S.C. County Decides Against Food Tax

ROCK HILL, S.C. -- York County, S. C., leaders say they won't ask taxpayers to digest an additional tax on food, reported the Rock Hill Herald.

County Council members tossed out a proposal Monday from the area's tourism arm for a countywide hospitality tax. Officials with the Rock Hill/York County Convention & Visitors Bureau recommended the tax as a way of addressing the bureau's $154,237 budget shortfall. Recouping those dollars would allow the bureau to have a more stable source of funding and would help staff have the means to better promote York County, said Bennish Brown, the bureau's executive director.

Council members agreed the bureau has needs that have to be met. But most said they didn't believe a countywide hospitality tax was the best way to go about raising the additional dollars, according to the news source.

"Whatever we are doing in York County, we can continue to do without more taxation," councilman Curwood Chappell told the Herald. "I can't keep voting to get more money out of the pocketbooks of people at home. There may be some benefits to it, but I can't say I am willing to buy into it."

Rock Hill and York have a two percent hospitality tax on food sold at fast-food restaurants, dine-in eateries, convenience stores, movie theaters and grocery store deli counters. State law requires the special tax to be no more than two percent and the money generated from it to be used for tourism-related projects only.

The law also gives local lawmakers the right to decide if the hospitality tax would apply to all restaurants or just those that serve alcohol.

Because Rock Hill and York already have the added tax in place, those municipalities could not be considered under the bureau's proposal. That left York County staff to look at various scenarios for the unincorporated areas of the county, which could be assessed at two percent, according to the news source.

The incorporated areas in Fort Mill, Tega Cay and Clover were not exempt from the proposal, but revenue estimates were not compiled for those municipalities. That's because the hospitality tax in those areas could only be assessed at one percent unless county officials get permission from their city leaders for a two percent hike.

Anne Bunton, county treasurer and finance director, said a two percent hospitality tax in the unincorporated areas would generate $1.2 million a year if all restaurants were taxed. The tax would bring in roughly $222,000 annually if it applied to only those that sell alcohol, she said.

Bunton noted that a part-time position would probably have to be created to ensure the tax was collected monthly, adding the law is not clear on whether that expense could be paid out of the revenue from a hospitality tax.