Tag: tax increase

SC Senate Committee Approves Gas Tax Hike

The SC Senate Finance Committee voted 14-8 this week to approve a 12 cents per gallon gas tax hike for next year’s budget.

This move was part of an overall vote to replace a SC House road repair plan, approved last year, with one written by the Senate. The House plan approved a 10 cents per gallon gas tax increase.

The Senate plan includes more revenue raising proposals including an increase in driver’s license fees, an increase to a maximum cap of $600 sales tax on a vehicle, up from the current $300. Also included were additional fees on hybrid and electrical vehicles.

The House plan provided for a small cut of state income tax while the Senate plan provides for no tax cuts.

If the Senate plan gains approval from the full Senate, it will have to go back to the House for approval. However, several senators have already placed the plan on the contested calendar meaning the full Senate will have to vote to bring the bill before the full body.

Additionally, if Gov. Nikki Haley sticks to her word, she will veto the plan, if it ultimately passes both houses, because no offsetting tax cuts are included.

It is interesting to note, Senate proponents of the plan are already broadcasting how much of the tax will be paid by non-SC residents. The current estimate is 30%.

This is always an interesting argument that proponents of tax hikes always use to make the tax more palatable for their non-thinking constituents. Tell them how much will be paid by tourists or other outside groups.

What is never mentioned is South Carolina residents will be paying 100% of the tax year around. What percentage of gross revenues may come from tourists or others traveling through the state is really not a consideration for the South Carolina citizens who will be paying the increased tax all the time.

This debate will only become more interesting as the legislative year progresses.

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New Year for Horry County Council

The New Year is starting out in strange fashion for Horry County Council as its first meeting will be held Thursday night.

Regular council meetings are normally held the first and third Tuesday’s of each month. I understand scheduling conflicts for some of the members moved the first meeting in January two days.

The New Year is starting out where last year left off as far as changes with council are concerned.

Horry County experienced a 44% turnover rate in council membership in 2015 with three new members elected to begin the year and two more new members joining the council in special elections during 2015.

The last of those new members, Jimmy Washington from District 3, won election December 22nd and will be attending his first meeting Thursday night.

The two newest members, Washington and Cam Crawford from District 6, won special elections for unexpired terms that end this year. They will be facing re-election contests in 2016.

But, it wasn’t just membership that changed on Horry County Council in 2015.

In my opinion, there was a rather cavalier attitude toward spending the people’s money that was much more disturbing.

Not only did a majority of council pass the largest property tax increase in county history in 2015, they also increased road vehicle tax by 67%.

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Taxes, Flag Top 2015 News Stories

Taxes, Flag Top 2015 SC Newsies

Local tax increases and removal of the Confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds topped the 2015 news stories.

Horry County Council passed the largest single tax increase in county history with a 7.2 mil increase in property taxes. Just for good measure, council also increased the road tax charged on every vehicle registered in the county by 67%.

Sold to the public as a means to increase public safety, the tax increase was really Horry County Council bowing to the will of county employees for a pay raise.

As council member Harold Worley said during debate of the tax increase, “Not one penny of the tax increase will go toward putting one extra officer on the street. Response times will not go down nor will community policing increase because of the tax increase.”

Adding insult to injury, the road annual tax was increased from $30 to $50 per vehicle, ostensibly to provide more money for maintenance of roads in the county road system.

Just a few months later, county council voted to use approximately $16 million in excess revenue from Ride II tax collections not for roads, but to buy a new radio system for public safety.

Five county council members will be up for re-election in 2016, but only one, Gary Loftus, voted to increase taxes.

Five of the six council members voting to raise taxes were elected or re-elected in 2014 and hope the voters will not remember this tax increase in 2018 when they face election again.

The statewide issue that was most intriguing was the removal of the Confederate battle flag from statehouse grounds.

This was done in just several days of a special session called by Gov. Nikki Haley. It demonstrated the General Assembly can act quickly when it wants to.

This special session followed a five month regular session when the General Assembly did absolutely nothing about the most important issues in the state – road maintenance and repair, ethics issues and school funding.

