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By Jay King
HOMETOWN NEWS
With the ongoing strain on local government finances, Spartanburg County Council has unanimously approved pursuing possible legal action against the state to forestall having to spend local taxpayer money on the upcoming presidential primary in February.
Council chairman Jeff Horton explained during a special meeting Friday that he volunteered Spartanburg County to take the lead in opposing a State Election Commission directive requiring counties to foot some or all of the bill for the upcoming presidential primary for the Republican Party in February. He said as a board member of the state Association of Counties he learned of the directive last Wednesday at an association meeting.
Horton said the directive was essentially another unfunded mandate from the state for a “beauty pageant” that should not be paid for with taxpayer funds and instead should be completely covered by the political party sponsoring the primary. He said counties like Spartanburg simply do not have the money to pay for such primaries, especially considering the many spending cuts counties have already had to implement to accommodate the sluggish economy.
“We’ve been plugging the holes in the dam with our fingers, and we’re about to run out of fingers,” Horton said.
For the rest of the story, read this week’s Inman Times.
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