New plan on table for hotel tax funds

The Charleston County Council has a new plan for sharing accommodations tax money that would redistribute painful funding cuts previously proposed for arts and cultural organizations, municipalities and colleges.

The winners under the new plan would be the cities of Charleston and North Charleston and a handful of organizations that likely will include a farmers market near Ravenel organized by two county officials.

The losers would be all other municipalities, which would suffer even deeper cuts than first proposed, and local colleges.

At issue is the county's tax on hotel rooms and how to divide up a pool of money that's much smaller than it was last year.

In better economic times, like a year ago, the county might keep about $4.3 million of the tax money and distribute as much as $6.5 million to municipalities where the tax is collected, and to public or nonprofit organizations that attract or promote tourism, ranging from small theaters to large festivals and venues.

This year, with receipts down sharply, the county plans to keep for itself at least the same amount of money as last year, while cutting funding by more than half for all the other governments and groups.

The plan the council recommended last month would have eliminated all funding for arts and cultural groups, cut most municipalities' share of the available funding by 25 percent, reduced Charleston's share of funding by about 75 percent, eliminated North Charleston's relatively small piece of funding, and cut money to the College of Charleston and The Citadel for their stadiums.

That plan was later put on hold, amid protests from Charleston Mayor Joe Riley and others.

While the council was working on new recommendations, county Register of Mesne Conveyance Charlie Lybrand and Councilman Curtis Inabinett came looking for $25,000 to support a farmers market near Ravenel that they had organized.

The market officially opened Saturday as a place for local farmers to sell their products.

The council nearly gave Lybrand and Inabinett the full amount of funding they had requested last week, at the suggestion of Councilwoman Colleen Condon, but backed away from that after Councilman Paul Thurmond blasted that idea.

"The fact that they have circumvented this process simply because of their relationships with this council is very troubling to me," Thurmond said at the May 7 Finance Committee meeting.

"I think they should get in line with everybody else, with all those other outside organizations. I don't believe this $25,000 is anything more than a pat on the back for someone we all like, and I think that is a big concern."

Thurmond was the sole vote against the new funding plan. Inabinett abstained from voting because of his involvement with the farmers market.

The $25,000, which was gathered by slicing $12,500 each from the proposed allocations for Charleston and North Charleston, will instead be designated for unspecified organizations that are located in unincorporated areas of the county, such as the farmers market.

Councilman Elliott Summey proposed that change in order to address Thurmond's criticism and said Wednesday that the Sea Island Farmers Cooperative market will not necessarily get the funding.

Lybrand, who said Summey called him after last week's meeting and said "we got your money," said he hopes the farmers market will be successful in receiving the funds, which would be used to advertise and promote the new market.

The council is working on a plan to have the Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau evaluate funding requests from organizations.

The new funding recommendations for accommodations tax money calls for giving all municipalities slightly less than half the share of funding they received last year, which means more for Charleston and North Charleston than originally proposed and less for others, such as Mount Pleasant, Kiawah and Isle of Palms.

"Certainly, they'll be hearing from us," said Isle of Palms administrator Linda Tucker. "Every penny is a big deal."

The new plan would reduce Isle of Palms funding by another $48,750.

The College of Charleston and The Citadel would also get less, $75,000 each for their sports facilities.

County Council members could change plans again before a final vote.

For now, all of the remaining arts and cultural organizations, which had together sought nearly $1.3 million in funding, will compete for $175,000. The original plan would have given them nothing at all.

WHERE THE MONEY WOULD GO

To eliminate an anticipated shortfall in accommodations tax money, the Charleston County Council is considering a series of funding cuts.

Municipalities where the tax is collected receive a share of the county tax money collected from hotel stays within their borders. They were already expected to see their collective funding drop by $463,465, but the county is considering the following additional cuts. The amounts municipalities were expected to receive if no cuts were made is in parenthesis:

Charleston: — $296,944 — ($642,000)
North Charleston: — $23,650 — ($75,000) *
Kiawah Island: — $110,860 — ($230,000)
Isle of Palms: — $93,990 — ($195,000)
Mt. Pleasant: — $72,300 — ($150,000)
Folly Beach: — $29,884 — ($62,000)
Seabrook Island: — $9,640 — ($20,000)
Sullivan's Island: — $3,856 — ($8,000)
Hollywood: — $386 — ($800)
McClellanville: — $24 — ($50)

In addition, the council is considering cutting funding for The Citadel stadium by $275,000, for the College of Charleston arena by $225,000, to $75,000 each, and proposed eliminating $90,000 in funds for lifeguards for the Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission.
The council is considering setting aside $175,000 for arts and cultural organizations that had received $585,500 in the last budget and that had requested a combined $1.3 million. Those organizations are:

Actors' Theatre of South Carolina, Art Forms and Theatre Concepts, Avian Conservation Center/Birds of Prey, BB&T Charleston Food + Wine Festival, Black Expo, Charleston Golf, Charleston Metro Sports Council, Charleston Peace One Day, Charleston Stage Company, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Choraliers Music Club, City of Charleston/Happy New Year Charleston, City of Charleston/MOJA Arts, City of Charleston/Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Roundball Classic, Drayton Hall, Footlight Players, Island Heritage Festival, League of Charleston Theatres, Daniel J. Jenkins Institute for Children, Patriots Point Development Authority, Sea Island Regional Farmers Market, South Carolina Aquarium, South Carolina Maritime Foundation, South Carolina State University Lowcountry Classic, Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, Spoleto Festival USA, The Company Company, The Parents Corner USA, The Village Repertory Company, Town of Ravenel/St. Pauls' Music Festival.

* North Charleston gets a lower share of funding than other municipalities because of the county's $1.4 million in annual accommodations tax funding for the North Charleston Convention Center.

Reach David Slade at 937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.com.