than you offer us at this time?
   Who ever you represent, whether it be me or my fellow countrymen from the other 49 states, I want you to know that we are no longer going to sit by and allow you to steal our country, laws, and freedoms, in the name of Democracy. If you don't listen, respond to public outcries, listen to your constituents, we will vote you out! Please listen to us and understand.

Respectfully,    Henry A. Gonzales, M.D.

Clyburn’s Health Care test proposal Sun News article on Sept. 4, 2009 09/05/2009

To the Editor,

There is an old saying that you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn is proposing a “Try, Test and Then What” approach of slipping in a Government run health care plan. Does he really think we don’t know what he is doing?

First, what plan would they use as the public option, HR #3200 or HR #3400 or one of the three Senate plans? HR #3200 has been raked over the coals by the taxpayers at the recent Townhall meetings and we know nothing about the others. We do know none of GOP plans will be used, that would be the end of Speaker Pelosi.

Second, what type of areas would be selected for test?   If Clyburn’s two main goals are solving the rising cost of private health insurance and seeing how many businesses would drop their employer provided plans, I think it would have to be areas which have a large mixture of large and small businesses, with company provided health insurance plans as well as individual insurance plans along with a sizeable uninsured population.

There is another saying that you have to get up real early in the morning to fool some of the people.

Even the best selected areas would produce the intended consequences that the Representative really wants. But think about this, why would the people that had insurance crossover to the public option knowing it is only a four year test? They may never get their old insurance back again if the test failed. If companies dropped their provided insurance and the employee’s crossed over to the public option and the test failed what would Rep. Clyburn’s exit plan be to get them reinsured? The exit plan would be to keep them on the public option. What would happen if the individual insured or just the people with no insurance signed up and none of the company provided people did, would the test be valid? Of course not but the Government would have to continue to insure them with the public plan and that’s the real intend.

Bingo, now we got the first inroad to a Government run Health Care plan which is what Clyburn wants. This is the back door way of getting a full blown Government Health Care plan passed and the taxpayer be darned. Nice try Representative Clyburn.

                                                                                    Jack Cruger

                                                                                     

Dear Congressmen,

The rush to push government-run healthcare legislation through Congress is reason enough to staunchly oppose, but I am writing you today to let you know that I OBJECT to the government taking control of my private healthcare decisions.

Simply stated, the government has no business in the health care business! Do you in Congress think we the people are stupid, Clyburn is proposing a 4 year trial that would lead us into a Government run health care plan just buy the nature of the test.

Now we have this guy, Senator Max Baucus, with a non-public but all Government-controlled health care plan, which may reduce the deficit by $49 billion in ten years but tax everybody for everything in order to do it. That’s special isn’t it, we have a $14 trillion deficit and have you ever seen any Government program reduce the deficit. So what’s the plan next week?  

I have asked some of you before, when the President speaks about his plan, what plan is he talking about?? In a real world the people have the right and the freedom to select which health care company and plan they want, even if it was a company provided one. I think we should still retain that right and not have a one fits all Government plan which will be forced on us at some point in time.

Although cost is a huge concern (because I’m certain the working middle class will be required to fund yet another government plan), Americans are most concerned about government expansion and increased control over the lives of American citizens.

Any form of socialized healthcare will devastate our nation, and I urge you to stand for the rights of middle-class Americans who have made it clear that they DO NOT WANT GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE. We need Jobs first.

                                                                                    Jack Cruger

                                                                        E-Mail crugerjohn@yahoo.com

 This section in blue was published in the MB Sun News on 06/08/2009

I watched the anti Governor Stanford political advertisement on television accusing the Governor of refusing to take President Obama’s stimulus offer being a move to bolster his chances for landing the Republican presidential nomination which was way off base.

The Governor is right on refusing to take this government stimulus offer and his only motivation is based on commonsense.

This stimulus is not taxpayer’s money as the advertisement suggests. If it were, the Federal Government would be showing a surplus, not a deficit of $1.7 trillion, with more on the way. Also it would be offered in the form of rebates to the States or as grants.

What is being offered is a massive debt to the State and nobody in their right mind would or should accept more debt. The only people that are advocating more debt for South Carolina are the same people who are deigning the fact that massive debt and overarching federal intervention, in the housing market, along Government spending brought about this mess we are in currently.

I guess the Governor, is the only one in the State who knows that South Carolina already has a credit card with $871 million of debt on it and accepting $700 million in federal“stimulus” debt would be committing the State too financial suicide and destabilize the States economy in the years to come. Our State’s revenue in January 2009 was estimated to be $80 million lower than 2008. This will also be added to our credit card debt, so we don’t need to take on any more.

