Myrtle Beach: Horry County offers little evidence to back tax-collection appeal effort
Myrtle Beach claims Horry County offers little substance in its appeal over a decision to prevent it from collecting hospitality taxes in city limits.
The city’s stance is the latest in the ongoing legal saga between Myrtle Beach and Horry County that is now before the South Carolina Court of Appeals.
The drama started in March when Myrtle Beach sued Horry County over the collection of the hospitality tax. The hospitality tax applies to areas such as hotel rooms and restaurant costs. In municipalities, the fee was split between city and county coffers.
The hospitality tax started in the 1990s to help fund road projects and was set to expire after 20 years, but Horry County officials extended the tax, which the city claimed was illegal without municipal consent. The county also recently decided to dedicate some of the tax money to fund Interstate 73.
Local municipalities — including Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach — passed versions of the hospitality tax while the lawsuit was ongoing. A circuit court judge recently ruled that those taxes could go into effect and barred Horry County from collecting taxes within the municipalities. Horry County asked the judge to reconsider that decision, which was rejected.
Horry County is now asking the appeals court to step in and stop the circuit judge’s order from going into effect until it reviews the case.
Last week, Myrtle Beach filed a 46-page response to the county’s request. The city filed its response days before officials from both groups met to see if they could settle the dispute. They are scheduled to meet again later this month.
While the county claimed it was going to suffer “irreparable harm or a miscarriage of justice,” the city contended that Horry County hasn’t produced evidence to support those statements.
At several points in the filing, Myrtle Beach officials blasted Horry County’s statements made without proof. One was when the county claimed “the stakes here are high” without explanation, Myrtle Beach claimed.
The city says the issue before the appeals court is whether the municipality met all the elements needed for a judge to issue an injunction to stop the county from collecting the tax. Those requirements include whether the city would likely succeed in the case and whether there would be great harm if an injunction is not granted.
Myrtle Beach contends its lawsuit is not so it can collect taxes, but protect people that would have to pay the fee.
The county has also claimed on several occasions that it should be allowed to collect the tax. If Horry County loses the case, it can then give the money to the cities. But, Myrtle Beach voiced strong objections to that idea throughout the lawsuit and said the individual taxpayers would have no way to recoup taxes that were unnecessarily paid.
“The county’s proposal that it be allowed to continue imposing the Hospitality Fee because it can later pay the proceeds of it over to four municipalities if the city prevails in the underlying action would do nothing to compensate the other persons and entities that have actually paid the unlawful charge,” the city said in the latest filing.
