To All Horry County Taxpayers:

(Below is a letter from Joe DeFeo, the District 3 Representative to the Horry County School Board to all voters regarding the recent approval of Carolina Station. Every taxpayer in the County should read this letter and take action.)

Dear Voters,

I am responding to all about Carolina Station. (July 1) several school board members, including myself, went to the council meeting to make one last effort to stop or delay Carolina Station… in its current form. As you may have read from the newspaper we were (as expected) unsuccessful. I have met and talked with council members over the past few months to try and change the agreement with the county. The bottom line is the schools district is getting very little from International Paper for the burdens that this development will put on the school district. We could not even get them to agree to give us the future high school land rather than having us purchase the land… They did concede to cap the price at today’s level for a few years. They also donated the land for 2 other schools. I can only tell you that this is peanuts compared to the 110 million dollars it will take to build those schools. (HCP emphasis)

Unfortunately current law provides NO CONTROL whatsoever for a school board in these developments!!! I have talked with several of our legislative delegation members about allowing school boards to impose impact fees in areas where needed in the county (or county wide). Although I have always voted against new “taxes” and have always opposed tax increases… these impact fees will not be imposed on current residents and are a very minimal impact to a buyer. It will be very hard to get this through the statehouse but… I believe it is the ONLY way to solve this problem in growing counties such as Horry County, when you look at the current tax structure.

I can only ask that you write all our legislative delegation about allowing school boards to impose these fees on future development…

Thank you for all of your concerns. I wish we could have been more succsecful.

Joe DeFeo, District 3 Representative
Horry County School Board

What happened at the July 1, 2008 Council meeting on Carolina Station…

Carolina Station gained final approval from County Council members by a vote of 6-5. Disappointing…but not discouraging. 6-5 is a far cry from the overwhelming approval developers are used to getting in Horry County.

The actual vote..
FOR: Allen, Foxworth, Frasier, Grabowski, Hardee, and Prince.
AGAINST: Barnard. Gilland, Ryan, Schwartzkopf, and Worley. Please remember to thank them.
(Council email address: countycouncil@horrycounty.org.)

With each vote on Carolina Station we made progress…
Although disappointed, we were not surprised by the outcome last night. Let’s be sure and acknowledge the progress we’re making.

1st reading 5/13 was approved by a vote of 8-3.
2nd reading 6/17 was approved by a vote of 6-4.
3rd reading last night was approved by a vote of 6-5.

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CAROLINA STATION STATUS
We are ONE VOTE away from stopping Carolina Station at 3rd reading July 1!

TAXPAYER ADVOCACY IS ALIVE AND WELL!

SUMMARY: Although the Horry County Council approved the 2nd of 3 readings on the Carolina Station development Tuesday night (June 17), IT WAS A CLOSE VOTE…6-4! (See Voting Specifics at end of email to see why we only need one more vote.)

For the 40 or so of you who went to Conway, we want you to know you made a difference. Your presence, clapping, and cheering made a huge impression on Council members and developer representatives. According to our records, at least one Council member was still undecided as to how to vote Tuesday night. Your presence, your energy, and your enthusiasm helped him or her (can’t tell you who) decide to vote NO!

For those of you who were not there, your friends made you proud. HCP leaders Pam Creech and Jim Paullin and Growth Impact Action Committee leader George Edwards presented EXCELLENT statements outlining specific, logical, economic, and business reasons for opposing approval of the Development Agreement with Carolina Station until they are paying their fair share and it is a GOOD DEAL FOR TAXPAYERS. We say excellent because that’s the feedback we’re getting from Council members and the public.

Pam told Council members “No business person would sign the International Paper Development Agreement because they would go BANKRUPT, and the only reason you would sign such an agreement is because you can raise taxes. If you vote yes, you will be making it possible for the developer to make hundreds of millions of dollars AND you will be consigning taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to build and maintain the infrastructure needed. A business person would not sign this contract. I would not sign this contract, and I am asking you to not sign this contract for me as a taxpayer.”

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County Leaders Treat Carolina Station Development Like Sub-Prime Mortgages
This was sent to the Sun News as a letter to the editor but unfortunately did not get pulished

Horry County leaders are treating the proposed giant development of Carolina Station like banks and homeowners treated sub-prime mortgages—with little thought to their ability to pay in the future.

Consider. The County’s development impact modeling software shows Carolina Station will produce an estimated operations deficit of $2M a year for the next twenty years (including the $15.6M developer contribution which we believe is inflated by approximately $7M). That’s $40M over the next twenty years for the existing taxpayers in Horry County to cover—in addition to our individual current taxes.
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Carolina Station will cost taxpayers an estimated $40M over 20 years if approved by the County Council as currently planned. The County has no place to go but to the taxpayers to make up this loss…AND…some of our Council members think this is a good deal.

A. The Development Agreement between the County and the developer is still being negotiated by staff, AND
B. Their plan to pay for the three new schools, new fire and police station, new sewage disposal plant, new parks and recreation areas, and maintenance of 97 acres of new roads…is US.
If you’ve ever thought or said that developers should PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE of infrastructure costs in Horry County, NEXT WEEK IS THE TIME FOR YOU TO ACT!

WHEN: Tuesday, June 17, 6 PM
WHERE: Government & Justice Center, 1301 Second Avenue, Conway, 2nd floor Council Chambers
WHAT: The County Council will vote on the 2nd (AND MOST IMPORTANT) of 3 readings to approve the Carolina Station development…despite the fact that negotiations on the Development Agreement have yet to be completed.

ACTION REQUESTED!
This is the time for taxpayers to make a strong statement. The vote is expected to be close. If hundreds of taxpayers attend the County Council meeting Tuesday evening, we can take a giant step toward changing the way development is approved in Horry County!
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