Letters to the Editor, 3-30-09
City Hall bloat How can a city of less than 4,000 households continue to fund a $30,000,000 dollar budget in these economic times? It continues to be business as usual at City Hall, at the expense of too few taxpayers! Ways need to be indentified to give the bloated bureaucracy at City Hall a “BURP.” Rene' C. King Georgetown On boating mishaps Sadly, boating accidents and fatalities have been occurring too frequently recently. The Long Bay Power Squadron is dedicated to boating safety We are confident that safe boating education is essential to preventing unnecessary tragedies in the future. We are presenting a Boat Safety Class on Saturday, April 11th from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will be held at the Coastal Carolina University Marine Science Building. Class cost is $45 and includes lunch. Space will be limited, and reservations are required. Please reserve your seat by calling 843-236-7666. Robert Roseman Myrtle Beach Photo IDs at polls For 89 years the League of Women Voters has fought to remove barriers to voting. We were established by men and women who worked to gain the right for women to vote and were on the frontlines advocating for voting rights legislation. We are therefore opposed to H 3418 (passed in the S.C.House; referred to Senate Judiciary Committee), a bill requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls. No evidence supports a need for this legislation. A voter identification process is already in place at the polls to cover the case where a voter has registered by mail or has not voted in recent elections. Incidence of individual voter fraud is extremely rare. The State Elections Commission knows of not one case in recent history. This legislation would have significant costs. The Office of State Budget estimates over $850,000 in annual lost revenue to the State Highway Fund from elimination of fees for DWV-supplied photo ID cards, along with one-time costs of $113,500. Legal challenges will likely add tens of thousands more to the program’s cost, as has been the case in other states. These costs for an unnecessary program seem irresponsible during this severe recession when our state is struggling to pay for essential services. This bill could also effectively disenfranchise an estimated 300,000 South Carolina registered voters lacking government-issued photo IDs, including many who are low-income, disabled or over 65. Eligible voters may have many valid reasons for not being able to obtain a photo ID, including inability to drive or to use public transportation. All voters will likely be adversely impacted by this legislation. Additional ID procedures at the polls mandated by this bill will take more time for voter check-in, create even longer lines, and result in a slower voting process for everyone that could discourage voter participation. For all these reasons, the League of Women Voters of Georgetown County urges the Senate to reject this unnecessary, costly and discriminatory voter ID bill. League of Women Voters of Georgetown County Pat Lacy, President Good dental health Your children depend on you for many things. Ensuring good dental health is one of the most important. That's why I introduced a bill (S. 286) that would improve access to dental care, especially for children with the greatest need. *** My concern stems from the fact that tooth decay is the number one childhood disease (five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever) and that nationally children miss more than 51 million school hours each year due to tooth decay, equating to over 7.4 million school days missed. To help address this problem, this bill, recently approved by a Senate Medical Affairs Subcommittee and forwarded to the full committee for its consideration, would create the position of Community Oral Health Coordinator (COHC) within the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control. *** We need your help to be sure this bill becomes law. A COHC will work with schools, students, families and local providers to remove barriers to children's dental care by providing oral health education and training, coordinating transportation and other non-clinical support to patients and their families, and linking dentists who provide Medicaid services (or would provide free or reduced-cost care) for children identified during a screening as not having a regular dentist. Having a COHC will significantly benefit the overall health of children in the targeted areas of our state. The program will operate in three to five counties identified as dental health professional shortage areas and will provide referrals for public school students in kindergarten, third, seventh and tenth grades or upon entry into a South Carolina public school. There is no question that each child should reach his or her fullest potential in school. No child's future should be limited because of the lack of oral health care. *** Statistically, students miss more school because of oral health problems than any other source. This bill will get to the heart of that problem and will help ensure a better opportunity for education to our youngest South Carolinians. As a practicing dentist, I have seen a great need for this legislation and am very grateful to the South Carolina Dental Association and the American Dental Association for their strong support of this bill. *** I urge you to contact the members of your Legislative Delegation, and tell them that improving access to dental care for disadvantaged children is crucial. Please ask them to support S. 286 for the sake of children in our state. What could be more important than that? Sen. Ray Cleary