A new Richland County Treasurer’s website will go live the second week of November. For a number of months my office has been working with Richland IT to build the most user-friendly website possible. We’re almost there ….
Up until now, our site was useful for accepting tax payments, but it wasn't very user-friendly if you were trying to search for what you needed. A taxpayer was required to physically have their tax bill (and the numbers on it) to access a bill on-line before they could pay. It worked okay, over the past four years around 2,000 tax bills were paid on the Treasurer’s site each month (or about 4% of payments overall) but our new site will allow for an unprecendented ease of use that will allow more people to take find the information they need when they need it.
Next month our new site will make it a whole lot easier to find and pay a tax bill, and it will also let taxpayers print paid tax receipts from the last ten years. Next month you'll see a huge difference in our website that is a benefit to all the people in Richland County. The website will stay the same at www.rcgov.us/treasurer.
07 October 2011
A Little Less You Will Have to Pay
Last year, Richland County received more in sales tax than it gave back in tax credits to Richland County taxpayers. When a diligent deputy treasurer of mine noted the difference, we notified the County Council Chair, Administrator, and the County Auditor. To the credit of all involved, it was immediately agreed that the additional funds would be used to increase the tax credits given back to our county taxpayers in the coming year.
The additional $3 million credit will mean that tax bills will be the same or less per $100,000 home in Richland County in the coming year. County Council approved the new tax rates at their meeting Tuesday night (4 October). It will not be a windfall for anyone (from no increase to an $8 decrease per $100,000 home) but every little bit helps when watching out for your money.
The additional $3 million credit will mean that tax bills will be the same or less per $100,000 home in Richland County in the coming year. County Council approved the new tax rates at their meeting Tuesday night (4 October). It will not be a windfall for anyone (from no increase to an $8 decrease per $100,000 home) but every little bit helps when watching out for your money.
05 October 2011
The enemy?
It is hard not to love the music of Hank Williams, Jr. I think I always have. Growing up in South Carolina in the 1980’s it seemed there was always something that related his lyrics to the lives we were living. And, it was fun that he went mainstream American with his, “Are you ready for some football?” each week before a big game.
It is also hard to believe that, with his prolifically checkered past, Hank would be taken seriously as a spokesperson for any political insight. And, I don’t think that his recent rant about President Obama and Hitler should be taken seriously. It should fall away quietly as a tree falling in the forest.
However, there is one thing that sticks with me from his comments, and I just can’t get around it. In his tirade, Ole’ Hank said that the President is “the enemy.” The enemy. That single statement equated the President of the United States to King George, Kaiser Wilhelm, Adolf Hitler, Ho Chi Mihn, and Sadaam Hussein. He said that our elected leader didn’t just have a different view on governing, he said our President was trying to do us harm.
Don’t try to act naïve at this point because we know that it is not just his sentiment, it is what we hear from too many people in America these days. And, this isn’t just a recent phenomenon. Those sentiments were prevalent from the right when Bill Clinton was president and from the left when George W. Bush was president.
Such thoughts aren’t only unseemly, they are what our political system preys upon to drive us farther apart in what should be our only bond ... we are all Americans. We must come together today as we’ve had to in our glorious past to meet our great challenges, but we’re told that anyone who doesn’t agree with us is “the enemy.” Those kinds of thoughts are un-American.
I don’t blame Ole’ Hank for his tirade, but I do blame the media-political culture that has let that kind of thought flourish. The other party is not the enemy, they represent a different point-of-view.
Now is the time for the people in the middle to stake out that ground and say that we won’t stand for the vilification or hatred anymore. It’s time that we say we are proud Americans: no matter who’s in charge.
It is also hard to believe that, with his prolifically checkered past, Hank would be taken seriously as a spokesperson for any political insight. And, I don’t think that his recent rant about President Obama and Hitler should be taken seriously. It should fall away quietly as a tree falling in the forest.
However, there is one thing that sticks with me from his comments, and I just can’t get around it. In his tirade, Ole’ Hank said that the President is “the enemy.” The enemy. That single statement equated the President of the United States to King George, Kaiser Wilhelm, Adolf Hitler, Ho Chi Mihn, and Sadaam Hussein. He said that our elected leader didn’t just have a different view on governing, he said our President was trying to do us harm.
Don’t try to act naïve at this point because we know that it is not just his sentiment, it is what we hear from too many people in America these days. And, this isn’t just a recent phenomenon. Those sentiments were prevalent from the right when Bill Clinton was president and from the left when George W. Bush was president.
Such thoughts aren’t only unseemly, they are what our political system preys upon to drive us farther apart in what should be our only bond ... we are all Americans. We must come together today as we’ve had to in our glorious past to meet our great challenges, but we’re told that anyone who doesn’t agree with us is “the enemy.” Those kinds of thoughts are un-American.
I don’t blame Ole’ Hank for his tirade, but I do blame the media-political culture that has let that kind of thought flourish. The other party is not the enemy, they represent a different point-of-view.
Now is the time for the people in the middle to stake out that ground and say that we won’t stand for the vilification or hatred anymore. It’s time that we say we are proud Americans: no matter who’s in charge.
