Current Events | Eastern NC Now

Current Events

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

We are about to pop out of the “dog days of summer”. That hot, humid lazy part of summer that seems to multiply lethargy. Why do anything about anything, so much heat, seems like mother nature is telling us to rest and relax, things will take care of themselves?

There is still a lot going on. Donald Trump is more excited about the November elections than anyone I know of. He has a lot to lose. Not in terms of money or wealth. He can lose a lot and still be very well off. If the Republicans lose control of both the US House and Senate, we will go back to the crazy Biden form of government. Trump will be attacked and sued and mangled by Congress. His entire movement to “Make America Great Again” will be crushed.

Whether or not you agree with the way the Iran war is going, you can rest assured we will lose it under a Democrat controlled Congress. All of our enemies will know the pacifists and communists are back. The blocking of military funding for the three wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Iran will cause severe and risky behaviors by our allies and there will be new relationships formed as the Iranians and Russians take advantage. Because of these new alliances and policies, we will see much higher inflation.

The Beaufort County Republican Party has not yet announced how they plan to lead Republicans to victory in November. The Victory Committee announced at their September meeting that decisions could not be made until Keith Kidwell returned from his vacation. No information was made available as to when he would finish his vacation. The chairman of the Victory Committee has not been identified by Queen Carolyn Garris. After considerable complaining, Queen Carolyn Garris did announce the members of the Victory Committee. They are Ashley Woolard, Steve Reader, Paul Varcoe, Keith Kidwell, Greg Dority and Carolyn Garris. Looks like Kidwell may be the chairman.

Republicans, especially those who donate money to the Beaufort County Republican Party, may want to look at the accomplishment resume along with the propensity to follow rules of each of these individuals.

Looks like Beaufort County taxpayers got a windfall according to an item on the consent agenda at the September Commissioners meeting. This year’s tax levy generated $162,787 more than was originally budgeted to be collected for the tax levy for EMS and Fire protection. Counties are allowed to levy a separate and additional tax of up to 5 cents per 100 dollars of property valuation to go directly for Fire and EMS protection.

If my figuring is correct that means an additional 325 million dollars of value is required to collect that amount of taxes. How can this kind of mistake be made? This seems to go along with the mistake, or was it a mistake, that was made so that everyone in the county got a 7.48 percent increase in taxes even though we commissioners voted to only collect revenue neutral tax. That is, there was not supposed to be more taxes collected than was collected last year.

How does this happen? It happens when the Gang of Four (Fake Frankie Waters, Randy the RINO Walker and the two Democrats) join together to count to four (the majority vote) and cram down new consolidated schools and allow staff to dictate and make decisions that cannot be challenged by the Board.

The corrupt alliance (the Gang of Four) that has been formed by the Republicans and Democrats is costing every taxpayer in Beaufort County a 20 percent increase in taxes each year. Neither the Beaufort County Republican Party nor the Victory Committee has ever lifted a finger to stop this corrupt behavior. The Beaufort County Republican Party has always supported the Gang of Four. The Democrat Party likes this situation because two Democrats have more to do with the running of Beaufort County government than five so-called Republicans. This is why your taxes are so high.

The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners voted, at the September meeting, to move forward to extract ourselves from the Limited Voting court order that came into effect during the early 1990’s. More than likely the first move will be to petition the Federal Courts for an order removing Beaufort County based on the recent decision by the US Supreme Court that voting systems that are based on race are illegal. Their reasoning seemed to be that there is nothing in the Constitution that provides for racial gerrymandering. This will be a long process with a lot of people demanding that we elect commissioners “the way they say”.

Changing the way we elect commissioners opens the door to doing away with the corrupt practice of Democrats and Republicans forming Gangs of Four to manhandle County government. The solution to this is for the Chairman to run for the seat of chairman every two years, with the public voting on who is chairman.

The Conservative Club will have our preferred candidate sample ballot in about two weeks. Ballots will be available by email or hard copy. We will also have palm cards.

Getting out the Republican vote is very important even though we have several RINO’s running.