Myrtle Beach leaders pass additional tax hike to pay for Memorial Day weekend security

Myrtle Beach leaders Tuesday passed an additional tax increase to help pay for security enhancements during Atlantic Beach Bikefest.

Myrtle Beach City Council voted 6-1 for a 2 mill property tax increase to help pay for a $1.65 million safety plan for Memorial Day weekend next year. Lowder voted against the ordinance, which brings the tax rate to 74.5 mills from 69.1 mills last year.

City officials had planned to use accommodations tax money to cover the $1.65 million cost of their security plan, but they found recent changes to state law limit how much they can use without cutting into funding for other services.

City spokesman Mark Kruea said the 2-mill increase would amount to a $16 hike on an owner-occupied home worth $200,000. That increase is in addition to a 3 mill increase the city passed in June to pay for 10 additional year-round police officers.

Kruea said the 2 mill increase would generate about $650,000 in additional revenue. Accommodations tax revenue would cover the rest of the safety plan.

City manager Tom Leath said Myrtle Beach officials initially thought a last-minute budget amendment passed by the S.C. General Assembly in June allowed the city to set aside up to one-third of the money given to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce for marketing costs. The money must have been used to pay for public safety during events in May, according to the amendments.

However, the General Assembly denied the request to allow up to one-third of destination specific funds allocated to the chamber but passed an amendment that allows the city to use up to one-third of total accommodations taxes returned to the city.

That would result in up to $2.3 million available to Myrtle Beach to pay for additional public safety costs, but it takes away from entire pot of accommodations tax money the city receives and spends on other things, such as day-to-day public safety and money given to the chamber for marketing.

“Everyone who gets A-tax [funds] would only get one-third of what they normally get,” Leath said.

Myrtle Beach has released initial pieces of a plan it has to get the weekend under control, including re-establishing an emergency lane on Ocean Boulevard and designating one-way traffic on the Boulevard from 29th Avenue North heading south to Kings Highway.

The city also plans to use a 40-mile loop to route drivers on Ocean Boulevard out of the city between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Memorial Day weekend, heading south toward Surfside Beach, through Socastee and then toward North Myrtle Beach.

The proposed traffic circle would require drivers to travel south to S.C. 544, west to S.C. 31, north to S.C. 22 and east to U.S. 17, where they would head south back toward Myrtle Beach. It takes about an hour to make the drive in normal traffic. The goal is to ease crowded streets in Myrtle Beach during the holiday weekend.

City Council passed first reading of the ordinance two weeks ago to adjust the property tax rate to make up for a 5 percent overall decline in the city’s property values.

State law allows a municipality to adjust its tax rate in a reassessment year so that the city doesn’t benefit from increased property values, nor is it hurt by a drop in value, budget director Michael Shelton said.

Lowder said he was torn about the additional millage increase because, as a former police officer, he knows it takes a lot of resources to enact a large-scale safety plan.

“I’m struggling with this 2 mill increase in taxes even though we’ve already increased it 3 mills,” Lowder said. “I still believe there’s a possibility to come up with this money ... other than to increase taxes – again. I’m not going to be able to support another tax increase.”

Councilwoman Susan Grissom Means urged a future council to consider decreasing the tax rate once the city has gotten control of Memorial Day weekend.

“We made a commitment to the public – our residents and our business community – that we would do what ever it takes to get control of the May events,” Mayor John Rhodes said, adding that he also hoped the city would be able to reduce the property tax rate in the future.

Leath said the city must set its tax rate by the end of September to submit it to Horry County, which collects taxes on Myrtle Beach’s behalf.

He said he hopes officials have clarity soon on where the accommodations tax funds will come from to help the city pay for its safety plan, whether its from the city’s overall A-tax fund or just from the money set aside for the chamber.

“By Oct. 31 we have to send a notice to the Department of Revenue saying how much [accommodations tax funds] we intend to use,” he said.

This story was originally published September 23, 2014 at 11:45 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach leaders pass additional tax hike to pay for Memorial Day weekend security."