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Is Scotland County's Economic Development Corporation a Blood Sucking Vampire?

The article <span style="color: #0000ff;"><b>"<a href="https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/news/20951/edc-to-invest-in-downtown-laurinburg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EDC to invest in downtown Laurinburg</a>"</b></span> recently appeared in the Laurinburg Exchange (LE). Like other LE propaganda, it's warm &amp; fuzzy and sounds great, but the fact is there's a very dark underbelly that is being hidden from you.

Why was this Taxpayer Funded Government Organization legally structured as a 'Tax Exempt NGO (non-government organization) Corporation'? Is this <b>part of the huge nationwide effort to hide the rampant theft of public assets from the prying eyes of the public?</b>

If the EDC was structured as a public entity, we would have the right to audit its operations and finances and examine the cast of characters guiding this Ouija board's planchette.

Because it's a private corporation (albeit publicly funded by Taxpayers), the public has no such right. Corporation <b>management, officers, directors and board members are free to transfer public assets into the hands of private parties, friends, business associates, political cronies and relatives </b>without <b>Taxpayers</b> being any the wiser.

If you were conducting nefarious, immoral, crooked business, which platform would you prefer to operate from: a public entity that could be audited and your misdeeds discovered, or a private, tax exempt corporation where the public pays the bills but has no right to question your deeds?

The LE article stated:

<span style="color: #333333;">“<i>Mark Ward, director of Economic Development and president of the Scotland County Economic Development Corporation, told the city council Tuesday that his board had agreed to buy two buildings downtown.”</i></span>

<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="color: #000000;"><b>Translation: </b></span><span style="color: #000000;">Their </span><span style="color: #000000;"><b>Private, Tax Exempt Corporation</b></span><span style="color: #000000;"> will be buying buildings </span><span style="color: #000000;">using </span><span style="color: #000000;"><b>Your Taxpayer Dollars</b></span><span style="color: #000000;">. </span></span>

<span style="color: #333333;">“<i>Ward says he hopes to close on the buildings in the next 30 days and the first thing that will be done is a new roof put on both the buildings.”</i></span>

<span style="color: #000000;"><b>Translation:</b> New roofs will be put on <b>Their </b>buildings, using <b>Your Taxpayer Dollars</b>. </span>

<span style="color: #333333;">“<i>The goal is to make it an incubator or a business that John A Smith wants to run that <b>we decided</b> as Scotland County EDC should be the type of business downtown wants,” Ward said. <b>“We will allow them to go in there at a significantly low rent to build their business up to stimulate that downtown growth. So that will give mom and pop business an opportunity to go in.”</b></i></span>

<span style="color: #000000;"><b>Translation:</b> After fixing up <b>Their </b>buildings, using <b>Your Taxpayer Dollars</b>, <b>they</b> will decide which of their <b>friends, business associates, political cronies and relatives </b>receive significantly reduced rents with which to unfairly compete against existing businesses which must pay 'market' rents and property taxes. They could even decide to sell the buildings to <b>friends, business associates, political cronies and relatives </b>at below fair market value. </span>

<span style="color: #333333;">“<i>We are taking an active role in developing not only industrial sites in the county but also helping the retail and the downtown group as well to make Scotland County a group effort,” Ward said. “Not the city do their thing, Laurel Hill do their thing, Gibson do their thing, main street do their thing, I do my thing. We’re going to do it all together because <b>we’re all going to be partners</b>.”</i></span>

<span style="color: #000000;"><b>Translation: </b>The EDC's idea of being <b>partners</b> is <b>They</b> use <b>Your Taxpayer Dollars </b>to buy properties for <b>Their Private, Tax Exempt Corporation</b> which then rents them out or sells them to <b>friends, relatives, business associates and political cronies</b> at below market rates.</span>

<span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What would Jesus do?</span></span>

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<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #333333;"><em><strong>Sources:</strong></em></span>
<a href="https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/news/20951/edc-to-invest-in-downtown-laurinburg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="color: #0000ff;">Laurinburg Exchange</span></a></p>

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