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.

Consider. Eight of our Council members, the developer, and the developer’s engineering firm want Carolina Station (approximately 5,400 acres, 13,800 homes, and 38,000 people) approved with NO written financial plan to pay for new infrastructure demands.

Consider. Currently, our school debt tax is a sizeable part of our present tax bills. With Carolina Station, there will be three new schools to pay for at a conservative estimate of multi-millions of dollars.

Consider. The Carolina Station developer has offered approximately $15.6M as its contribution to the costs of new infrastructure. We think their figures are greatly inflated. $9.8M of the $15.6M represents 106 acres of land they value at $92,800 per acre. At today’s land values in that area, the County can buy similar land for approximately $1.8M.

Consider. The developer is demanding that no future special tax district be allowed for the next thirty years when the development contract with the County will expire. By acquiescing to this, there will be no future “fair share” tax plan possible.

All of the above sounds like the same kind of thinking that fueled the problems with sub-prime mortgages—easy to get into with no plan or thought to the reality of funding the costs that follow.

We believe the developers of Carolina Station can afford to contribute far more than is on the table now. At current projections, the sales of Carolina Station property and homes will produce approximately $$4.6 billion (that’s with a B) with almost $1 billion (again with a B) margin to them. Certainly out of these kinds of returns the County can ask and obtain greater commitments than the proposed $15.6 M (that’s with an M).

Having said all of the above, let us state we are NOT against development, and we are NOT against Carolina Station. We are pro-Horry County. We believe Carolina Station should not be approved unless and until International Paper Realty agrees to allow the use of current and future special tax districts that are used by the County as needed over the next thirty years. Excluding them from any and all special taxes for the next thirty years forces all taxpayers not sharing in the benefits to Carolina Station to pay for them.

We request that a plan for infrastructure and its maintenance be written and approved to meet both physical and financial needs for Carolina Station and surrounding area prior to final approval of this development. This is no more than any business or corporation would do prior to making a long-range commitment of this size that affected their welfare and financial stability. We want the same professional, business approach from our County leaders.

We as taxpayers will and should pay for our fair share of growth for it benefits us with added jobs, improved local economy, and increased home values. We ask the Council to negotiate a fair share from developers/builders in the beginning so we as taxpayers pay our fair share in the end.

Julie Harbin 446-4444 or 650-0824
Pam Creech
Jim Paullin
Stu Schnur

The writers live in Horry County and represent Horry County P.R.I.D.E., a taxpayer’s political advocacy movement to Promote Responsible Investment in Infrastructure, Development, and the Environment)
www.horrycountypride.org
horrycountypride@sc.rr.com

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm and is filed under Communications, Action Alerts.