Myrtle Beach maneuvering to keep more tax revenue at home

By creating a new admissions tax district in downtown Myrtle Beach, the city is positioning itself to take back some of the local tax revenue collected by the state.

At Tuesday’s meeting, council members gave first approval to the downtown designated tax district so a portion of all the admissions tax paid within that district -- now collected by the state -- will come back to the city for tourism-related projects.

This is not a new tax, council members were careful to point out, just a way to recoup some of the tax money Columbia ordinarily keeps.

The state collects a 5 percent tax on all admission tickets to attractions like the Sky Wheel, Family Kingdom and all the other attractions along Ocean Boulevard.

By implementing an admissions tax district, which lasts for 15 years, the city will automatically get back 1.25 percent of that money for tourism-related projects within five miles of the district lines, and can apply for another 1.25 percent through coordinating council that administers the money.

The city already has two admissions tax districts -- Broadway at the Beach and the NASCAR Speed Park and BB&T Coastal Field area. Pines Lake and Grand Dunes golf courses are considered admissions tax facilities. Since the first district was created in 1995, the city has collected $5.2 million from the state and $4.8 million from the coordinating council. For Fiscal Year 2010-11, the city got $345,000 from the state and $329,000 from the coordinating council, said budget director Michael Shelton.

The new district would encompass Ocean Boulevard from 14th Avenue North down to and including the Family Kingdom area, along the Boardwalk, and incorporate the former Pavilion site and much of the property up to Withers Drive.

To set up an admissions tax district, the area being designated needs to show $20 million in new private and public investment over five years.

“The SkyWheel, boardwalk, and other new construction downtown easily equal the $20 million investment,” city spokesman Mark Kruea said.

In other business, the council heard from Joy Glunt, one of the organizers of a proposed new Holocaust memorial that could be installed in Grand Park. The plan is to create an 8-by-6-foot monument topped with a large butterfly, a symbol for the more than 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust.

Butterfly memorial projects have risen up across the United States at museums, schools and in cities, inspired by the poem “The Butterfly,” written by Pavel Friedmann in 1942:

The last, the very last,

So richly brightly, dazzling yellow.

Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing

against a white stone…

Such, such a yellow

Is carried lightly ‘way up high.

It went away I’m sure because it wished to kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,

Penned up inside this ghetto.

But I have found what I love here.

The dandelions call to me

And the white chestnut branches in the court.

Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one.

Butterflies don’t live here,

in the ghetto.

Friedmann was interned at Terezin concentration camp and later deported to Auschwitz. He did not survive the Holocaust.

At first, Glunt suggested placing the monument at Valor Park, but the council felt it would get more exposure -- and could have more space -- at Grand Park. City staff members, the monument’s designer and other organizers are going to work together to determine the memorial’s space needs before figuring out where the piece will stand.

Council members also gave tacit approval for a year-long study of Withers Swash, which drains about a third of all the stormwater in Myrtle Beach.

Researchers want to study the factors that contribute to oxygen depletion in the coastal waters, including in Myrtle Beach.

Oxygen depletion is a sign of pollution -- whether it’s manmade or natural -- and leads to fish kills. Myrtle Beach has already been told it has a floating dead zone during certain parts of the year, and researchers want to find out why and what to do about it.

The study won’t cost the city any money.

The city also proclaimed the week of Jan. 8-21 as “Presidential Debate Festival,” and showed its plan for parking and security for the Myrtle Beach Convention Center for the GOP presidential debate on Jan. 16. Council members said they are expecting 4,000 people, including media representatives, to attend.