Myrtle Beach City Council approves first reading of fiscal budget

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - Myrtle Beach city council members voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve the first reading of the 2025 fiscal budget.

“The FY25 proposed budget still remains at $330.2 million overall, which is a 7.82% decrease from the prior year,” said the Chief Financial Officer for the city of Myrtle Beach, Michelle Shumpert.

During a March meeting, the 2024-2025 fiscal budget was presented with no new property taxes or business license fee increases. That is still the case, but the city is looking at increasing some other fees for sports activities.

“We are recommending that we take the football and cheerleader fee from $15 to $50 for in-city residents. We are also recommending fees from $50 to $75 for out-of-city residents,” said Shumpert.

The city is also looking to add 14 new jobs under the plan proposal. Those new jobs include two paramedic positions, one new Opioid Peer Support Specialist, and a new paralegal to handle Freedom of Information Act requests.

Councilman Bill McClure had a question about the need for the FIOA paralegal.

“I’m sure we get a lot of those [FOIAs]. Before I was elected I probably was responsible for at least a dozen of those. So what type of volume are we getting?” said McClure.

The city reports over 2,000 FOIA requests per year. Mayor Brenda Bethune said depending on the request, there could be several hours spent on any particular one.

“Some of those are much more extensive than others. Some of them require a lot of staff time to do the research needed,” said Bethune.

The council will need to take a second and final vote for the proposal to pass.

That will likely happen at the next city council meeting. You can view the entire 2025 Fiscal budget proposal here.

Copyright 2024 WMBF. All rights reserved.