The more that is revealed about this Enron scandal, the more it resembles the School District of Greenville County. Enron was a company in which the "top dogs" took advantage of all the accounting and legal loopholes, operated under the cover of powerful political influence, made the powerful insiders very wealthy and destroyed the future of hundreds, maybe thousands of employees and investors who were deceived.
      The exploits of the School District of Greenville County will certainly drive some of the elderly from their homes in the county because they will be unable to pay off through property taxes the overwhelming debt created by the district. Even more damaging is the possibility that the loophole created by this venture into unlimited indebtedness may be duplicated across the state. Should the abuse of debt spread as predicted, the entire state could be facing bankruptcy a few years out.
      The chairman of one of the congressional committees looking into the Enron situation observed that Enron top executives were so
slick and so good at circumventing laws and procedures that generally accepted accounting procedures must be "tightened up" to prevent a repeat of the Enron situation in numerous other companies.
      Ned Sloan through legal action bought time for the representatives of the people to deal with the circumvention and manipulation of debt limits and contract procedures by a voting majority of the Greenville County School Board and their cronies. Sloan wisely allowed the "big spenders" to pay his legal costs, and "threw in the towel" when it seemed that the legislature had little taste for going up against the education "cash cow" lobby during this election year.
     There have been misrepresentations when there appeared to be no need for deception. The trustees appointed Alex Sanders to arbitrate a pivotal lawsuit brought by an unselected company against the school board and the company selected to manage the $1.5 billion school construction program. Several of the trustees claimed Sanders was a "retired college professor and former legislator with no political aspirations."
     Several observers noted and commented at the first appearance of Sanders at the District offices, that the boardroom filled to capacity with big name local Democratic Party movers and shakers. It was not surprising that the names of many of the same people who showed up at the school district board room that day were listed as big financial contributors to the U.S. Senate campaign of the same Alex Sanders in the February 16 Greenville News.
     Sanders scuttled an important court challenge by a contractor against Institutional Resources, and gave the outrageous borrowing and spending construction management plan of the school district clear sailing until it was challenged by Ned Sloan. With Sloan's objections withdrawn, the only possible protection for the property owners of Greenville County from outrageous property tax increases in future years is intervention by the legislative delegation.
     Intervention by the legislature seems less likely with each passing day. Lawmakers have little stomach for challenging the powerful education and investment lobbies during an election year. Furthermore, many Greenville County residents continue to be deceived by the taxpayers funded "information" network that has proven quite effective as an instrument for disseminating propaganda in favor of the borrow, tax and spend policies of the Greenville County School Board voting majority.
     It may take 3 to 5 years for the seed being planted to bear bitter fruit. When that happens, all those will be running for cover and pointing fingers at taxpayers as they are now, claiming they are "anti-education" and not paying their share of taxes. When it all comes tumbling down, remember you read it here first.