Myrtle Beach halves '08 property tax increase

Jun 12, 2009 — The Sun News

Josh Dawsey

Jun. 12, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- The property tax increase passed by Myrtle Beach's City Council to fund the elimination of the biker rallies will be slashed by 50 percent for at least a year.

In last year's budget, the council voted to raise property taxes by 3 mills, and the increase generated about $1 million. About 85 percent of the revenue was used this year to fight biker-related lawsuits, hire more police for the two May rallies and print new signs and brochures for the ordinances the council passed to curb the rallies.

Myrtle Beach also used the increase to promote the Military Days festival and to promote the city's image to families for the month of May.

This year, the city isn't anticipating needing as much money to stop the rallies. So the council decided to credit all property owners 1.5 mills, or half of the increase they paid last year, for the upcoming year.

"We had raised the 3 mills for things related to biker weeks," Mayor John Rhodes said. "Once these lawsuits got dropped, we saw that we weren't going to have to spend anymore. We were able to lower the taxes."

In the past year, taxes have been raised twice within the city. The 3-mill increase for biker rallies came first. Less than three weeks ago, the city passed a 1 percent local sales tax increase.

The tax break in the upcoming budget is needed, business owners say.

"It's a troubling year, it's a tough year. The tax breaks come at a good time for us," said Buz Plyler, the owner of the Gay Dolphin gift shop. "In all terms, businesses are going through a tremendously hard period. Many of them are finding they can't cope with the costs they have now."

For a $200,000 commercial property, city spokesman Mark Kruea said it would result in a tax break of about $32. Owners of a $250,000 occupied house would receive about a $15 break.

The cut isn't permanent. Should the council decide to repeal the credit after one year, it easily can. Rhodes said because the city wasn't sure what issues it would face, it wasn't willing to make the cuts permanent.

"In case something comes up in the future, we'll have it," Rhodes said.

Councilman Randal Wallace said the sagging economy was a large reason he supported the credit.

"The economy has weighed on our mind," he said. "You want to keep the taxes as low as you can in the best economy, but in an economy as bad as this one, you especially want to keep them low."

The millage decrease was released in the city's budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The overall operational budget was down 2.5 percent from last year. The city's allocations for capital projects dropped 80 percent. Major changes included a large cut in funding for travel of council members and staff. Also, there will be no across-the-board, cost-of-living adjustment this year for staff.

Contact JOSH DAWSEY at 626-0303.

Newstex ID: 35712103