At the beginning of this year, Main Street South Carolina, the Municipal Association’s downtown revitalization technical assistance program, opened up multiple membership options for the first time. Here are the levels, which can allow the program to better meet communities’ specific needs.
Friends of Main Street level
Friends of Main Street is a startup level, designed for communities working to build up the resources they’ll need for a sustained downtown improvement push, and it has a budget-friendly fee. Friends of Main Street can use phone consultations, come to quarterly trainings and pay for technical assistance on an as-needed basis.
The City of Dillon joined at this level, and Bridget Thornton, Dillon's downtown coordinator, is using Main Street SC to learn how to align the local program for success.
Main Street SC, she said, “has helped us establish specific goals within a set timeframe and establish transparency through public input. As a member, I now feel confident that I have the tools and resources needed as we build our best Dillon.”
Aspiring Main Street level
A formal three-year training and support program, Aspiring Main Street has an application process and fees based on population. After completion, the participant community is designated a Classic Main Street.
Accelerated Entry
This is an option for well-developed revitalization programs to become a Classic Main Street. These communities must show they meet the standards of the Main Street Four-Point Approach and must maintain an annual membership with the National Main Street Center.
Main Street SC recently welcomed Greenwood at this level.
Lara Hudson, Uptown Greenwood manager, said “the revitalization Uptown Greenwood underwent over the past 10 years provided many opportunities for growth and development of our Uptown district. We are now at a pivotal place. By joining Main Street SC, using the Four-Point Approach and networking with other Main Street SC communities, we can successfully take our Uptown to the next level and see continued economic success for years to come.”
Accredited Main Street level
This is the highest level of participation, requiring membership in the National Main Street Center, meeting national accreditation standards and submitting an annual application demonstrating excellence with the Four-Point Approach. Also, these members are required to mentor newer programs in South Carolina.
Learn more about Main Street SC membership by contacting Jenny Boulware at jboulware@masc.sc or 803.354.4792.
Students of arithmetic know what happens when any number is multiplied by zero: the product is still zero.
That fact, combined with South Carolina’s Act 388 of 2006, creates a serious problem for the state’s 60 cities and towns in the state that have not imposed a tax millage — one that a new legislative push aims to solve.
Act 388, among other changes, laid out a formula by which local governments could increase taxes in a new fiscal year: take the existing tax millage and multiply it by an amount equaling the Consumer Price Index plus growth.
For the 60 municipalities in question, the existing millage is zero, leaving them with zero opportunity for increasing millage from year to year. When a city finds that its existing revenue can no longer meet the needs its residents and businesses have for critical governmental services, the city has no way to begin funding those services. For any newly incorporated city, Act 388 creates the same lack of options — that city cannot levy a millage.
Advocacy in the General Assembly tends to unfold with steady efforts over time, and this has been the case with the zero millage bill. Last year, the Town of Edgefield pushed for a change, and Sen. Shane Massey (R-Edgefield) introduced a bill.
This year, the Town of Pelzer, which previously annexed properties that drastically increased its population and is seeking police services to go with its new population base, took its needs to Sen. Mike Gambrell (R-Anderson). Gambrell introduced a zero millage bill, S227, while Massey introduced a similar bill, S113. There are House bill versions as well: H3168 and H3457. Among others who have advocated on this issue, the entire Pelzer Town Council came to Columbia to show their support. S227 moved through the Senate and is now in the House Ways and Means committee.
S227, the full text of which can be found here, would allow municipalities to create an operating millage equal to one-third of its general fund expenses from the previous fiscal year.
In cases where the municipality had previously had a millage but repealed it, the bill would allow the municipality to re-establish the millage, plus the increases it could have included since 2007 or since it repealed the millage, whichever is more recent.
Learn more about this bill by contacting Scott Slatton at sslatton@masc.sc or 803.933.1203, and keep up with legislative action by subscribing to the Municipal Association’s weekly report, From the Dome to Your Home.
Main Street SC recently welcomed Greenwood at this level.