Is Lexington County penny sales tax already a loser?

The State newspaper, in a Friday article, seems to be infuriated the Penny Tax in Lexington County is

despised by already overtaxed voters.

The title of the article is: "‘Nobody pays attention, nobody cares’ about the proposed Lexington County penny sales tax, that voters will decide on, Tuesday.

There is much grousing in The State's article, mostly by politicians and consultants , because it looks like the tax is a no-go. The people seem to be firmly, and adamantly against it. The opposition to the tax has the media in effect insulting its detractors. A supposedly insider of Republican politics – in the article - is basically calling opponents of the eight-year, could-be half-a-billion dollar tax increase, ignorant.

"Uninformed voters are commonplace in local politics, said Columbia-based consultant Luke Byars, former campaign manager for onetime U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint. In a resolutely conservative county like Lexington, “chances of a ballot question, on average, go down in defeat,” he said, according to The State.

What? “Uninformed voters” are dooming the tax increase?

That may be what big-government insiders want to believe, but the opposition to the extra $40 million tax-a-year may be the most-informed. And the opponents of the tax are at least straight-forward and honest in their opposition.

The tax pushers certainly are informed, but are they honest? Do they just want more money to slush-fund, and spend to make themselves look good? Some bigtime donors to the well-orchestrated pro-tax campaign have been kept secret. Lexington County Council, that has a legal obligation to remain neutral on the tax, spent more than $450,000 to hire Ace Consulting Engineers to more or less promote the tax increase. And Ace Consulting Engineers stands to make millions and millions from the projects financed by the tax.
One self-called Republican council member, if not two, lost his council seat because of favoring more taxes.  

At any rate, The State seems to be conceding the loss of the tax increase with the article Friday. Let's hope that is accurate.

In a down economy, when bad and over-taxing government is to blame, it is not a good time to tell people they need to give government insiders even more money. Don't blame the people because they will not give government more money to pay for projects that would have been done, if government were not so wasteful.