Community turns out two to one in favor of school sales tax

Horry County voters said yes by an almost two to one margin to a one percent sales tax to pay for capital projects at local schools and colleges. With 75 percent of the precincts reporting, 68 percent of voters supported the tax.

The local tax is a first of its kind because it will split the revenue between Horry County Schools and the two local colleges, with 80 percent going to the school district, 13.3 percent to Coastal Carolina University and 6.7 percent to Horry-Georgetown Technical College.

School district and college staff expected to have an uphill battle convincing voters to support the tax in a tough economic year, but were hoping that framing the sales tax as a swap for property tax would
convince voters to offer their support.

"I'm pleasantly surprised that at this point the community is overwhelmingly in favor of the tax. It's refreshing that the community sees it as a win win, as a positive for the schools and for the citizens in terms of a little break from property tax,'' said Superintendent of Horry County Schools, Cindy Elsberry.

The tax will lower the property tax millage for debt service at the school district from 28 mills to 10 mills in the first two years of the tax.

Horry County Schools, HGTC, and CCU are all growing enrollment by some of the highest rates for educational institutions in the state. With little state funding for new buildings at higher education
institutions in the past decade, both HGTC and CCU are hoping that the sales tax could help increase their campus footprint to deal with that continued growth.

"This clearly shows that voters in Horry COunty support and understand the importance of education including local higher education,'' said CCU President Dave DeCenzo. "We want to on behalf of CCU, thank the voters for turning out and supporting the tax.''

Two years ago voters approved a one percent sales tax increase to pay for capital projects solely at Horry County Schools. The referendum was challenged because of some of the reference material at the
polling places being considered biased toward the sales tax.

Comments

[Wilson]

I honestly do believe some of the dumbest people on earth live in SC. It's as though you people haven't learned the lessons learned from the tax and spend societies up north. Well, at least SC got the presidential part of the election right.

[Jeff]

No just in Horry County must be something in the water. State grabbed 1% last year for school tax. Horry County grabbed 1% last year for roads, plus they charge you a road maintenance on every vehicle you own.
Where is the lottery money going. This will raise the tax on a hamburger to 10.5% Sales tax 8% + 2.5% accommodation tax. Then they wonder why less and less people come here ever year.

[Sammy]

We will have seen the sales tax rate in this county go from 5% to 8% in less than two years. A 60% increase! Where will it end? It's not a penny. It's a penny on every dollar you spend, and you don't get much for a dollar these days. What have they done with all the money they have from property taxes they now get from all the houses and condos that have been built here over the last five ro six years?

[Tired of It]

I agree, where the heck does the lottery money go! Horry County in particular is not part of the sout anyway; we all know the majority that live here are from the north, hence, no problem in voting for higher taxes-they are use to it. This is a horrible day IMO, middle class white Americans are fixing to be "screwed" the next 4 years.

[Tanks A-Lot]

Here we go again. I challenge any single one of the IDIOTS that voted for this tax to make a copy of this year's property tax statement and hold onto it for 3 years. I'll bet anyone, nickels to doughnuts, that in less than three years property taxes will be as high or higher than they were this year. Anyone who has lived in Horry County for any amount of time should have learned by now that taxes on property will never go down. I said NEVER.

They will come back in one year,d say that due to the struggling economy the one percent isn't adding up, and they need a millage increase. Then they will reassess everyone's property the second year and increase the assessment by 20-30%. The third year they will increase the millage yet again for some special project that they didn't foresee when the sales tax increase was passed. And lo and behold my taxes will be higher than they were before the sales tax passed.

PROPERTY TAXES IN HORRY COUNTY WILL NEVER GO DOWN. But sales tax will always go up because of uninformed idiots like the 60,000+ that voted for this. I'll bet before the three years is up that they will neeed yet another sales tax increase for something else. Say, maintenance on all these roads that the county is paving, a new civic center, or to help out the airport. They'll put it on the ballot, and everyone of you will vote for another one penny.

[Nick]

It's not the property taxes themselves, it's the percentage of that which goes to the schools. That'll lower.

[SC Native]

As an ex-teacher and administrator, increased funds will not help the state of education in Horry County. The only way to improve is to pay teachers to maintain quality teachers- not to overtest and spend endless funds on new "problem-solving" techniques that make learning entertaining. Until funds are marked differently and principals are business managers- we'll keep paying more taxes - with no increase in achievement. I recently heard the story of an employee at one of the elementary schools going on a conference and the airline ticket being bought only a couple of days before the event. I bet it would have been a lot cheaper if the "procedures" the county follows were more reality based and the ticket purchased months ahead of time. No Child Left Behind will break taxpayers and end up leaving No teachers behind as they find better paying jobs. Sadly, more money isn't the answer- Good teaching and discipline are the keys- not throwing money at an endless problem.