Nobody likes to hear the words tax
increase. Like a fist flying at our face, the instinctual reaction is to duck
or throw up our hands in defense. But we also pay strict attention when our
fire safety officials say that they need more resources to keep us safe, as has
happened across the county recently.
Thursday’s editorial, after having
some good discussion about it yesterday:
How long should a homeowner be able
to rent out his home and still count it as his main residence? Legislators are
confronting that question this year as they consider a bill pushed by Sen. Ray
Cleary of Murrells Inlet, who wants to let homeowners rent their homes out for
more than 14 weeks a year and still be taxed at a lower rate than other rental
properties.
Is this a good idea? Well, it seems
at least innocuous enough. Cleary’s point that the change would help homeowners
struggling with soaring insurance premiums, especially wind, is well taken. It’s
an issue that sorely needs to be addressed and which we are following with
interest in Columbia
this year.
A whiz at
math and business and need something to do with your extra time? Consider
volunteering to help low-income folks with their tax returns:
With more
volunteers, a frustrating situation could be improved at Horry County sites of
the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program at three public libraries in
Conway, Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach where the shortage of volunteers causes
about as many folks to be turned away as receive assistance.
A shortage
of volunteers is “our biggest drawback,” says Utocqua Grissett, who helps
organize the VITA sites as coordinator for the Horry County Financial Literacy
Coalition. It is a collaboration of entities including the United Way,
Horry-Georgetown Technical College, Coastal Carolina University, the Salvation
Army, Alpha Sorority Inc. and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. The coalition has
been organized for about 10 years, Grissett says. VITA is a national program
sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service for four decades. Horry County has
had a VITA program since the 1990s, Grissett says.
Sunday’s editorial weighs in on the
proposal to allow local municipalities to raise the accommodations tax to pay
for beach renourishment projects:
Beach renourishment will always be a
concern for our area, as it will for every developed coastal community.
Especially if the recommendations of the recently completed report of the
state’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Shoreline Management are adopted,
abandoning the state’s 20-year policy of beach retreat, continued renourishment
will be a given.
But do we need a higher tax to pay
for it? No. Not now. Hopefully not later.
If a neighborhood wants better
lighting and landscaping, the best place for it to find the money is its own
resources, as Friday’s first editorial points out:
Kudos to the residents of Quail
Creek, who asked for the opportunity to raise their own taxes this week.
Homeowners in the neighborhood near Coastal Carolina University
asked Horry County Council for the chance to hold a special election that could
increase their property taxes to pay for improved amenities such as street
lights, speed bumps, landscaping and better stormwater management.
Sunday’s editorial is the second part
of our two-day series on county recreation fund spending:
With $20,000 a year each in taxpayer
money to spend at their leisure, we’d expect Horry County Council members to
adhere to the strictest guidelines for doling out that cash, ensuring that tax
funds aren’t being wasted or used improperly. Instead, council members have
done little to keep tabs on how large portions of the money is spent, never
question each other’s spending and regularly ignore even their own rules on how
such funding should be distributed.
The issue is the county’s district
recreation funds, a relatively obscure part of the county’s spending process
that gives each council member a pot of money to spend at the beginning of each
fiscal year. The councilmen are then charged with spending that money on
whatever projects they think will best fulfill the mission of community
recreation in their district.
Saturday’s editorial is the first of
two discussing Horry County Council recreation funds and why the practice is a
bad idea. It includes a number of interactive and online elements for those
interested in looking through the data themselves:
Imagine for a moment you’re given
$20,000 to spend however you like to benefit your friends and neighbors. How
would you spend it? New sidewalks? Support for charity? Money for the local
Little League team?
Horry County Council members face the
same question every year, and each answers it differently. While for the most
part their answers are innocuous enough, the question shouldn’t be asked at
all.
Friday’s second editorial urges S.C.
residents to remember that they owe taxes on Internet purchases, even though
nobody will come looking for it:
Like to think of yourself as
patriotic? A good, law-abiding citizen? Pay your taxes.
Internet retail giant Amazon sent out
notices this week to consumers who had any goods shipped to South Carolina, letting those purchasers
know how much they bought in 2012 and reminding them that they still owe taxes
on those purchases. It’s not just Amazon.
Sunday’s main editorial offers a
glance at some more local issues that we’ll be paying attention to as the
legislature gets in gear this year:
The 120th General Assembly of South
Carolina began its work this past Tuesday with a long to-do list already
waiting. An unprecedented hacking of the state Department of Revenue requires
urgent attention to cybersecurity. Ethics issues that have entangled prominent
state leaders have renewed calls for a revamping of the S.C. Ethics Commission
and legislative ethics committees. Education leaders have proposed a dramatic
rewrite of the school funding formulas. The governor and Republicans continue
to push for deeper tax cuts, particularly for manufacturers.
And looming over it all are two
lawsuits in front of the S.C. Supreme Court that threaten to unmake the state
budget, one that seeks to do away with the state’s many tax exemptions and
another long-running suit that argues the state does not devote enough money to
school funding. Either could throw funding deliberations for a loop when or if
they’re settled.
But in this busy swirl of statewide
problems are also many local issues that have the attention of Grand Strand
folks or that at least deserve our attention.
Friday’s first editorial urges our
politicians to stop signing those silly pledges:
Call us old fashioned, but we like
political leaders who can make their own decisions.
Accordingly, we’ve never been a fan
of political pledges such as the anti-tax promise
promulgated by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform. It’s not that we’re
a fan of taxes. If our leaders can figure out how to pay for our government
work without raising taxes, bully for them. But that simply won’t be the case
from here until eternity, all day every day. Populations change. The economy
changes. Needs change.
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