Pee Dee Co-Op, county deal fails
On Monday, Feb. 7, the Darlington County Council denied the third reading to approve a fee-in-lieu request from Pee Dee Electric Cooperative for a minimum of $10 million in new investment by the cooperative to enhance economic development for the county.
Pee Dee Electric Cooperative, and its combined entities including Marlboro Electric, made the request to Darlington County to promote a partnership between the county and the currently headquartered utility to provide the Cooperative a fee of 6 percent in lieu for new investment of a current tax rate of 10.5 percent, the highest property tax rate in the county on utilities.
These FILOT approvals by counties allow the utility to reduce expenses, thus reduce rates. Pee Dee Electric and Marlboro Electric, collectively referred to as MPD, announced five separate rate decreases in 2021 alone for its residential customers.
“We are extremely disappointed in the actions taken by the Darlington County Council regarding our request,” said Jeff Singletary, chief economic development officer for MPD. “The denial in our opinion not only hurts the county’s economic-development outlook, but ultimately hurts our members’ power rates and also directly harms the citizens of Darlington County by forgoing our planned investments into the county, which would have created more tax revenue and much-needed jobs.”
“I feel like we have let the citizens in Darlington County down by not approving this for Pee Dee Electric Cooperative,” said Angie Godbold, Darlington County Councilwoman. “Darlington County has struggled with economic development for years, and decisions like this are why counties like Florence are succeeding. Some percent of $10-plus million will always be better than 100 percent of nothing.”
Late last year, Florence County approved the same fee-in-lieu request from Pee Dee Electric Cooperative. Since its approval, Pee Dee and its affiliates, Pee Dee Electricom and Marlboro Development Team, have announced substantial investments totaling over $50 million in the county, including the relocation of the new Pee Dee Electric headquarters and multiple spec buildings. The expected increase tax revenue for the county will be in the millions over a 30-year period.
The same FILOT request is currently before other counties served by Pee Dee Electric and Marlboro Electric. Those counties will receive the investments similar to those committed to Darlington County upon approval.