By accepting the “stimulus” debt the Governor would be adding fuel to the State agencies which have already proved derelict in their accountability. A good example of this is the Employment Security Commission (ESC), which became insolvent in 2008 and would not produce the acceptable accountability of their spending. They are projecting they will need $700 million more, by the end of 2009, in order to continue to make benefit payments. Don’t forget, the auto makers accepted government debt and still, they are going bankrupt.

Agency Commissioners are appointed by the States General Assembly and are not accountable to any one elected official. The ESC is one for sure, should be a Governor’s Cabinet position.

There is no difference, when it comes to money and personnel management, between being a Governor and a CEO in a private company. At the end of the year the books have to balance or changes have to be made.

People working for the government also have to understand they don’t produce a sellable product that produces a profit. They are getting paid with income and other taxes which they also pay. They basically are getting paid with their own tax money and if the State revenue goes down, due to major unemployment and lack of sales, and income by the collection of taxes, what they the, Government employees, pay in their own income taxes, will not support all the State jobs.  

The Governor get must get cabinet control of the agencies, which have major monetary spending responsibilities, consolidate agencies management, eliminate some, and the overhead in others, cut services and or manpower in other departments.

Also there is something very wrong when the S.C. Supreme Court can direct a sitting Governor to except so-called “Federal money” when he feels it’s not a good thing to do for the State. He is the “Head of State”, we elected him and he should not be encumbered by a court unless he broke a law.

A Supreme Court, Federal or State usually takes cases the have been appealed after a lower court ruling. I did not hear of any lower court ruling on the “Federal stimulus” or any law that was broken by the Governor. I would like to know how this grievance from a 19yr old kid made it to the Supreme Court and what law was broken by the Governor that would warrant this Court to make the final decision. If the courts can do this then why do we need a Governor at all?  

 

We are at a point, in our economy, that we should be ready for an upturn.  South Carolina now has and unemployment nearing 12% and nearing the critical mass work force.

Many of the jobs that will see an upsurge in employment will be in the construction industry and with that will come surges in the supporting industries, such as home goods and large durable goods.  Jobs in the landscaping industry, transportation of lumber, retail, and the list goes on. 

For the life of me I can not understand the positions taken by Rep. James Clyburn when it comes to his voting record on immigration and amnesty. Clyburn’s 6^th district has a very large population of black unemployed people and a large percentage of them are receiving Government checks of some sort and not working.

Black residents of South Carolina, as a whole, have a very high percentage High School dropout rate and could do the low level unskilled jobs.  But most of them are more than well skilled in the industries named above.

So what is Clyburn’s reasoning?  I can think of at least two. First, he will do anything House Speaker Pelosi tells him to do or he will lose his position as House Majority Whip.  She has said many times that she is for a very liberal immigration policy and amnesty for the illegal immigrants. Second he wants to maintain a very high number of people, in his district, below the poverty line so he can justify earmarks, grants and other forms of entitlements or “daily bread”, so they will vote him.

Below are examples of the Clyburn’s voting record on immigration from Numbersusa.com:    

2001: Voted in favor of a four-month extension of the Section 245(i) amnesty Rep. Clyburn voted to reward illegal immigrants with amnesty by voting in favor of a four-month extension of Section 245(i).  

1997: Voted against the Rohrabacher Motion to H.R. 2267 to kill the Section 245(i) amnesty Rep. Clyburn voted against the Rohrabacher Motion to H.R. 2267 to kill the Section 245(i) amnesty that allowed certain illegal aliens to pay a fee and avoid a 1996 law\'s provision that punishes illegal aliens by barring them for 10 years from entering the U.S. on a legal visa as a student, tourist, worker or immigrant. The Rohrabacher Motion failed by a vote of 153-268. 

I am of the impression the Rep. Clyburn is motivated by either Nancy Pelosi or Race and only race when he can use it to his advantage.

 

On March 24, 2009, the Surfside Beach Town Council authorized the town administrator to execute a Quick Claim Deed to transfer .25 acres of Fuller Park to Horry County because the existing library lot was not large enough to expand the library.  County Council was fully aware of the lack of sufficient land to expand the library at third reading of the bond ordinance.  Unfortunately the .25 acres of Fuller utilized South Carolina Parks and Recreation Development (PARD) funds which limits the use of the property. The .25 acres also utilized Federal Land and Water and Conservation funds which, protects the property for life.  To execute this Quick Claim Deed will violate the deed restrictions on the property.  Resolution of this land use problem is NOT under the control of local governments.  Meanwhile, taxpayer dollars are being spent to pay interest on the bonds with nothing to show after a year.  Residents of Surfside Beach were not informed of plans to reduce the size of their park and their is no artist conception drawing posted at the library entrance as other communities and business do to inform the public of development plans.  If you want so see any plans only the library director can show them to you. 

