HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – As children head back to school on Monday, the Horry County Auditor’s Office will crack down on people driving illegally with out-of-state tags in school parking lots.
“If you have somebody who’s working here, somebody who’s sending the children to schools, then they are residents of Horry County and they need to register their vehicles,” Lois Eargle, the Horry County Auditor said.
Starting Monday, the county Auditor’s Office will go school-to-school and scan for tags that aren’t registered in Horry County using their new license plate reader.
“It’s remote. We can put it on any vehicle, we can go sit at the schools and it’ll just get all the tags,” Toby Clardy, a field investigator with the Horry County Auditor’s Office said.
Employees used to hand write every out-of-state tag they came across in school parking lots, but the new license plate reader can scan around 5,000 tags in one minute, saving time.
The reader costs around $18,000, however, Eargle says it will help catch more people who break the law, generating more tax revenue for the county, and in turn, helping to support local schools.
“The taxes that are collected in Horry County and the state, the majority of it goes to the schools, and how in the world can you have the conscious to know that if you don’t register your vehicle then you really, you’re not fair to the schools or even the children in our county,” Eargle said.
The auditor’s office says it will take them until around November to hit all 62 schools in Horry County.
A person has 45 days to register their car after moving to Horry County. If they fail to do so, the Auditor’s Office will send them a letter which requires a response within 30 days. After that, the person could face fines or sometimes jail time.