08 August 2011
It happened anyway
On the brink of another round of financial ruin in our generation's Great Recession, our national leaders finally found a marginal compromise that increased the nation’s debt limit and allowed America to keep paying its bills. To get to the point where our leaders finally did what they should have done all along, they put our people, businesses and financial markets through a disgusting procedural drama. Still, in the end, an agreement was reached, and as deeply flawed the deal was, it was a deal.
A mere three days after the deal was struck for America to pay her bills, one of the major ratings agencies (that determines the safety of all kinds of financial products which, in turn gives those products their value) Standard & Poor’s downgraded our nation’s rating. It is unprecedented.
America has never been below the best AAA-rating, meaning that our nation can borrow money at the lowest possible interest rates, until now. As far as I know, America has still never missed a payment when we owed money (though how we pay for those bills – through borrowing – is a terrible way to do so) and is still regarded as the safest place to invest money.
In the world of government finance, normally a rating agency such as Standard & Poor’s would give a stern warning in the form of a “negative outlook” on the government long before making such a huge decision that could impact every household and economy in the world. Since America had shown we would continue to pay our bills, a new more forceful negative outlook would have served the purpose of showing disdain for our political process without such an enormous impact on the economy.
What is the impact? It can quickly be seen in the fallout in the stock market and markets around the world today. The 600 point drop today resulting from Standard & Poor’s decision impacts everyone (even if you don’t hold any stocks) because almost every government and pension plan nationwide is heavily invested in the Stock Market – meaning they are less solvent and more unstable and more expensive today for the people they serve. If you were expecting higher taxes and fewer benefits from all of this mess, now you just might.
All of this doesn’t even begin to touch on the horrendous performance of the rating agencies themselves, and how much we should trust their judgment. I will leave that critique to this article (click here).
In the end, as I’ve talked about many times before, America’s finances must be managed better by the leaders we send to Washington. There is no doubt that the past months have shown our political process is a mess. Was the downgrade about Tea Party/Republican intransigence? Was it that the President was late to the debate, came in with promise, and then stepped out of the way at the very end? Or was it just a part of our ideologically-driven sensationalist media efforts that have pushed our leaders ever further from real compromise?
I do not know. But, I do know that Standard & Poor’s downgrade of America was a hair-triggered response to our current crisis that could have far-reaching impacts on our pocketbooks for years to come.
A mere three days after the deal was struck for America to pay her bills, one of the major ratings agencies (that determines the safety of all kinds of financial products which, in turn gives those products their value) Standard & Poor’s downgraded our nation’s rating. It is unprecedented.
America has never been below the best AAA-rating, meaning that our nation can borrow money at the lowest possible interest rates, until now. As far as I know, America has still never missed a payment when we owed money (though how we pay for those bills – through borrowing – is a terrible way to do so) and is still regarded as the safest place to invest money.
In the world of government finance, normally a rating agency such as Standard & Poor’s would give a stern warning in the form of a “negative outlook” on the government long before making such a huge decision that could impact every household and economy in the world. Since America had shown we would continue to pay our bills, a new more forceful negative outlook would have served the purpose of showing disdain for our political process without such an enormous impact on the economy.
What is the impact? It can quickly be seen in the fallout in the stock market and markets around the world today. The 600 point drop today resulting from Standard & Poor’s decision impacts everyone (even if you don’t hold any stocks) because almost every government and pension plan nationwide is heavily invested in the Stock Market – meaning they are less solvent and more unstable and more expensive today for the people they serve. If you were expecting higher taxes and fewer benefits from all of this mess, now you just might.
All of this doesn’t even begin to touch on the horrendous performance of the rating agencies themselves, and how much we should trust their judgment. I will leave that critique to this article (click here).
In the end, as I’ve talked about many times before, America’s finances must be managed better by the leaders we send to Washington. There is no doubt that the past months have shown our political process is a mess. Was the downgrade about Tea Party/Republican intransigence? Was it that the President was late to the debate, came in with promise, and then stepped out of the way at the very end? Or was it just a part of our ideologically-driven sensationalist media efforts that have pushed our leaders ever further from real compromise?
I do not know. But, I do know that Standard & Poor’s downgrade of America was a hair-triggered response to our current crisis that could have far-reaching impacts on our pocketbooks for years to come.
26 July 2011
The Twists of the Debate
David Brooks of the NY Times says that President Obama has marginalized himself in the debt limit debate and now Congress has taken over. This comes at the same time that a poll by Ipsos on Monday night says that the American people overwhelmingly are against a debt ceiling plan without some revenue increases to the Federal coffers. According to the poll, 56% want a mix of spending cuts and tax increases while another 12% want a plan with no cuts and only tax increases. 19% want to rely on spending cuts.
See the Brooks article, “Congress in the lead,” here.
See the results of the Ipsos poll in the Politico article, “Debt ceiling poll: Voters with Obama,” here.
See the Brooks article, “Congress in the lead,” here.
See the results of the Ipsos poll in the Politico article, “Debt ceiling poll: Voters with Obama,” here.
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