So what should the Council do?  They have multiple options.  Return the bond money and reduce the county debt in this time of economic crisis.  Transfer the money to build the NEEDED Carolina Forest library where the County is authorized to resolve the land issues.  Build a new UNJUSTIFIED library at the County South Strand complex on Scipio Lane where there are no land use problems.  Delay the UNJUSTIFIED expansion of the Surfside Beach library indefinitely (while continuing to pay interest on the bonded money) hoping the State and Federal government will let them violate the laws associated with taking money from State and Federal governments.  Keep your eye on what our elected leaders will do.  They are supposed to represent the best interest of taxpayers.....especially during periods of economic crisis and unemployment.

 

 

This is the letter I sent to Our SC Senators and Henry Brown.

TO Senators, Graham, DeMint and House Representative Henry Brown:

South Carolina is embarking on some major road building projects. The multi-billion dollar northern and southern sections of the I-73 Corridor, which will be bringing a much needed access to the Grand Strand providing much needed jobs in the short term. By opening an access to the beach will increase the tourists, stimulating our beach business, providing longer term jobs and providing incentives for major business relocation to our area.    

According to Senator Lindsey Graham the I-73 Corridor Project would not be included in the so called “investment plan” which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) just released study, projects that more than half of the hundreds of billions of dollars in spending on infrastructure in the economic stimulus package -- such as $26 billion of the $30 billion allocated for highways and $15.5 billion of the $18.5 billion for renewable energy projects -- won’t occur for more than two years.

It is amazing to me that there is money in this package for a vast array of other projects which won’t provide any jobs, as you guys in Washington have pointed out.  

In other words, the massive stimulus package is going to waste record amounts of money, won’t provide an immediate stimulus for the economy, and will only add to our nation’s soaring liabilities.

I will not support anybody who votes for this debacle, allowing a long term debt which will not be paid off by any one who is living today.

I know we don’t have a chance of stopping this massive snowball on its journey through the all knowing elite halls of our Congress but please try to get the 45% in tax cuts which the Republicans have asked the President for and please, all of you, put a statement in the SC papers so we will all know your positions.

Commenting on the passage of the $825 billion Stimulus package:

Today the massive snowball mention in the letter above was passed in the House and to my surprise every Republican voted NO. This is what the Conservative movement wanted. Why did we want this you ask?  Simply, the Republicans were, by the Democrats instituting a house rule, left out of the debate on the bill.

The Democrats thought they would try to lure the Republicans in to voting for the package by putting some really stupid spending PORK in the bill. They new the Republicans were going directly to the President and tell them their ideas and would most certainly point these as examples of the spending they were against. The Republicans did point them out as reasons for not voting, knowing what the Democrats were up to, for the package, but also gave the President a much better plan that would stimulate the economy within months of the bill’s passing at half the price.

Since the President didn’t want the give Republicans authorship of any portion of the package he told them he would have the house pull the “stupid PORK” out of the package so they could tell the folks back home that they had a part in the shaping of the bill.

The one thing they would not pull from the package was the provision that would provide up to a whopping $5.2 billion for ACORN, the left-leaning nonprofit group under federal investigation for massive voter and voter registration fraud.

The Republican plan presented to President Obama was: (Moneynews.com)

1. Cut the lowest two income tax rates for 2009 and 2010, from 15 percent to 10 percent and from 10 percent to 5 percent.
2. Extend through 2010 a patch to the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was originally designed to ensure that wealthy people pay taxes, but instead would hit millions of middle-income families with higher taxes.
3.  Expand the $7,500 first-time homebuyers tax credit, for a principal residence, to all homebuyers while limiting it to purchasers who can make a down payment of at least 5 percent of the purchase price.
4.  Provide a tax deduction for small businesses with less than 500 employees equal to 20 percent of their income.
5.  Offer new tax deduction for those who do not receive tax-preferred, employer-sponsored health care coverage. And provide assistance to the unemployed who do not qualify for a COBRA premium subsidy.
6.  Give tax exemption on unemployment benefits and extend temporary federal unemployment benefits through 2009, phasing it out through mid-2010.
7.  Allow companies to write off current losses against previous tax years for up to five years. Companies now can only "carry back" losses for two years. The tax break would not be available to banks and other companies receiving help from the $700 billion bailout package.
8.  Extend through 2009 a break for small businesses that allows them to immediately write off up certain capital expenditures.

 The cost of their proposal is approximately $478 billion.

The Republicans in as much said that if, the President feels that he and the Democrats have the ultimate plan, they should go it alone. The House Republicans put their Conservative principles on the line and if the plan works the Republican Party would be ruined for another 40 years. On the other hand if it doesn’t, which it won’t, the conservative Republicans will be back in four years and they had better not screw it up like they did before.

Let’s see if the Republican Senators will have the gravitas to do the same.

 

James Clyburn wants the new stimulus lending package distributed to the U.S. House Representative’s Districts, bypassing the State Governor’s office, and he (Clyburn, who is black) decided the way to do it was to play the race card by associating Governor Sanford family’s ownership of a Plantation.    

