Myrtle Beach police are officially getting a raise. Here’s what that means

Myrtle Beach police officers are officially getting a raise after the newly elected Myrtle Beach City Council voted in favor of a retention plan presented by Chief Amy Prock in early December. But a pay raise could mean a tax increase for city residents.

“I believe whole heatedly in the police plan,” Brenda Bethune, Myrtle Beach’s newly elected mayor, said. “I think that Chief Prock, her staff and city staff did an amazing job preparing that, and I don’t think that we can afford to not do it.”

“Our public safety has to be our number one issue. However, as mayor, as part of council, I think that we are charged with looking at other alternatives to fund that plan and we will certainly do so,” Bethune said.

Those alternatives include looking at the budget and talking to the state to find out about other options, Bethune said.

The plan implements an automatic 1.75-percent market increase for all sworn officers and dispatchers, plus a 3-percent merit increase and a market rate salary adjustment of 5-percent, which will begin on Jan. 12.

These increases mean that new hires who are not certified would receive $40,000 starting salary, and new hires who are certified would start with a $44,000 salary.

Over the course of 10 years, staff could receive a 45-percent pay increase. The increase is broken down as:

• Years two through four: 4-percent increase
• Year five: 3.75-percent increase
• Years six through seven: 3.5-percent increase
• Years eight through 10: 3-percent increase

However, when the plan was originally presented in December, it called for a tax increase on city residents, which would mean a 3.8-percent increase on the city tax bill, John Pedersen, city manager, said.

“We have stretched our budget in a number of different ways,” Pedersen said during the meeting. “I am bringing to you a budget with this millage increase built into it.”

This means that the tax increase would begin next year. City officials have already accounted for the pay raises in this year’s budget.

“It’s important to note that what we’re looking at today is raising the pay for police, we’re not looking at how that will impact the budget moving forward,” newly elected councilman Gregg Smith said. “We’ve got to drill on into that to see how that would affect the budget, where we can find the money.

“We know it will take approximately three mills worth of money. That doesn’t mean we necessarily have to raise taxes by three mills. We have to find that money somewhere else to pay police at least what they deserve.”

In December, the city manager said that next year’s budget would be put together with the increase on property taxes.

The retention plan is the second part of a plan proposed by Prock that works to increase the number of officers on the force.

In 2017, the department had 32 people leave and another six retirements.

As the numbers stand now, the department needs to hire 19 officers each year just to break even. In October, Prock presented a plan that would hire 10 new officers over the course of seven years.

In order to break even and add new “boots on the ground,” the department needs to put 32 people through the academy each year.

“We are very excited about this and will continue to be very active about recruiting,” Prock said during the meeting. “We want to make sure that everybody understands what we’re doing.”

Pedersen hinted that further amendments may be made to the plan in the near future.

This story was originally published January 9, 2018 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach police are officially getting a raise. Here’s what that means."