MID may mean more taxes as Myrtle Beach moves forward with downtown plans

Business owners in a swath of Myrtle Beach may soon have to pay more taxes.

This week, the city council unanimously approved the first of two readings confirming the assessment roll for the newly formed Municipal Improvement District (MID).

The assessment roll is the list of properties that are included in the MID, explained Michelle Shumpert, chief financial officer for the city. She added the assessment roll also includes the estimated increase in property’s taxes due in October.

The MID stretches from 21st Avenue North to 12th Avenue South reaching from Ocean Boulevard, across Kings Highway and into the Withers Swash neighborhood.

Shumpert said those areas were identified as areas that could benefit the most from the additional services provided by the MID. Money collected in the MID stays in the MID and will go toward services such as street beautification, additional sanitation services, enhanced security, marketing, special events and research to support neighborhood economic development, she said.

Commercial property owners will be billed 1% of the assessed value of their property generating about $600,000 for the coming fiscal year and $10 million in a decade, Amy Barrett, president of Myrtle Beach Downtown Alliance, has said.

The commercial property that would be included in the MID are high-rise resorts, T-shirt shops, restaurants and residential rental units. Properties that are exempt from the MID include full-time residential units, city-owned property and churches.

Barrett said there are roughly 3,650 properties in the MID.

City councilman Gregg Smith said the utilization of a MID fits the profile of Myrtle Beach.

“A municipal improvement district is used a lot in cities that have kind of a concentrated area of need. Tourism creates very heavy traffic in the MID area and it also creates a lot of fun in the MID area.” Smith said. “It takes a lot of additional services in the area so the MID makes it more equitable that the places receiving those additional services are also paying for those additional services.”