Clyburn, the highest-ranking black lawmaker in the House, is the King of the earmarks, in South Carolina, and keeps most of his family’s employers in business with our earmarked money, as was highlighted in a Sun News article by David Wren on Aug. 9, 2007.

Simply put Clyburn has been told by President Obama that he will accept no more earmarks and Clyburn is starting to panic. This means he can’t ride around in his big car which is supported by the taxpayer’s money, through the $160,000 salary he gets, and hand out earmarked checks supplying his “Plantation” with their “daily bread”.

Clyburn forgets that a large population of slaves were owned by and worked on Plantations owned by Black Plantation Owners in or near his Sixth District. “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones”.

This new $800 million stimulus plan, or “daily bread”, has enough pork (earmarks) in its detail and that is what Clyburn has his eyes on but at least this pork (now being called requested bailouts) is getting debated in Congress. Clyburn knows he can only keep control of his “Plantation” by getting the pork sent directly to him so he can play the “Big Hoss” role.

Even though I am against this legislation I am in favor of a system that allows for the Governors to be the only ones in their State to request money from the Federal Government, and spend that money on projects which are state wide. The requested money should fit within the spending appropriations bills that are debated in Congress. Earmarks are not debated and slipped into the bill after the House committee approves the approbations and before the total House votes, by the District Representatives.       

It is unfortunate that Speaker, Nancy Polosi, has seen fit only to allow the Republicans to submit proposals which will be judged, not debated. She is also seeking more than the $800 billion, now being requested.       

 

Many States, including South Carolina, are running out of money to pay unemployment benefits. Governor Sanford states in the Op-Ed he wrote on Dec. 30, 2008 that he would not request additional Federal money until he received confirmation that an independent audit would be done on the operations of the Employment Security Commission (ECS).

This just one of the many reforms the Governor has asked for during his admistration and apparently falling on the deaf ears of the Budget and Control Board (BCB), which in my opinion should be abolished

I believe a procedural and operational audit of the (ECS) should be done for the short term but also a complete reengineering of the entire business model, including the 158 different agencies, of all the processes currently employed from the Governor’s office on down the chain of responsibilities.

Now to be realistic about this, the problems we now face have been of a crisis nature and have been willfully over looked, by all levels of Government from the President of the United States on down, to recognize this crisis as the equal of a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

Only just recently the Congressional Budget Office said that the federal insolvency crisis is so deep every U.S. household would have to cough up half-a-million dollars each just to save the federal government from bankruptcy.

I have to thank my lucky stars I have never had to collect unemployment checks, so I can not relate to what it feels like to do so. I do know that the federal government created this debacle and is now not in any position to add to deficit problem by piling on more burden.

So guess what Congress does on June 12, 2008? The House passed the Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act, H.R. 5749, by a vote of 274-137, a margin large enough to override a veto.

 H.R. 5749, the Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act, will immediately provide up to 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits in every state to workers exhausting the 26 weeks of regular unemployment benefits.

In states with higher levels of unemployment (six percent or higher) such as S.C., an additional 13 weeks would be available, for a total of 26 weeks of extended benefits. Relief would run through March 2009 and benefit 3.5 million Americans.  [Congressional Budget Office]

The Federal unemployment trust funds, which have more than enough reserves to cover the cost, will finance these benefits.

Governor Sanford really had no option but to request the money since we (S.C.) have the third highest unemployment (8.3%) in the nation and have been paying out more benefit money than we have been taking in for a long time. We have previously borrowed about $14 million to keep up. Remember the key words in the statement above are that the Feds will finance these benefits, meaning loans that have to be paid back.

The way state unemployment moneys get into the State fund is from employers paying into it. Since they (the employers) are not paying enough to keep up with exploding demand they will have to pay more into the fund. South Carolina businesses now pay one of the highest unemployment insurance rates and with this new extension burden their rates will have to be at least doubled to pay off the Federal loan as well as fill up the State’s coffers.      

The businesses owners will then get caught up in a vicious life threatening position leading to a decision off either laying people off or shuttering their businesses. As you can see this becomes a vicious circle.   

President Elect Obama said recently that his stimulus plan would cost a trillion dollars over the next two years hereby adding to the inherited deficit of $1.2 trillion. This he said will save or add 4 million jobs of which 600,000 would be in the public sector, meaning on a government payroll.

The Wall Street Journal stated that when this latest round of bailouts and the spending that Obama is talking up is finalized, the federal government will be sucking out 28 cents of every dollar produced in the American economy.

This stimulus plan will make the vicious circle’s circumference much, much wider. All these jobs in the public sector are being created through massive Federal loans where as these jobs will eventually go away if not paid back and if the objective is not met of putting money back in the coffers of the State and Federal governments, the impact of “these unemployed workers” will result in a massive tax increase on everything we can possibly think of, and some that we can’t.

