Tag: Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce

Atlantic Beach Bikefest, Money and Myrtle Beach

Much has been made about the extra money from accommodations tax that will be available to purchase the services of extra police for next year’s Atlantic Beach Bikefest.

Thanks to quick work in the General Assembly, approximately $2.3 million dollars will be allowed to be diverted from tourism marketing and promotion to law enforcement costs next year.

I have even heard some talk about some of that money being used for private security firms, such as Blackwater Security, if a few additional changes can be made to state law to allow it.

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Coast RTA Funding Agreement Far Exceeds Special Committee Recommendations

Horry County has apparently found a way to exert the influence it desires over Coast RTA decisions with a proposed funding agreement between the county and the bus agency.

After failing for the last two years to have its membership on the Coast RTA board increased, the county will now have the ability to virtually dictate decisions to the Coast RTA board if the new funding agreement is approved by both sides.

The funding agreement goes far beyond recommendations made by a Special Committee on Coast RTA appointed by Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus. The committee deliberated through four sessions before approving a report to Horry County Council that recommended continuing funding for the agency.

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Gingrich, Myrtle Beach, Oil and Interstates

Grand Strand Business Alliance Candidates

The Grand Strand Business Alliance is smothering the airwaves, in these last days before Tuesday’s voting in the Myrtle Beach City Council elections, promoting the re-election of the incumbent council members.

The basic theme in these ads is business is up, the tourism initiative of the city council is working, there is no need to change the council makeup when the incumbents are doing such a great job.

And they are, but only for a select few.

These ads take the same vein as the Chamber’s ‘Oh yeah, it’s working’ ads promoting the alleged success of the one cent sales tax for tourism promotion.

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Gingrich, Myrtle Beach, Oil and Interstates

Myrtle Beach City Council Election Gets Incendiary

Two bombs, actually explosive stories, were thrown into the middle of the Myrtle Beach city council election race Wednesday with potentially serious consequences for the incumbents in the few days remaining before next Tuesday’s voting.

Two separate stories carrying the explosives were filed by David Wren in The Sun News Wednesday evening.

The first story dealt with two trusts that incumbent council member Wayne Gray was appointed to oversee. The trusts were established by Gray’s uncle, William Rogers, to benefit Rogers’ wife and children.

According to Wren’s story, Gray borrowed $230,000 from the trusts over a period of years and was removed as the trustee in 2007. In 2008, Gray agreed to pay $92,500 to settle a lawsuit brought against him by his aunt, Debbie Rogers Idol. And documents regarding the case are missing from the Probate Court office in Conway.

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Myrtle Beach International Airport

WestJet End Game

Horry County Council will vote on a proposal to pay the county’s approximately $570,000 bill to WestJet Tuesday night bringing an end to the WestJet guaranteed revenue saga.

The proposal, which gained approval of the Administration Committee, last week will have the county’s current set aside portion of accommodations tax money, $250,000, paid to WestJet immediately.

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce will pay the other $320,000 and recoup that money over the next few years from annual accommodations tax set aside funds the county receives.

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Gingrich, Myrtle Beach, Oil and Interstates

Will Myrtle Beach Election Heat Up?

One more holiday shortened week remains for filing of candidates in the upcoming Myrtle Beach city elections.

Last week, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce’s Grand Strand Business Alliance PAC sent out an expensive looking mailer supporting its ‘Dream Team’ – the four incumbents running for re-election.

The easiest way to win an election is to discourage challengers from filing and everybody understands now, if anyone doubted, that the Chamber, through the GSBA, will again be a strong player in the city election.

You would too if three of these incumbents steered approximately $70 million in public money into your budget.

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Chambergate Investigation Still on Track

David Wren of the Sun News reported yesterday that the Chambergate investigation into 2009 political donations, by a host of local LLC’s that had no income, was continuing.

The article stated an investigator with the IRS had confirmed the investigation was ongoing into political donations by these LLC’s whose principals have ties to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.

According to Wren’s article, the investigator contacted the Sun News last week requesting documents the paper had obtained regarding the political donations.

This report confirms rumblings we have been hearing for some months now that the investigation was continuing and indictments from a federal grand jury would be coming down in the case.

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Myrtle Beach Government Fit for Middle Ages

As Myrtle Beach prepares for its 2013 city council elections, the city continues its regressive governance slide to more closely resemble an English town of the Middle Ages rather than a modern American town.

Four incumbents on Myrtle Beach city council filed for re-election last week. Incumbent Mayor John Rhodes was joined by incumbent council members Wayne Gray, Randal Wallace and Mike Lowder at city hall on August 22nd to file their candidacies.

Rhodes is seeking his third consecutive term, Wallace his fourth consecutive, Gray his fourth overall and Lowder his second.

And right now, those four plus challenger Keith Van Winkle may be the complete slate sent to the voters in the November 5th general election.

There was a time when Myrtle Beach elections were raucous affairs, but in the last decade, the town has gone back in time to match a more rigid, hierarchical structure.

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Accommodations Tax Fuels MB Chamber Greed

When Horry County Council begins in-depth considerations of next year’s budget later this week, the question of how much accommodations tax revenue goes to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce will be a major point of discussion.

While the accommodations tax concept is to help meet the costs of expanded services required by the introduction of millions of visitors to an area, the state law allowing accommodations tax collections requires 30 percent of the revenue generated to be spent on tourism marketing. This provision was one of the trade-offs put in the law to get the buy-in of the tourism lobby.

For a number of years, that 30 percent, approximately $2.3 million from the unincorporated areas of the county, has gone to the Chamber in a block to spend on its marketing efforts.

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SWA Asks Chamber to Support Flow Control Monopoly

The Horry County Solid Waste Authority is trying to enlist the help of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce with lobbying efforts to maintain the solid waste flow control monopoly the SWA currently enjoys in the county.

Officials from the SWA will make a presentation this morning to the chamber’s Legislative Policy Council, chaired by George Mims, urging defeat of the Business Freedom to Choose Act, currently under consideration in the SC Senate.

The Business Freedom to Choose Act would ban flow control within the borders of South Carolina. Of course, since Horry County is the only county of the 46 in the state to have legislatively mandated a government monopoly over solid waste disposal, the SWA is hoping the Chamber will see the fight as local.

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