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Business owners' opinions mixed over tax

By Laura Thomas - bio | email

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - Even though the new tourism tax was a unanimous yes vote at aMyrtle Beach City Council meeting this week, the opinions of business owners in Myrtle Beach weren't so unanimous on Thursday.

"It's going to hurt my business," explained Blerin Kuqo, owner of Local's Corner in Myrtle Beach.

Kuqo says this tax won't help him because he depends on local revenue.

"Tourists will be here for like a week," explained Kuqo, "And it's gonna take maybe a few pennies out of them. For us, it's gonna be all year round. For locals that come eat lunch every day, it's gonna hurt."

Kuqo says he and his customers have been taxed enough.

"We added one for the school, one for capital project, now we got another one for tourism? I mean, I don't agree with it at all," said Kuqo.

However, there are also some businesses who welcome this tax, like Steve Chapman who say it's needed, especially when comparing the size of Myrtle Beach to the size of other towns and how much money they have for marketing.

"When you get into the numbers," explained Chapman, "And you find out that a destination such as Virginia Beach that is about a fifth or a fourth of our size has a budget three or four times our size, there's something wrong."

Chapman says adding this tax now might have avoided a bigger problem.

"If we don't protect our market share through proper promotion and advertising, the city would be faced with raising taxes anyway. If everything's based on sales tax, and everyday operation is based on tax collected on tourism, and we're down 20 percent, they're gonna have to do something anyway," explained Chapman.

The one cent tax will begin August 1.

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