This plan is like a financial advisor telling me, with a credit card debt of $10,000, to go ahead and spend $20,000 more and that will fix my problem.

This new Obama plan should not be approved as a panacea for all. The targets should be very clear and specific. There are two areas of national security importance that should have the very highest priorities, and they are:

1. The hardening of our bridges, upgrading and repairing our roads and transportation systems.
2. And a massive up grade to our power grid and communications systems.     

These two things alone should provide about two thirds of the 600,000 jobs and since many of the States have plans already in place, at least in the infrastructure area waiting for money to start, we should see some near term positive impacts.

The I-73 could be the first to get started. The State should get away form their not invented here syndrome and explore some innovated design and build methods such as the type used by the State of Texas.  

The power projects will take some major design time, so let’s hope some are already on the drawing boards, which could mean building a parallel grid and phasing in the customers and suppliers from the old one over many years.

The U.S.A. becoming as near to energy independent as possible should be the next priority, which means the first two priorities will have to be ready to facilitate all the new alternative methods of power and fuel generation along with the old ones.    

These stimulus packages will never be paid off in our lifetime or for that matter our Great, Great Grandchildren’s and I believe it will only lead to a massive tax increase in the years to come. Since the taxpayer we will not have any say in this matter, remember we were against the UAW bailout by 85% and the TARP by 73% but that didn’t stop the President from signing up, so Governor Sanford might just as well take some of the money.   

South Carolina employment would benefit enormously from just these three areas alone if Governor Sanford could get the State governmental reforms he has suggested. He could also promote the State as an Alpha State and maybe get some of the design and initial build companies to locate here, using our State as their prototype. Maybe our State could be on top of a good list for a change,

 

(803) 212-6032

Dear State Senator Ray Cleary:

The more I read about you guys in Columbia, the more I don’t understand why you can’t seem to get the priorities of the State in the right order.

With the major crime rate in our State, I would think that the $6 million that the State government is spending on security, of the Statehouse in Columbia, could and should be used for law enforcement solving the major crime problems in our State.

It is really sad when our local elected officials have the ego to think that they, by diverting law enforcement officers from other more important assignments, should be protected from the bad guys while our citizens are mowing each other down on our streets.

Maybe you think that a bombed Statehouse would make the State run better. What’s next? Flack jackets? Well maybe not a bomb but certainly a good house cleaning would in my opinion.

I also don’t understand why every other State in the Country has the Governor responsible for the preparation and approval of the State budget and not some Budget and Control Board within the State legislator. The Governor is the Commander-In-Chief of the State and is responsible to set the policy direction and their priorities. He should be the one to draft Budget

The current method is obviously not working since our State is at the bottom of every good list and at the top of every bad list nationally.

 

The Aug 18, 2008 edition of the Sun News announced a series of meetings on the proposed expansion of the airport terminal where residents will be able to make verbal and written comments regarding the project. At an earlier meeting, Rick Ott of MB Kahn (airport consultant) advised the public that they could only submit questions in writing.

M.B. Kahn Construction Company has been in business since 1927 and is headquartered in Conway, SC. Their web site depicts many beautiful commercial and municipal construction projects. However; none of which are airports. Rick Ott’s position with the Kahn Company can not be attained without setting up a profile and reason for asking employee information. His Sun News article of Aug.18^th said his title was Senior Vice-President and construction manager of the Myrtle Beach airport project. I have to assume the Myrtle Beach International Airport will be the Kahn’s Company’s first attempt at building an airport as well as Mr. Ott’s

In preparation for the Surfside meeting Surfside resident, Joe Zoltak, submitted the questions below as was asked:

 “Since residents of Horry County are prohibited from asking questions at your series of airport presentations, but written questions will be answered.   I request that you answer the following written questions at your presentation here in Surfside Beach on Aug 20 at 5 P.M.”

At a recent County Council meeting, you showed a chart indicating peak capacity at the airport for a short period at mid-day for only the summer months. 

Question 1:  Using this chart, how can expansion of the airport be justified? 

Question 2:  What do charts from other similar airports contemplating expansion look like using these same parameters?  Would you be kind enough to present charts from other similar airports."

Question 3:  The data that you are using to justify the expansion is not current reflecting the oil crisis and decline in air service world wide.  Why are you using obsolete data?  Please ensure that the data you present also reflects the departure of United and Southern Skways from Myrtle Beach and the 5 month decline in air service.  Also include data addressing the impact of new air line fees for additional luggage and fees for golf bags up to $100.  Would you be kind enough to update your charts with current data and trends for this presentation?

Question 4a:  Recent news articles indicate that you are presenting three expansion options for the terminal.  Could you present a fourth option which would be to merely modernize (with added efficiencies) the existing terminal as a near term plan and shelf your three long term options until the future of the airline industry stabilizes?

