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Charleston County posts spending online

June 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Residents of Charleston County now have a way to see where their money is going.

State Comptroller Richard Eckstrom has worked on convincing local governments to post spending information online so taxpayers could see how the government is using their tax dollars. Charleston County has followed through on this.

“It started with an inquiry on the part a council member. It is also related to the fact that with the federal stimulus money there’s a lot of interest in the results and the transparency of the expenditures, but we actually expanded to all expenditures in Charleston County, thinking that it would be a good way to instill confidence in the citizens that we have nothing to hide and we are spending money appropriately,” says Keith Bustraan with Charleston County.

The report includes any payments over $100 that the county makes, with the exception of payroll checks. Bustraan gives some examples of what someone can see on the web posting.

“Firefighting supplies, it would be gasoline expenditures, it would be large capital purchases, we are in the process of constructing a jail, so those payments to those vendors would show up as well,” says Bustraan.

Bustraan explains reasons why Charleston County agreed to become transparent: “There has been some legislation floating around in the General Assembly for the past couple of years. It has not passed, but I think it was Controller General Eckstrom that has been talking this up that it is something that local governments should do anyway. One council member, in particular, Joe McKeown, adopted that as a priority for him and asked us to see if we could do that. It was fairly easy, all we had to do is write a report and put it on our web page. It was pretty simple.”

Initially, when Eckstrom proposed that local governments post their spending online, some objected and argued that it would cost too much to do so. Eckstrom said that is not the case, and he says it is very cheap and easy to do.

Every month Charleston County will post a report. This month’s report is already online for the public to view at www.charlestoncounty.org.

Filed Under: Human Interest, Legislature, News, Taxes

Clemson professor “optimistic” on GM’s future

June 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

General Motors logo

Earlier this month, General Motors announced its bankruptcy and will begin to restructure their operation. In spite of the bankruptcy announcement, assistant professor of management at Clemson, Scott Ellis, is confident GM can once again become competitive in the marketplace. This will, however, come at a cost. Ellis says that the initial impact will affect thousands of employees nationwide.

“The trickle down is what’s particularly important in my view, says Ellis. “Not only are there so many employees of General Motors, but then you also need to start considering their suppliers and their suppliers suppliers and the particular kinds of jobs their suppliers offer in terms of skill trade positions and knowledge workers within the U.S. economy.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business, Economy, News

Sex offender bill passed after governor’s veto

June 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Legislation that creates uniform restrictions for where sex offenders can live across the state is now law. It takes away the power of cities or counties to set their own restrictions. The General Assembly overrode the governor’s veto of that bill this week.

Sex offenders must comply with state law prohibiting them from living within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds and other places where children congregate.

But, there is another change in the sex offender law. Previously in South Carolina, an unregistered sex offender would have to spend 90 days in jail before trial. Now that time in jail is 30 days. Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell of Charleston says the governor was misinformed in his veto, when he objected to a shortening of the initial holding time.

Senator Glenn McConnell“The law had already been reduced in order to get it in the range of a Magistrates’ court. The bill that he vetoed didn’t reduce the penalty, it just uped the date at which they could take those cases to Magistrates’ court,” says McConnell.

McConnell says it’s not about the penalty, but the speeding up of the court process. He says one of the main issues covered in the seperate DNA bill was to go after these sex offenders.

“Hopefully all of this will come together and protect children. What these advocates wanted to do was to make sure the law where they violate the conditions of where they are living, that the court system could respond. Right now, nothing is getting done,” says McConnell.

The penalty reduction will be in place while SLED figures out a mapping system to determine where sex offenders can legally live under the law.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Legislature, News
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