Hartsville hears of potential $500,000 revenue loss
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
At their February 14 regular meeting, Hartsville City Council received word of legislative actions that could cost the town $500,000 in annual revenues.
City Manager Natalie Zeigler informed Council of three proposed bills that could gut local business license fee revenues by restructuring fees for large retailers and eliminating requirements for some businesses to get licensed at all.
Zeigler explained that these pieces of legislation could “dramatically impact Hartsville’s budget,” with current estimates ranging from $400,000 to $500,000 in annual license fee losses.
“It’s a little scary for us. We’re trying to pull the numbers and figure out what this is going to cost us,” said Zeigler.
Should these bills pass into law, all subcontractors would no longer be required to pay for their own business licenses when working jobs, large-scale retailers like Walmart would only be required to pay 75 percent of their current business license fees, and daycare facilities would also be exempted from 25 percent of their current business license fees.
“It’s exempting the big businesses, probably the ones that have lobbyists,” Zeigler noted, adding that the city would be forced to raise business license fees by 75 percent to offset the legislature’s actions.
Zeigler asked members of council to be proactive and contact state legislators to register their concerns about these bills.
“We still have time to try to stop this. They need to hear from you,” she said.
On the regular agenda, council held a public hearing and final reading for Ordinance 4280, authorizing the purchase of .75 acres of property at 326 Coker Avenue from Meadows Properties, Inc. for $280,000. The city wishes to purchase this property to allow for future development of the Fourth Street corridor. Council member Teresa Mack cast the lone “no” vote.
Final reading was unanimously approved for Ordinance 4282, authorizing the city to purchase two parcels of land – 1.03 acres and .80 acres – on Sixth Street from the Mozingo Family for $130,000. This land will be used for future construction of a new Hartsville Police and Fire Department Complex.
Council also approved a new mutual aid agreement between the Hartsville Police Department and Darlington County Sheriff’s Office, and authorized HPD to apply for an $11,500 Department of Justice grant to for new body-worn cameras to replace older models and ensure the department has one dedicated camera per officer. The grant would require $5,750 in local matching funds.