4b:  Perhaps your short term plan can incorporate smart design features and "efficiencies" which could then be incrementally executed as the airline industry recovers.  County council just slashed airline fees in an attempt to recruit airlines.  How will this revenue decrease be made back up while increasing debt significantly with a full blown expansion? 4c: If the airport defaults because of revenue shortfalls and unaffordable debt, will taxpayers be liable to bail it out?

All these are questions based on current information and are not unreasonable; however Mr. Ott decided he should have some Horry County Council member answer. The response that follows is where things got somewhat out of hand:

     Mr. Zoltak - A Council member has asked that I respond to the questions below posed by you. The questions that you pose have all been asked before - for about the last decade - and will not be answered nor debated again by Mr. Ott. No changes are anticipated in his presentation or calculations. If you are tremendously concerned, may I suggest that these questions be posed to one of several persons, namely, Doug Decker, Lou Kreiger, Bill Darby, Paul Gable or George James. I am certain that any of them can provide all of the answers that you need. I would also direct your attention to an exhaustive report prepared by The Boyd Group that is available in the office of the Greater Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce. JOHN WEAVER, Horry County Attorney

Doug Decker is not part of the County Council or on any committee he is merely a concerned citizen, with a lot of knowledge about airports. He does not have the authority to answer for anybody but himself and should not be placed in the middle of this.

What is real interesting that the authority to answer was given to Mr. Decker by the Horry County Attorney, John Weaver and if Mr. Decker wanted to respond if would have been considered “OFFICAL”. The Boyd Group Report was paid for by the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce and my or may not have been used in any of the studies or proposals done by M.B. Kahn

This whole airport thing is getting out of hand and a P.R. nightmare. It has been going on forever with lost taxpayer’s money already in the millions. Somebody has to get a grip on this and soon. Right now it appears, to me, that the old saying applies “too many chefs, not enough cooks”

Every time I see articles in the paper about the Myrtle Beach Airport (MYR) I still am not convinced that we should spend the millions of dollars on a new airport at this time.

Taking a look at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and comparing the basic categories of Passengers coming in and out, Departures, Carriers, and Freight weight, compared with the other Airports, in the area. The MYR in the 12 mo. ending in May of 2008 the number of passengers arriving and departing were up by1.41%, Charleston was up 24% and Wilmington was up 18% The other categories MYR are either the same or down. Carriers, for instance, in Florence remained the same as did MYR during the same time period, but since then MYR has lost one, Delta. The other two competing airports added three new carriers during that time frame. MYR’s freight weight was down by 15.14% which was a lot more than Charleston, at 11.10% and Wilmington at 8.12%, interesting, that Florence was up by 36.47%. 

This information along with continued questions, of who should run the MYR and the other three county airports, I think maybe we should put our money into getting an interstate highway built, because the majority of the tourists are driving here.

The Horry County Council voted against any authority taking over the management of the airports, but now they are putting four members of the Council on a panel which will discuss creating an authority, just to see what they are discussing. That sounds like the panel will have four nonparticipating members that will be in a defense mode. One of the nonparticipating County Council members is Howard Barnard, he says the MYR is making a profit every year and is managed very well by the County. This comes after he made a statement a Chamber of Commerce earlier this year that the Airport Manager should be fired. Well, profits are coming from the higher fees to do business at MYR, which they just reduced, certainly the statistics above are telling a different story.

I am not sure, an authority is the way to go or not, I am sure that the way the MYR is being portrayed, at least to the public is feckless.         

By Doug Decker, of the Myrtle Beach Insider Crew


For a company that has made 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' so far from Horry County on the airport debacles, M.B. Kahn has now taken to 'name calling' of the citizens of Horry County who did not fall in line with the defunct 'West Side Taj Mahal' as 'chicken littles'. Senior Executive Mr. Rick Ott chose the wrong example stating that our fathers had the insight to build all those interstates years ago, since most of those interstates missed South Carolina.

His comments show that he is $$$ driven stating that Myrtle Beach always loses some flights in the Fall and Winter and seems positive the Airline Industry will turn itself around. The projections of future passengers originally used in the push for the West Side Terminal by the FAA have been totally revised, the figures were based on crude oil at $35-$40 per barrel, not $130-$140 per barrel, and the 'then' current state of the airline industry. Mr. Ott fails to mention the Billions of dollars in debt these airlines have returned to; the loss of the Spirit Hub at LaGuardia and the continued cancellation of flights at the smaller destinations like Myrtle Beach on a daily basis, adjusting to these fuel costs.

It seems like the 'chicken littles' he speaks of is just more sour grapes because the original 'Grand Strand Plan' was shut down by the Myrtle Beach Community Appearance Board, and justifiably so. The first project was 'ramrodded' down the residents throats with no public input meetings as required by the FAA, and County Officials like Attorney John Weaver stating on my radio show that it would cost just as much to renovate the current terminal as it would to build a new one. Then, just before the last CAB Meeting, 4 comparison engineering plans surfaced showing expansions at the current site for 1/3 of the cost. If it were not for the 'chicken littles' involved, the County would be 'wasting' hundreds of millions of dollars.

