Voters in North Myrtle Beach say ‘no’ to a tourism development fee.

The City of North Myrtle Beach held a public referendum regarding the imposition of a Local Tourism Development Fee, a 1% sales tax, on Tuesday.

After the polls closed at 7:00 p.m., the North Myrtle Beach Election Commission met at North Myrtle Beach City Hall to tally the vote, which is unoffical until certified by the Election Commission on March 8, 2018 at 10:00 a.m., at City Hall.

The unoffical vote tally for all voting precincts as announced by the North Myrtle Beach Election Commission is 188 “Yes” votes to 3,050 “No” votes.

Officals in North Myrtle Beach say they will distribute the breakdown of the vote by precincts after it is certified.

Earlier in the week, someone has posted signs throughout the city promoting false information about the referendum. The signs read “Vote Yes TDF for Public Safety”.

North Myrtle Beach spokesperson Pat Dowling asserted the city did not create or place the signs along the road. He also said, despite the inaccurate message on the signs, the city can’t take them down since they are not in violation of any city ordinances. “They’re misleading at best in terms of what the law really says that the money is for. It’s for tourism development. It doesn’t benefit public safety at all indirectly or directly.” 

Dowling estimates the TDF would generate about 8.5 million dollars each year, but the city would only be able to keep 20% of that amount. “It’s not a windfall for the city,” he said. Approximately 4% would fund property tax rebates, and the city would use the remaining 16%, about $1.3 million, to create more parking near the oceanfront. However, Dowling said, “You don’t get it for $1.3 million or even $8 million in the area that we’re looking at. It would take 5 years of even having that money to begin talking about buying a parking lot.”

According to Dowling, the other 80% of the TDF revenue would go to a marketing organization such as the North Myrtle Beach or Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. It would fund marketing efforts outside of the state, but Dowling questioned whether the city is prepared for a spike in tourism. “The city’s point of view is, is it smart to bring in thousands of new tourists for dinner when you haven’t even been able to set the table to welcome them, in terms of infrastructure.”

Dowling said the city faces approximately $80 million worth of capital improvement projects, and “our portion of a TDF is really not going to do much to go towards that. We need ocean outfalls built at a faster rate. We need stormwater improvements. We need road improvements,” he said.

Even if residents vote the TDF into effect, Dowling says the city will move forward with a proposed 2 millage tax increase for fiscal year 2019, as well as a proposed 1% sales tax to fund infrastructure projects. He said, “If we had our choice today of what bill we would vote on, that would be the bill we vote on.”

North Myrtle Beach registered voters will be able to take part in the referendum from 7 AM to 7 PM on Tuesday.