COASTAL OBSERVER

The beach, the drainage, the creek and the money remain at the top of the list six years after Pawleys Island Town Council picked its top priorities for maintaining the character and culture of the barrier island community.

But with three new members elected last year, the council sharpened its focus at a planning retreat last week, adding historic preservation to its priorities and taking a closer look at a business license.

The original strategic plan followed the completion of a beach renourishment project. Despite some sand lost to Hurricane Ian in 2022 “the beach held up well,” Mayor Brian Henry said.

Keeping it that way and obtaining easements from three south end property owners to allow federal funding for future renourishment remains the top priority. But Sarah Zimmerman, who has served 28 years on the council, said it can’t be the only one.

“Without the revenue, we can’t do the beach,” she said. “Without the beach, we don’t have the revenue.”

Pawleys Island doesn’t have a municipal property tax. The current state law doesn’t allow the town to impose one, said Charlie Barrineau, field representative with the S.C. Municipal Association.

Out of 271 municipalities in the state, 59 have no property tax. A 2006 law limits how much local taxes can rise each year, and if those taxes are zero an opinion from the state Attorney General’s Office is that no increase is possible.

“We haven’t seen any municipality that’s willing to jump out there and test that in court,” Barrineau said.

The town gets most of its revenue from accommodations taxes on short-term rentals and from a state tax on insurance premiums that is returned to the town through a Municipal Association program.

The town funded the 2020 renourishment with money accumulated from accommodations tax, state grants and a loan. It has received a state grant and state and federal budget earmarks for drainage projects. It will also get funds through Georgetown County’s capital project sales tax.

“We’ve been pretty successful in getting funding,” Henry said.

But grants usually require matches, Barrineau noted.

“If you don’t have local money to match, they’re like ‘you don’t have skin in the game. Why are you asking,’” he said.

 The only other source of significant revenue that’s open to the town is a business license. While the town doesn’t have retail business, it does have services and rental properties. When the pandemic prompted Folly Beach and Edisto to look at the business serving their towns, “it was shocking,” Barrineau said.

State law created uniformity among business licenses in 2022, but local governments are still able to set the rates. The Municipal Association created a program to allow businesses to make one payment that would be allocated among all the jurisdictions where they need licenses.

There will still be costs to the town, Barrineau said.

“You’re going to need a staff person that is now getting into these nuts and bolts,” he said. That will include figuring out which businesses need a license and collecting from people who fail to pay.

He also said Pawleys Island was the only coastal town he was aware of that doesn’t have a business license. Administrator Dan Newquist said he gets calls weekly from businesses that want to get a license.

Along with the priorities, council members also said the town needs to look at its operations. With only Newquist and Town Clerk Corey Higdon to administer programs, the town needs to make use of its volunteer boards and commissions to move initiatives forward, Council Member Paul Groce said.

The town’s efforts to help manage the transition of trash collection after the long-time private hauler went out of business showed that many property owners don’t know much about the town government, he added. Many live in places with a full range of government services.

“We need to constantly educate people that we are town lite,” Groce said.

Council Member Mark Hawn wanted the town to consider how it enforces its ordinances and regulations.

“Your culture has been less,” Barrineau said.

“Our capacity has been less,” Hawn said.

But the town has adopted rules property owners said they wanted, and those will only be effective if they are enforced, he added.

Council Member John LaMaster said enforcing accommodations tax collections for people who use online services to rent their property would help boost the town’s revenue.

Hawn was curious how Pawleys Island compares with other towns in its level of service.

“You’re unique,” said Barrineau, who grew up coming to Pawleys Island and spent his honeymoon there. “It would not be right to compare yourself to any inland community.”