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Roads, Radios, Taxes and Horry County Council

The next time we hear Horry County Council members talk about raising taxes, let’s move immediately for recall elections.

There is no provision for recall of elected officials in the state constitution. But, this is the Independent Republic the law doesn’t really apply here anyway.

Certainly very little fiscal responsibility does.

Last spring six members of Horry County Council were determined to raise property taxes by 7.2 mils, the largest increase allowed by law.

Why? Because the county was running out of money and all the county employees, especially public safety, needed pay raises. Or so county council told us at the time.

We were told the road maintenance tax had to be raised by 67% or roads in the county system couldn’t be maintained.

Remember all the talk about the county looking at removing roads from the county road system?

Five months down the road, all that is forgotten. Horry County Council got the tax increases it wanted and business as usual reigns again in Conway.

Tomorrow, the county Infrastructure and Regulation Committee will consider recommending seven resolutions to accept new roads and drainage into the County Maintenance System.

An early prediction is they will all pass.

Horry County Council is two-thirds of the way, with third reading passage of the ordinance guaranteed, to use approximately $16 million in excess revenue from Ride II tax collections for a new 900 MHz radio system for countywide communications.

The Ride II (Riding on a Penny) referendum was passed by the voters of the county to build roads. However, now that there is excess revenue from it Horry County Council quickly found a way to spend that excess in another area.

In 1993, when the current 800 MHZ system was first put in place, county and city officials were told it would have a lifespan of approximately 25 years. Motorola, the system provider, told county officials it would stop servicing the 800 MHz system at the end of next year.

Did Horry County Council establish some type of escrow fund so the money for a new system would be there when it was needed?

Of course not!

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Horry County's Accommodations Tax

Horry County Council Budget Resolutions

Horry County Council will consider two resolutions at its meeting tonight to complete this fiscal year’s budget process.

The resolutions will be to approve funding agreements with the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation for two years and with Coast RTA for one year.

These votes will be the final acts of contempt toward county taxpayers in a budget year that brings the largest property tax increase in a generation.

Led by the Republican ‘Gang of Five’ (Mark Lazarus, Al Allen, Johnny Vaught, Gary Loftus and Bill Howard), Horry County Council chose to raise property taxes by 7.2 mils ($13.5 million) without even considering during budget considerations whether funding should be cut for the MBREDC and Coast RTA.

Of course, MBREDC and Coast RTA funding weren’t the only possible savings in a $130 million general fund budget that could have been looked at.

It was just easier for the Republican ‘Gang of Five’ to raise taxes than to go through the details of the budget.

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Budgets - Cuts, Spending and You

Horry County Council Budget Failures

The latest development at MBREDC indicates how casually Horry County Council approached raising taxes this year.

Jim Moore, President and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation, resigned from that agency Monday.

Moore came to MBREDC only six months ago after the three plus year dismal reign of Brad Lofton. During the four year period represented by these two, MBREDC allegedly reorganized itself with a new approach to attracting jobs to Horry County.

Neither Moore nor Lofton was any more successful in economic development recruitment than the former iteration of MBREDC or Partners Economic Development Corporation before it.

The difference is the current four year MBREDC 2.0 has been receiving serious funding from Horry County Council, between $1.3 million to $1.8 million per year of taxpayer dollars, with little to nothing to show for it.

Think of AvCraft, Project Blue and PTR Industries as the poster children of MBREDC efforts.

Over the past five county budget cycles, MBREDC has received at least $7.5 million from Horry County Council to fund its few employees and other operational costs.

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Horry County Council Tax Explosion

It is now official, the tax and spend Republicans on Horry County Council passed the largest tax increase in a generation last night.

Nothing changed from the budget that passed at second reading. There will be a countywide tax increase of 7.2 mils more for the general fund. The countywide road fee increased from $30 to $50 per vehicle and county building permit fees increased.

