Horry County has a special 1.5 percent fee tacked onto hotel admissions, prepared food and attraction tickets sold in the county. The fee brings in $40-41 million each year, and there is no other like it in the state.  

It’s called the hospitality fee, which has been used to pay off the Ride 1 project debt. That debt is almost paid off, so the county held a special workshop Tuesday afternoon to talk about where hospitality money should now go.

Council also held the meeting to discuss if the public should decide if they want to pay more in property taxes for more public safety.

There was a lot of back-and-forth for how the county should use the hospitality money, but ultimately council voted to use some of the money to fund I-73 and some to fund public safety.

Council approved using $18 million of hospitality fees to go toward projects that would be appropriate under the hospitality fee, wanting much of that to go to public safety.

Under state law, the hospitality fee has to fund projects tied directly to tourism. For example, more officers would have to go to heavy tourist areas. Staff gave the examples of Ocean Boulevard and Restaurant Row. 

Staff and the future council will have to come up with a plan for how to exactly direct that money to be used for public safety. Right now it can only be used for road projects, so council will also have to come back later and formally vote to change where that money can be spent.

Because council members approved using a portion of the hospitality fee to fund public safety, they decided not to include on the November ballot a referendum asking people if they would pay higher property taxes for more public safety. 

Voters will also not decide whether to fund a fifth precinct in Carolina Forest. Staff tabled that idea for now but said they could go back to the drawing board for funding options. 

Council approved using $23 million dollars annually of the hospitality fee to go toward Horry County’s Construction of I-73. Depending on county growth, that could extend to $25 million. The county will pay that every year for about 20 years.

“I think this is probably the biggest legislation that this council could put forward for I-73,” Chairman Mark Lazarus said. “It’s obviously a big economic driver for us for tourism, so I think it’s a great day for us.”

It will still be awhile before you see any major construction of I-73, because contracts still have to be worked out with SCDOT. The money from the hospitality fee goes into effect fiscal year 2020.