Conservatives want to get the tea party started

By Charles Sowell  

JUNE 23, 2011 9:58 a.m. (1)

The Spartanburg Tea Party has turned its attention to the local scene, bringing its grand experiment in smaller government and lower taxes to the county level in a way that even conservative Spartanburg has never seen before, observers say.

In Spartanburg County employees have not had a raise in five years and yet council, with hearty tea party applause, has passed a tax cut for the next fiscal year.

“The last real tax increase we had in my 17 years on council was the road use fee,” said council Chairman Jeff Horton. “But I don’t think the tea party has that much influence with the council itself. We’re a pretty conservative bunch, overall.”

“You’ve got to wonder how sustainable this is,” said Shelly Roehrs, Spartanburg County Democratic Party Chairman.  “I mean how much can you really cut taxes and maintain anything like a semblance of government at any level?”

Karen Martin, who identifies herself as one of the organizers of the Spartanburg Tea Party, sees county council turning more and more toward the tea party’s style of conservative government, that is to say starving the beast by cutting money.

She attributes this success to the tea party taking part in meetings, talking to council members, and letting their feelings be known – in no uncertain terms.

Martin said the increasing focus on the local level is a natural outgrowth of the organization’s startup outrage with President Obama’s health care reform bill and President George W. Bush’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

“When you look at your tax bill in this state you see that a big chunk of the bite that government takes comes in the form of property (and other local) taxes,” she said. “It just makes sense to become active on the local level and let our elected representatives know how we feel.”

Dave Woodard, a political science professor at Clemson University, said, “A lot of the problems that come out of bringing the tea party’s agenda to the local governments is that there’s just not a lot of fat at the that level. Local government is probably the best government we have. You can’t say that about Washington.

“When people are elected to federal office they promise to go to Washington and drain the swamp,” he said. “But when they get up there they find out the swamp is really a giant hot tub.”

This just isn’t the way things operate at the local level, he said.

Woodard was a city manager for about 10 years before taking root in academia. “We’d have new council members come in with their hair on fire to cut, cut, cut,” he said. “One of my jobs was to sit down and (line by line) explain the budget. Then I’d ask, ‘OK what do you want to do away with?’

“In two years the biggest partisans for cutbacks generally became the greatest defenders of the status quo.”

Spartanburg County Councilman David Britt thinks the harsh reality of change is a requirement in light of current economic situation.

He cites the county’s planned major shakeup at the jail as a prime example. Spartanburg Sheriff Chuck Wright and his senior staff have agreed to take on running the jail and promise to slash the annual $2.6 million overtime hemorrhage by half.

How successful Wright will be remains to be seen. The top management at the jail will have to go. The sheriff intends to hire new staff and hand out hefty raises to himself and senior officers that will ultimately result in a savings in excess of $1 million on overtime.

Earlier this year council stripped the recreation department board of most of their powers and fired long-time director Jeff Caton.

Martin said the tea party didn’t really weigh in on the recreation department situation past letting council members know they were displeased with the county’s budding recreation program.

County council is confident enough in the projected savings at the jail and the recreation department to reallocate funds to other areas, Britt said.

Martin, and other tea party partisans – most notably Gov. Nikki Haley – have made much of Spartanburg County’s $500,000 tax cut.

“The governor mentioned it in one of her recent addresses,” Martin said. “Members of our organization have held up Spartanburg as a prime example of how local government ought to be run around the state.”

That cut was recommended by the recreation department staff, said Councilman Roger Nutt, and amounted to less than one mil on local tax bills.

Nutt, who regularly attends tea party meetings, said he’s not a member of the party. He describes himself as a conservative Republican who was hearing from voters as he ran for office about their displeasure with the recreation department.

Roehrs has attended tea party meetings in her area and said Nutt is her representative on county council.

“You have to give them (the tea party) their due,” she said. “They get involved with government and let their representatives know what they think. They are very good at this kind of organization.”

Organizational skills aside, she fears the long-term goals of the tea party will end up hurting the overall economic health of the county.

“You look at the kinds of things that draw economic development – the quality of life issues – and you realize those things cost money. When I look at Greenville’s downtown compared to Spartanburg I really see the difference. We’re 25 years behind Greenville.”

Martin said the tea party is strongest in the unincorporated areas of Spartanburg County.

“We have members in the cities, but no one who seems willing to get out and do the same kinds of things we have in the county,” she said.

Part of that difference may be attributed to a willingness to pay higher city taxes in return for greater services.

“No matter where you go on the local level,” Woodard said. “There is greater accountability. In Washington your constituency is often a long plane flight away. With a city or county council you see your constituents every day at Bi-Lo.

“Believe me, that makes a difference.”