NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Although it was not on the agenda for last night’s North Myrtle Beach City Council meeting, the 1% sales tax increase was brought up during council discussion.
“A council member brought up the idea of a referendum which would mean you would put it in a ballot,” said North Myrtle Beach City Spokesman, Pat Dowling.
In order for a referendum to even be considered, the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, which first brought the sales tax increase to city council, would have to write a letter to the council asking for it to be discussed.
President and CEO of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, Marc Jordan, says the chamber has been discussing this increase for about eight years. He says the increase would bring in around 9 million dollars for out-of-area tourism.
Jordan was at last night’s meeting and says now that the referendum is an option, the chamber will meet again to discuss if they will move forward.
“We will have two more meetings, Executive Board and a Board of Directors meetings, this month and that’s when we will make these decisions and get back to our city council,” said Jordan.
Dowling says the city’s stance is that more work needs to be done in the area before money is spent to bring in more people
“We have a beach that’s in great need of beach renourishment, we have to build about 60 million dollars more of ocean outfalls,” said Dowling. “And then we also need to buy about 16 million dollars worth of land to develop near-beach public parking which we no longer have a plethora of because of the growth we’ve experienced.”
You can count on News 13 to keep you updated on this story.
