Having moved here from Minnesota about 3 years ago, we continue to be amazed at the low property tax rates we pay in South Carolina compared to what we faced there. I still think we pay too much as I’m sure many homeowners do too. If we really are to have ownership of property, we should have zero property tax but that’s for another day. For now in America, everyone pays property tax. This is an insightful video as to what’s going on with property taxes and where is the pain going to be most acute. The good news for us in South Carolina is that we are on the low end of property taxes. It might mean more and more people continue to seek out a home in South Carolina though.
Based upon this video and what we are seeing with home prices, inflation and interest rate hikes, I think the real pain will be felt in 2023.
It’s been quite a battle over masks the past several months here in South Carolina. I won’t go in to all the details but the main reason elementary and secondary school children are not masked is because there was a stipulation put in to the budget for this year that stated schools could not mandate masks.
As you could expect, they have been trying to work around it. The Department of Education has been and continues to be huge proponents of masking our children. They forced the issue with transportation requiring all students be masked. Now an Obama judge, Mary Geiger Lewis, who happens to be a Clemson grad and a Univ. of South Carolina law student, sided with the parents of immunocompromised children in a suit they brought forward with the help of the ACLU. By siding with these children, this opens the door to mask mandates being forced on several hundred thousand school children across the state. Greenville County Schools alone has more than 70,000 students. State Superintendent of Schools, Molly Spearman, is wasting no time telling schools that they MUST revise their mask policies if they had relied upon the excuse to not mask due to SC law since that law has been stuck down. They must come up with another reason why they aren’t requiring masks because they are out of line with the CDC which means they are out of line with SC DHEC and the expectations from the Department of Education….all this means is that we will likely see a lot of mask mandates in short order for our students.
I don’t have the details but I believe Attorney General Alan Wilson is challenging this ruling as might be a few of our state representatives. Here’s the memo Spearman sent to all school districts yesterday.
Meanwhile, it’s Wednesday afternoon and I fully expect we’ll have some school districts issuing mask mandates before the weekend.
For the third Sunday in-a-row there has been a medical freedom rally in downtown Greenville. Three weeks ago about 150 people gathered in Falls Park to express their concerns and raise questions about the vaccine mandates and possible Covid passports. The group grew to about 300-400 people the following Sunday as an event was sponsored by the Greenville County GOP. That same group gather yesterday albeit was a smaller crowd of maybe 200 people or so. These rally’s will continue for the next two Sundays. I’d encourage all to show up. We need more people!
My wife and I have attended these with our two teenage sons. It’s been great to meet new people who are willing to express and demonstrate their concern about some of the increasingly tyrranical moves made by government. So far in South Carolina we have not had to deal with the heavy hand of the Governor or the legislature in demanding vaccine mandates or Covid passports. I have not heard much yet as far as businesses requiring the vaccine for their employees. We have seen that both Prisma and Bon Secours will be requiring their employees to get vaxxed after President Biden announced his mandates last week.
As I have talked with others who work at big companies, the consensus right now seems to be that the employers are highly encouraging their employees to get vaxxed but they are not yet requiring it. Many seem to be waiting until they see the regulation come down from OSHA which it has not yet. It would be nice to see if at least one of these big companies would take on these mandates but pushing back against the Biden Administration and OSHA and sue to get these mandates withdrawn. I have not seen anything yet that would confirm any big company has done this. Now that said, floating around the internet the other day was information that perhaps General Dynamics may have withdrawn their vaccine requirement for their employees. Whether that is a permanent or temporary withdrawal, I do not know but will watch for more information. If this is true, this is in directly conflict with the orders from President Biden especially as they are a defense contractor with more than 100,000 employees. This would be a BIG DEAL.
Join us for our next Medical Freedom Rallies on Sunday, September 26th and October 3rd from 3-5pm at the Peace Center in downtown Greenville, SC.
This is being celebrated all over the South Carolina news this afternoon. I even saw the San Francisco Chronicle of all things had a story about South Carolina achieving this milestone. I suspect they don’t think too highly of us here in the South :)… South Carolina achieves 50% vaccination rate of eligible adults – FINALLY!
It has taken an ENORMOUS effort to push this to 50%. The last 5% or so has taken an extraordinary effort in terms of get out the vax information to people so they will get the shot. The advertising on the radio, TV and social media has been relentless. If you visit SC DHEC’s Facebook page, they must post between 8-10 times per day different stories about Covid and the vaccine. How in the world are they going to get to 70, 80, 90% vaccination rates? Ain’t gonna happen. The only way we get close to 70% I believe is going to require forced vaccinations. I may be new here to South Carolina, but I’m thinking the folks here aren’t going to take too kindly to forced anything…let alone vaccinations. Should be fun!
Well, here we go…the crazies in Columbia, SC are hell bent on continuing with the fear propaganda. Remember we have a Republican Governor here in South Carolina by the name of Henry McMaster. If you’re looking at moving to SC because you are escaping a blue state, I’d give McMaster a C+ to B- grade. He is not DeSantis. His State Superintendant of Education is Molly Spearman. She just issued a mask mandate requiring all students and staff on any and all state-owned school buses. I don’t know how many state-owned buses Greenville County School uses but I will find out soon I’m sure and will update this post.
NOTE: “buses will be equipped with a supply of face coverings that meet CDC Order requirements. If a student boards without a face covering, drivers will offer the student a face covering. However, no student should be denied transportation for failing to adhere to the CDC Order.
I don’t know if there will be many students with the courage to get on those buses without a mask but according to Molly Spearman, they must be allowed to get on the bus even if their faces are not covered with a MASK!
This message is out to my fellow REALTORS in South Carolina. I have found many of the SC REALTORS webinars to be very helpful. Here’s the link to the SC REALTORS Webinar Schedule. You have to log in with your SC REALTORS credentials to see the schedule.
Here’s the SC REALTORS Youtube Channel to be able to watch previously recorded webinars.
Below is the Legislative Recap from the 2021 session by Lindsay Jackson, SCR’s Chief Advocacy Officer.