Horry County and Airport Officials continue to say that the prices to fly from Myrtle Beach are in line with the rest of the similar terminals on the east coast which is also not true! These costs, coupled with fuel prices and planes not filled to capacity will result in further cancellations for the Grand Strand. Sure, there are deals from our airport, but if you are a family planning 6 months to a year ahead, those deals are almost non existent.

Our current airport is in a state of 'disrepair' only because of the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' mentality of the leaders in control or the terminal. Their thought, that has been conveyed to me many times by airport employees was 'we are building a new terminal on the West Side, so we are told to just fix what we have to'. So much for 'preventative maintenance'.

These are just a few of the reasons that these 'chicken littles' have gained the attention and support of Senator Luke Rankin and Representative Alan Clemmons to create an Airport Authority. It is time that the Politicians and the Puppet Airport Director Bob Kemp and this 20+ person chain of command in the current management structure be eliminated and an Airport Authority be created to eliminate the 'riff' between the City and the County! An Airport Authority doesn't seem like a great solution to some, but it will sure be better than the current structure the County is operating under.

 

Posted on Thu, Aug. 21, 2008

County joins airport authority study group

By Mike Cherney - mcherney@thesunnews.com

 

Could this may be the end of Horry County’s running of the Myrtle Beach Airport.

On August 5^th 2008 I posted the BLOG “Airport and Horry Country Council Shanagans.” This is now getting some added exposure in the alternative press.

Does Myrtle Beach Need Eight Snow Plows?
Alternatives News Magazine August 14th - 28th, 2008   

Myrtle Beach Airport’s Fleet of Snow Removal Equipment, ready for the next blizzard.

   Webster’s dictionary defines fraud as the intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value. Keep that definition in mind while you are reading this.

   In June 2005, the Horry County Department of Airports submitted an application for an Airport Improvement Program Grant for federal funds to the Federal Aviation Administration.

   Buried in that grant was a request for $355,000 to be used by the airport to purchase snow removal equipment. Among the equipment to be purchased were two crew cab pick up trucks, an 11 ton dump truck, a pull behind sweeper and snow plows for the front of the trucks.

   In order to help justify the grant request, airport director Bob Kemp included pictures of a December 1989 snowstorm at the Myrtle Beach airport (MYR). The 1989 storm dumped over 14 inches of snow at the airport. It is also the largest snowfall in recorded history for Myrtle Beach.

   Why wasn’t a picture of a more recent storm used? It’s quite a simple answer - there hasn’t been one that would have required equipment to remove snow.

   The application for the snow removal equipment includes these statements: “The airport does not possess snow removal equipment for snow and ice removal on ramps, taxiways and the runway. When such conditions occur, MYR has been at best hampered and, at worst, closed until runway conditions improve. In the past, the airport has had to rely on private off-airport contractors or other public agencies go provide snow removal operations on the airport. The airport proposes to reduce dependency on off-airport sources by purchasing a limited amount of snow removal equipment that will allow MYR to better maintain runway conditions with airport staff in most adverse winter conditions.”

   The state of South Carolina website providing information on annual snowfall in Myrtle Beach says the city averages one “snow event’ every two years. A snow event is defined as a snowfall of more than one-tenth of an inch. The average annual snowfall is listed as zero inches.

   As any person who has spent winters here for any period of time will tell you, Myrtle Beach doesn’t get much snow, especially not in amounts that require snowplows.

   In fact, an amount of snow requiring plowing is so rare that none of the cities, nor the county, has snow removal equipment for the roads.

Why Snow Removal Equipment For The Airport?

   Actually, the airport wanted maintenance equipment in the form of the trucks, etc. It just didn’t want to pay for it.

   The Federal Aviation Administration will not provide grant money for routine maintenance equipment. It says so right on the FAA website and in regulations regarding the use of AIP grants for airports.

   So, airport director Bob Kemp came up with a great idea – The airport could get routine maintenance equipment paid for by the federal government if it was called snow removal equipment.

   Worse, the county didn’t even try to hide this fact. Airport director Bob Kemp proudly told county council “if we didn’t get the grant from the FAA, we would have had to buy the equipment ourselves” and that he sent the photo of the 1989 snowstorm to “make us eligible” for the grant.

   In addition, Kemp proudly said he did exactly the same thing when he was airport director in Wilmington, N. C. He also said that the FAA will not fund the construction of maintenance sheds, but will fund the construction of sheds to house snow removal equipment. Therefore, the next time the county needs a maintenance shed, we will apply to the FAA for more money to build a structure for our snow removal equipment. 

Plus A Million Dollar Garage?

