Untimely tax rise

Tuesday's editorial bemoans the seemingly unstoppable march in Myrtle Beach toward a sales-tax increase, which is expected to pass this afternoon.

When the Myrtle Beach City Council inevitably approves the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce's appeal for a tax rise today, the new tax will have moved from idea to law with a quickness that far outpaces the normal speed of government. First introduced Feb. 25, the bill allowing the tax passed both houses of the legislature, received the governor's tacit approval (though not a signature) and then two readings before the City Council, all in the span of three months.

Proponents of the tax - which raises the sales tax by 1 cent on every dollar spent in the Myrtle Beach city limits on items other than groceries, medicine or gasoline - likely view their haste as a necessity to rescue the area's already-wounded 2009 tourism season. The tax will go into effect and begin collecting money Aug. 1, but chamber officials assured of its passage can secure loans to begin a marketing blitz in out-of-state markets.

The tax idea is not without merits. We agree on the basic, undeniable benefits of advertising. The effort to shift the tax burden off of homeowners (by reducing property-tax rates) and onto the tourist population is also worthy of consideration. 

But the circumstances create strong counter-arguments, beginning with the additional financial pain a sales tax would impose amid the recession. Second, the S.C. legislature recently restored $10 million for local tourism advertising, lessening the need for a local tax. Finally, the way the sales-tax law is written, property-tax relief cannot begin until the tax's third year, so homeowners will not see a tax cut until the recession, we hope, is over.

And property-tax relief is no help at all for renters - 40 percent of the city's 11,000 households.

Amid such strong concerns, the velocity with which this tax is traveling only increases the pain of being trampled over. We hope the council will use today not to test the speed of their rubber stamps, but to consider whether imposing a new tax is truly in all residents' best interests.

Proponents of the tax - which raises the sales tax by 1 cent on every dollar spent in the Myrtle Beach city limits on items other than groceries, medicine or gasoline - likely view their haste as a necessity to rescue the area's already-wounded 2009 tourism season. The tax will go into effect and begin collecting money Aug. 1, but chamber officials assured of its passage can secure loans to begin a marketing blitz in out-of-state markets.

The tax idea is not without merits. We agree on the basic, undeniable benefits of advertising. The effort to shift the tax burden off of homeowners (by reducing property-tax rates) and onto the tourist population is also worthy of consideration. 

But the circumstances create strong counter-arguments, beginning with the additional financial pain a sales tax would impose amid the recession. Second, the S.C. legislature recently restored $10 million for local tourism advertising, lessening the need for a local tax. Finally, the way the sales-tax law is written, property-tax relief cannot begin until the tax's third year, so homeowners will not see a tax cut until the recession, we hope, is over.

And property-tax relief is no help at all for renters - 40 percent of the city's 11,000 households.

Amid such strong concerns, the velocity with which this tax is traveling only increases the pain of being trampled over. We hope the council will use today not to test the speed of their rubber stamps, but to consider whether imposing a new tax is truly in all residents' best interests.