City Quick Connect Podcast From The Municipal Association Of South Carolina

S217, a bill that would allow for hospitality and accommodations tax revenue to be used for flooding in tourism areas, needs passage by the SC House of Representatives to achieve completion of the last of the Municipal Association's 2019 Advocacy Initiatives. Melissa Harrill explains how city and town officials can advocate to help get the bill passed at the beginning of the coming legislative session.

The SC Freedom of Information Act is the backbone of governmental transparency in South Carolina. The Municipal Association's Director of Governmental Affairs Tiger Wells discusses the law as it has evolved and the requirements it places on cities and towns.

Delegates at the Municipal Association of South Carolina’s Annual Meeting unanimously elected Dennis Raines, mayor of the City of Mauldin, as the Association’s president. He will serve a one-year term. When asked about his vision for South Carolina hometowns, here is what Raines had to say.

The Municipal Association has for several years awarded Hometown Economic Development Grants for smaller-scale development projects, and will this year award a total of $325,000 through individual grants of up to $25,000. Scott Slatton talks about past HEDG winners and how to apply.

Charlie Barrineau and Jeff Shacker are the Municipal Association’s field services managers, traveling the state to help address issues that cities and towns experience and providing hands-on technical assistance. In this podcast, Charlie and Jeff talk about the kind of questions they get on the road and some resources they often provide.

Building codes exist to ensure people can live and work in a safely built environment, and they are often touched by state legislation. Scott Slatton talks about building code advocacy, especially since the Building Officials Association of South Carolina joined the Municipal Association as an affiliate in 2017.

This week’s podcast is a big one, taking a look back at the 2019 legislative session with the Municipal Association’s legislative team. The many topics covered include the Local Government Fund, public utility relocation costs, small wireless facilities, hospitality tax flexibility and funding for the SC Criminal Justice Academy, among others.

Since 1988, the Municipal Elected Officials Institute of Government has graduated nearly 2,000 elected officials around the state, and will graduate more at the Municipal Association’s Annual Meeting in July. In this week’s podcast, Staff Associate for Distance Learning Urica Floyd explains current and upcoming courses with the institute, including how participating officials who need to complete on-demand courses in order to graduate can do so before the Annual Meeting.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is it for city and town officials to get involved with the Association’s advocacy efforts at the State House by attending one of the Regional Advocacy Meetings this fall? According to Tiger Wells, director of governmental affairs for the Municipal Association, “somewhere between 12 and 15.” Learn about how the meetings help to make legislative advocacy possible and successful.

Krystal Dailey, information technology manager for the Municipal Association, explains some cybersecurity basics, including how planning and training can help guard against an attack that can substantially shut down a city or town's ability to conduct business.

Participants in the Main Street South Carolina program experienced North Augusta’s newly developed Riverside Village and Minor League Baseball SRP Park during the Main Street SC Summer Retreat. At that game, Jenny Boulware, manager of Main Street SC, sat down with Avery Spears-Mahoney of North Augusta Forward and Haley Knight of the Aiken Downtown Development Association to talk about what's happening in their programs

Casey Fields explains the status of newly passed and active bills following the extended session last week. She also digs into the final version of the state budget, including the increased amount of Local Government Fund revenue and the new recurring funding for the Criminal Justice Academy.

The Municipal Association’s Annual Meeting is coming up July 18 – 21 in Greenville. Eric Budds, interim executive director for the Association, talks about events scheduled for this year’s meeting, including sessions on community partnership building for law enforcement as well as opportunity zone investments.

The General Assembly ended its regular session last week and will return next week to pick up the remaining budget work. Casey Fields talks about the House and Senate versions of the budget as well as the current status of key bills, which will all remain active in the 2020 session.

Scott Slatton describes the years of work that led to S401, the bill which would require any entity improving a road to pick up the cost of relocating utility lines instead of passing on that cost to cities and towns.

Last week, the House Tax Policy Review Committee took a look at municipal business license taxes. Tiger Wells talks about his testimony to the committee about this critical source of revenue for cities and towns, and how legislators responded to the latest information on business license standardization efforts.

Budget season has arrived for the General Assembly, a time when added budget provisos that would have a major impact on municipalities can turn up. Tiger Wells and Scott Slatton discuss how the Municipal Association’s legislative team advocated for cities and towns while the Senate was approving its version of the state budget.

Casey Fields talks about action taken on the Local Government Fund formula bill and the plastic bag ban bill, which moved forward to the full Senate for debate.

How does small cell technology change the way that companies provide cell phone service, and why do the installation of small cells matter to cities and towns? Tiger Wells explains small cell basics and the impact of the amended SC Small Wireless Facilities Deployment Act.

Scott Slatton joins to discuss the status of the zero millage bill and working with the SC Department of Transportation on the utility relocation bill. He also discusses ongoing work on building regulation for agritourism businesses and proposed updates to the building code update cycle.