   That grant request, in the amount of $1,052,000, is scheduled to be applied for next year, according to the airport’s capital improvement plan.

   When the grant request first hit the FAA there was confusion about the “laundry list of equipment” requested by Myrtle Beach.

    “A broom and maybe a spreader on a dump truck with a blade might be the maximum for their location,” read an internal e-mail at the FAA.

   However, the Myrtle Beach airport submitted a revision to their Airport Certification Manual to include a snow plan, according to FAA documents. The reason for this snow plan was listed as “The snow accumulation (last couple of years) and the increase in Air Carrier Ops.”

   The question is what snow accumulation in the last couple of years, prior to 2005? Maybe it was snowing at the airport when it wasn’t snowing any place else in the county.

   Once it received the new snow plan from Myrtle Beach, the FAA approved the requested snow removal equipment, complete with a grant to pay for 95 percent of the cost.

   In 2007, the Department of Transportation Inspector General conducted an investigation into the FAA’s oversight of the Myrtle Beach airport with respect to the failed west side passenger terminal, the snow removal equipment and illegal fencing at the Grand Strand Airport in North Myrtle Beach. The FAA was determined to have failed in certain areas of its oversight responsibilities.

   Included in the report of the investigation was the statement by the IG investigator: “The FAA has stipulated to the HCDA (Horry County Department of Airports) that the snow removal equipment should be used for the sole purpose of snow and ice removal.”

   The FAA notified HCDA in December 2007 that the equipment purchased under the grant “should be used exclusively for snow removal, ice removal and FOD (foreign object debris) removal.”

   Not exactly what the IG said, but close.

   Horry County responded to the FAA in February 2008 that it was using the equipment, when not needed for snow and ice removal, for maintenance activities.

   Definitely beyond the bounds of the IG investigation report summary.

   The IG contacted the FAA in July 2008 about the continued use of the snow removal equipment for maintenance purposes in violation of the AIP grant regulations, the IG findings and the FAA restrictions placed on the airport in 2007.

Why Is This Important?

   So the Myrtle Beach airport has found a way to put one over on the FAA and the federal government. What is the big deal?

   There is no big deal if you believe that the government does not have to obey the law. If your philosophy is such that you believe the government is above the law, that it can make laws it requires its citizens to obey but doesn’t have to obey the law itself, you would see no harm in the airport department’s actions.

   If, however, you believe that government, along with its elected and appointed officials and employees, should be required to abide by laws just as you are, you can see the problem.

   The airport department was determined to apply for equipment in one form in order to use it in another. It didn’t want to buy the equipment itself. If it had, there would be no problem. There are no FAA restrictions on the use of equipment purchased with airport funds.

   One other point is that AIP grant money comes from taxes- federal taxes on fuel and, partially, federal income taxes on working citizens. To some extent, your tax dollars purchased snow removal equipment for the airport that the airport doesn’t need.

   Now, go back to the top of this article. Fraud is the intentional perversion of truth to induce another to part with something of value.

   It would certainly seem that there was an intentional perversion of truth in the application for snow removal equipment. When Kemp was questioned about the equipment later, he bragged that it was a way to obtain maintenance equipment without having to pay for it with airport funds.

   The FAA certainly parted with something of value when it sent grant money to Horry County for snow removal equipment that was always intended to be used as maintenance equipment and still is being used in that way.

A Series Of Misrepresentations

   Unfortunately, this is not the only misrepresentation we have experienced by our current airport department and its director.

   Probably the greatest misrepresentation has been in the need for a new airport passenger terminal. We have heard stories of the “rapid growth” or “relentless growth” in passengers experienced by the airport. 

   The real story is the airport has experienced no growth in passengers over the last eight years. 

   In 2000 the airport had 792,529 departing passengers. In 2007, the airport had 839,000 departing passengers. However, from 2000-2007, the airport averaged only 740,000 departing passengers per year. The above two years were peaks and there were a lot of valleys in between.

   No matter how the county tries to spin it, those numbers definitively show Myrtle Beach International Airport is not growing.

   Worse than that, with the price of aviation fuel at its current levels, airlines are cutting service nationwide and those cuts include Myrtle Beach.

   For the second time in five years, the county is moving forward on plans for a new airport passenger terminal. 

   This comes at a time when no other airport in the country is making such plans and many construction projects at airports around the nation are being suspended or abandoned.

   Remember, this is a county which felt it couldn’t afford to spend even one-third of a million dollars to buy maintenance trucks, which are needed. However, it has no problem considering a total expense in excess of $600 million dollars (including the $240 million bond issue) for a new terminal that is definitely not needed. 

   There is currently a move to establish a state mandated airport authority to run the Horry County airports. Horry County is resisting this in every possible way.

   But the Horry County Department of Airports and Horry County government have shown themselves to be totally inept at running the Myrtle Beach airport. It is time for another approach.