Surfside Beach held a special city council meeting last night to consider adopting the same city ordinances approved by Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach.
Surfside Beach City Council voted unanimously 7 to 0 to keep all hospitality funds inside the city. This vote terminates the city’s payments to Horry County’s 1.5% hospitality tax.
This vote also means an additional $1.3 million to the city without raising any taxes on local residents.
With this vote, three coastal cities have now approved first reading to cut off funding for former Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus’ signature legislation.
The hospitality tax brought in over $41 million to Horry County. Former Chairman Mark Lazarus had designs on using the tax to fund building Highway 22 to the Horry County line. Such a move would have created a real estate boom for local housing and land developers, like Waccamaw Land and Timber. Lazarus works for that real estate group and has enjoyed a long history there.
On this same night, County Council voted on whether to fire Lazarus’ top ally County Administrator Chris Eldridge. That vote ended in a tie. Eldridge will keep his job for now.