President Trump Visit

Lindsay Graham asked the city of Pickens if President Trump could speak at the Independence Day Celebration in the city of Pickens. The city agreed. People like the city administrator Charlene Carter, Chief Randall Beach, Davey Hiott, and Barry Crawford (Market at the Mill) worked with Team Trump from the beginning to the end to plan the event.

I was not involved in the decision to invite, nor any of the planning, however, I think those that made the decision and did the planning, did a great job. The event was peaceful, safe and the police chief said it drew upwards of 50,000 to our town -- people who stayed overnight in hotels, ate in our restaurants, and shined the national spotlight on Pickens. Exactly what a town aims for when such events are held and paid for.

Early on, the planners realized it would be hot on July 1 at 1 pm. The county government was asked to provide EMS and extra police to help at the event. The cost turned out to be $30,000 for the extra man hours that day.

Those employees were paid from the county’s general fund account in their regular pay cycle, in mid-July. The claim the county government was scrambling to find the extra $30,000 was untrue. The county has an $80 million annual budget, revenue is rising 12% this year, plus it has about $25 million in savings. Swimming in cash (my next letter to the editor), the county government could have paid the extra $30,000 to employees in many different ways and many times over.

Nor was the issue about the county “reimbursing itself”. Better said, the question was which pot of county money was best to pay the expense, the general fund or ATAX account? The ATAX or Accommodations tax account is a county tourism account that charges hotel guests a surcharge for overnight stays. The county uses that revenue to help fund events or venues that draw tourists to town, like the Azalea Festival ($12,000), Senior World Series ($30,000), Hagood Mill ($34,000), others, and things at the county parks.

That ATAX account had about $225,000 in discretionary funding this year, and there was $70,000 left over after the council helped fund about 15 events and venues. Since the Independence Day event bought 50,000 to a town of 3,500 people, the council thought it best to pay the $30,000 out of the ATAX account instead of the general fund. This way tourism revenue would then be paying for tourism expenses. Accounting wise, a better fit and I supported that.

Councilwoman Claiborne Linvill then said the Trump campaign should pay those ancillary costs of EMS and police. I asked, why? Talking with the planners, the arrangement was the campaign paid for Trump’s travel, auto, stage setup and his staff. The secret service, the metal gating, metal detectors, screeners at the gate and Trump’s personal security. The county paid for extra county police and EMS. The city, the cleanup and extra police. Typical.

A campaign expense by law is an expense that “influences the outcome of an election” and the campaigns pay those costs. A campaign expense is narrowly defined and includes activities or messages that solicit a vote for a particular candidate, like a button that says, Biden 2024!, a flyer that says “Alex Is Our Man in 2024!”, me knocking on your door and saying “vote for Alex” or fund raising events where donations are solicited at $xxx a plate. The activity of EMS treating people who got hot at the event is not a campaign expense by law. Now if EMS also gave every person it treated a MAGA hat or a Trump 2024 button that would have made their activity and cost a campaign expense. Nothing like that happened. Not at all. Those claiming that $30,000 expense was a campaign expense or a donation to the Trump campaign, simply don’t know campaign finance law.

Look at the arrangements for the National Democrat Party Convention next year in Chicago. The city will pay for the extra police, fire, emergency, and rescue services. Why? Those are not campaign expenses by law; they deal with the crowd flocking to the event. Those tourists will infuse $200 million into Chicago’s economy – cha-ching!

At the Azalea Festival, for instance, when attendees need medical attention, EMS treats them and the county doesn’t bill the Azalea Festival committee nor the city of Pickens. Nor does county EMS bill Clemson University if the team misses a game-winning field goal and ten fans have car accidents driving home.

Our attorney gave us an opinion as well. It stated, political campaigns are not required to pay for government service incurred based on events held by the campaign or the government. The Federal Elections Commission does not require campaigns to reimburse local governments for services rendered with crowd safety.

This after the fact “let’s bill’em” effort would be like a landlord renting to you. You agree to pay the rent and utilities, he the lawn maintenance. A year goes by, the lease ends and you move out. A month later, the landlord’s spouse then sends you a bill for the lawn maintenance. Frankly, that would be underhanded and just not right.