MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - When South Carolina ran out of unemployment insurance in 2008, the Federal Government stepped in with a loan. Now the state is on an aggressive pay-back plan of the $933 million dollars, but it's coming at a big cost to Mom and Pop shops, and it's hitting them where it hurts the most, their wallets.
Steve Chapman of Island Vista Resort says the price to do business is, well pricey. "'It's tight. It's tight for us too. We have bills to pay, we've got insurance costs that are going up fuel costs, the cost of cotton is going up," says Chapman.
But with a struggling economy, many businesses find it hard to pass those extra costs onto you and me. Now, some Grand Strand businesses are getting hit from another direction, a new state tax tier. And for some companies, like Island Vista Resort, its up more than 300% from last year.
"So in one year's time, you know you're talking for us, over a $100,000 dollars and $130,000 with the insurance, and that's hard to swallow when it's a challenge as it is to pay your bills and make ends meet," says Chapman.
South in Murrells Inlet, the cost to hire seasonal workers is also taking a toll on Drunken Jack's Restaurant. Costing owner David McMillan at least $70,000 dollars more this year than last based off his new tax tier the state put him in.
Stephen Greene with the Hospitality Association says these tax burdens are impossible for small businesses to overcome and he's worried employers will look outside the Grand Strand and even the country to hire.
"You're incentivizing people not to hire our local workers, you're incentivizing these businesses to look outside. And obviously the whole goal of all of this is to get people off of unemployment and all we're going to do is potentially tax the system even more because your incentivizing these businesses to not hire locals," says Stephen Greene.
Greene says this isn't an issue that can be resolved in a year, something must be done now, because the bills are already piling up and these companies are having to find a way to keep the lights on and food on the table.
Grand Strand businesses are asking state legislators to take another look at this new tier system. A Senate subcommittee in Columbia passed a proposal that would make some compromises back on March 3rd, but at this time no other action has been taken on the issue.
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