GEORGETOWN, SC (WBTW) – Governor Nikki Haley was in Georgetown Tuesday to speak to the Rotary club there.
Her visit comes just days after she vetoed a bill both the state house and the senate passed unanimously.
The tourism tax bill focuses on Horry County, but the governor says it could allow local governments to increase taxes on citizens without a public vote.
The bill says the tourism development tax is one to be imposed by a municipality located in a county where revenue from state accommodations tax is at least fourteen million in a fiscal year.
Right now, Horry County is the only county that fits that description, and Myrtle Beach is the only place in the county that imposes the tourism development fee.
“These are the people’s taxes. The people should always vote on their taxes. What this was doing was saying they were going to be able to increase taxes without even doing a referendum,” said Haley.
Governor Haley says local governments are allowed to use between 4% and 20% of the tax revenue for property tax millage relief, and the current law requires at least 80% of the tax to be used for tourism marketing and promotion.
Still, the bill asks that the fee be renewed and imposed within the municipality, and Governor Haley says that should not be allowed, claiming it strips the people from their right to vote and says this is not just a local bill.
You never open that door. It’s wrong to the taxpayers. They shouldn’t have done it. They’re selling it as tax relief when it’s actually 80% going to tourism. It’s wrong in every way,” said Haley.
Haley says she is now asking members of the House of Representatives to back her in her veto of the bill because she says sustaining the veto allows for the preservation of citizen participation in local government and helps to provide a more accountable local tax policy.
