Taxes may be on the rise for some Myrtle Beach property owners

Myrtle Beach second-home owners and rental property owners will be paying a little more in taxes and all residents will incur an almost $3-a-month increase in utility bills starting July 1 if Myrtle Beach City Council approves a proposed budget on June 28.

“The budget at first reading includes a 3 mill tax increase, but also an increase in the Tourism Development Fee-funded residential property tax credit that completely offsets that millage increase for owner-occupied property,” said City Manager John Pedersen.

The proposed budget, which passed a first reading Tuesday, includes a 4 percent increase in property taxes. The hike equates to an extra $24 a year for a $200,000 home.

The increase would raise an estimated $1 million to give across-the-board raises and merit raises to employees, who for several years have had salary adjustments that have not kept pace with the cost of inflation, according to city leaders.

“The 3 mill increase allows the city to continue each of the strategic initiatives to drive the city forward,” Pedersen said after Tuesday’s meeting. “Bottom line, however, each of these initiatives is accomplished through our city employees, and council demonstrated its support through its support of pay increases for all of these employees.”

The proposed financial plan includes a 4.25 percent increase for all other regular city employees, excluding appointed officials and a 3 percent increase for all department heads and the city’s assistant city managers and chief financial officer. Employees will also be eligible for a merit raise of up to 5 percent based on performance.

This is the second merit increase for city employees since the 2011-2012 fiscal year, during which employees could have received up to a 3 percent salary increase. Last year, the city passed a budget that included a 5 percent across-the-board salary increase for police and fire service employees and an up to 3 percent raise based on performance.

All employees received a flat 2 percent increase in 2014, an $800 bonus the year before and a 3 percent flat increase in the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

A public hearing on the nearly $200 million proposed budget is scheduled for 9 a.m. June 28, two days before the city’s next fiscal year begins.

The $188,496,497 budget plan includes a small increase in water and sewer rates, depending on a customer’s usage.

The smallest rate hike would apply to single family homes and the lowest water and sewer users, adding less than a dollar a month to an inside city customer’s water and sewer bill.

“It just seems like every year this gets increased,” said Mayor pro tem Mike Lowder, who added that they need to be able to explain to the public why the increases are needed.

Mike Shelton, the city’s chief financial officer, clarified that the increases are needed to offset the ongoing costs of maintaining, expanding and updating the city’s aging infrastructure over the next several years.

“As painful as those small increases are each year they are necessary to maintain the equilibrium of our top flight infrastructure,” said Councilman Phil Render. “I don’t know of any other way to do it in the expanding robust community in which we live. You have to stay ahead of the game or there’s going to be a big catch up one day when we’re all off the council.”

The financial plan also includes increases in fees for building permit reviews from 50 percent to 60 percent and adds a $150 fee for each additional review after a project’s eighth review and a $250 fee for commercial stormwater inspections.

Under the plan, the fee to use the city’s historic train depot will increase from $30 an hour to $50 an hour for city residents and will be set at $100 an hour for non-city residents.

A new fee schedule for sports tourism that includes a tiered split of gate revenues between the city and promoters of sporting events is also included in the proposed budget to help make the growing industry less reliant on tax revenue.

Park and picnic shelter rental fees for large parks and shelters will also increase under the new plan.

Pelican customers under the city’s solid waste program will see a $2 container fee added to their monthly bill in lieu of the charge for new or replacement pelican trash cans or recycle bins. Container fees paid over the past two fiscal years will be refunded to existing waste service customers under the new budget.

This story was originally published June 14, 2016 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Taxes may be on the rise for some Myrtle Beach property owners."