Don't say we didn't tell you so

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

One of the most audacious power grabs in recent years in Lowcountry politics is playing out - with Charleston RINO Elizabeth Moffly leading the charge.

A proposal pushed by Moffly, who was elected to a seat on the Charleston County School Board last fall on the heels of a second failed bid for State Education Superintendent, would give Charleston County School Board members a whopping 2400% percent raise in their salaries, taking their pay from $25 per meeting (roughly $600 a year) to $15,000 a year. By comparsion, the most highly-paid school board members – in Horry County – get paid $9,600 a year.

The one “no” vote against the proposal, long-time Republican Mary Ann Taylor, who was elected along with Moffly last fall, resigned from the school board in protest tonight. While we wouldn’t have endorsed her resignation, we certainly understand why she did it and believe she did the right thing in opposing the raise.

This move leaves Charleston Republicans, who expressed their disgust with Moffly in tonight’s meeting of the Charleston County GOP, with egg on their faces as some of their leadership backed her for the school board last year.

It would be one thing if Moffly had betrayed Republicans after playing a fiscally conservative tune, but when she endorsed the candidacy of former Democratic Education Superintendent Jim Rex after losing her GOP primary bid for the office in 2006, a role she bragged about in her failed 2010 candidacy (not to mention her association with former Democratic Governor Dick Riley), Republicans should have known better than to trust her. It’s not like she was hiding her liberal stripes.

In an online poll on the Charleston Post and Courier website, with roughly 1000 votes cast (so far), just under 46% backed keeping their pay where it was at, while about 24% believed they shouldn’t be paid at all and less than 4% supported Moffly’s raise.

For the record, the Blogland stands with those who think Charleston County School Board members should be paid what they’re worth – nothing.

Last year, the Blogland had called Moffly out for spending campaign money on frivilous expenses and she was also criticized for having the second largest expenses for a board member during the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Maybe our readers aren’t seeing it, but we see a pattern emerging when it comes to Moffly spending other people’s money on herself. Considering this, her move shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone.

Hopefully those who didn’t know better last year will learn what we knew all along – Elizabeth Moffly was a self-serving and unreliable loose cannon whose treason serves as a reminder that democracy is based upon the premise that people should get what they vote for – and sometimes they get it good and hard.