When The Columbia Star writes articles on the proposed one cent sales tax proposed by Richland County to fund the bus system and roads, you may want to discuss some of the unintended consequences.

As you may know, the PSC has approved total SCE&G rate increases of 18.36% by 2012. The SC Tax Realignment Commission (TRAC) has proposed to tax electricity, groceries, and prescriptions at a rate of 2.5%. If you add PSC approved 18.36% rate increase to the proposed State 2.5% sales tax to the current County local option 1% sales tax and the proposed bus tax of 1%, the total cost of “our” electricity will increase by 22.86%.....almost 23 percent by 2012.

To complete the “County taxpayer bad news,” groceries and prescriptions will be taxed at 4.5 % (2.5% State tax plus 2.0% County tax). Perhaps the worst news is that Council may spend $25,000 of “our” tax dollars to convince “us” to raise “our” taxes!

George King, Columbia