The Republican “Gang of Five” who voted to increase taxes consists of chairman Mark Lazarus, and council members Al Allen, Johnny Vaught, Bill Howard and Gary Loftus. Democrat James Frazier made the sixth vote in the 6-5 decision.

Of the six members who voted for it, five (all but Loftus) were elected to their current terms in November 2014, so it will be over three years before they have to face the voters for reelection. There is speculation Loftus may not be planning to run again so his term ending next year may not matter in having to answer for being a tax and spender.

Despite campaign pledges to “oppose new taxes”, “keep property taxes low”, “listen to the taxpayers” and support TEA Party goals, Lazarus, Vaught, Howard and Allen (respectively) make the term conservative Republican virtually extinct in Horry County and, in their particular cases, an oxymoron.

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Passing Bad Tax Increase Legislation

There is nothing more irritating to me, than Legislators who don’t read vital pieces of legislation but just pass it into law.

The dumb remark from one time speaker of the U S House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, “you have to pass it, to know what’s in it”, has now resonated with our Horry County Council members.

Our esteemed County Council members are going to vote on increasing the property taxes, to the maximum rate provided by law, and most of them have not read the legislation, nor have any conception of what is in the legislation they are about to pass.

The one Council member who is a Friend of the Taxpayer, Harold Worley, does know where the money is going. Worley had a withering exchange with Horry County Administrator Chris Eldridge on how, where, and why the increased funds, are going to be appropriated and spent.

Interesting, to note is that Eldridge’s salary will be increased $10,000 per year for the next four years amounting to $40,000.00 at a time when the County is asking everyone to tighten their belts for austerity. These my friends are our County Council Republican members in action.

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Case for Property Tax Increase Not Made

Justifying or attempting to justify an unnecessary tax increase has become something of a cottage industry in Conway this week.

A few County Councilmen have nearly tripped over themselves trying to come up with more and better reasons for supporting one of Council’s biggest tax hikes in a generation. Their efforts to explain this tax hike to taxpayers runs the gamut from unconvincing to just plain silly.

We are told that this situation is an emergency and that this budget must be passed on Tuesday night in order to meet the June 30 deadline. But the inconvenient truth is this “disaster” is one that Council has created. They got themselves into a pickle, and now they want an easy way out. And one of the easiest ways out, as always, is to ask taxpayers for more money. But as the old saying goes, “poor planning on your part does not make for an emergency on my part!”

The fact is, when it was presented for first reading, the 2016 budget did not contain a tax increase. So where did this tax increase come from? Well, it turns out that the first reading of the budget, which gave a whopping pay raise to County Administrator Chris Eldridge, while at the same time cutting benefits for firemen, police, and other county employees, wasn’t very popular politically with most anyone except for the County Administrator. That may not shock you. It apparently shocked many on Council.

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Horry County Council Tax Explosion

Horry County Council is spending your tax dollars like a bunch of drunken sailors making a port call.

The council voted 6-5 to amend the FY 2016 budget to include a countywide tax increase of 7.2 mils for the general fund, to increase the business license fees and to raise the road fee to $50 for every vehicle registered in the county.

Council chairman Mark Lazarus was joined by council members Al Allen, Bill Howard, Johnny Vaught, Gary Loftus, and James Frazier in voting yes for the tax increase.

This is an increase of 20% on general fund operating millage and 67% on the vehicle road fee. The increase of 7.2 mils for the general fund is the maximum limit allowed by state law or council probably would have gone higher.

This comes on top of a 6 mil tax increase (50%) for the fire fund in all the unincorporated areas of the county approved two years ago.

And not that many years before, council added 3 mils (100%) to the waste recycling fee in the unincorporated areas of the county.

It used to be if you lived in the city you could expect fairly routine tax increases, albeit for a higher level of services. Now, that holds true for tax increases in the unincorporated areas of Horry County just not for the level of services.

To paraphrase former Republican senator Everett Dirksen, a few mils here, a few mils there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.

Of course, Dirksen was speaking against federal tax and spend programs.

In Horry County, it’s the Republicans who have proudly become the tax and spend party.

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