MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – The City of Myrtle Beach says it has a plan to recruit and keep qualified police officers, but it will require a tax increase.

Myrtle Beach City Manager John Pedersen presented an immediate and long-term plan to increase the salaries of police officers in Myrtle Beach during the city council meeting Tuesday. Pedersen says the city faces two main problems: recruitment and retention of police personnel.

“With the climate nationally for police officer retention and recruitment and the demand locally to fill new and vacant police positions, we must be competitive in the marketplace,” Pedersen said.

That competitiveness will cost city residents, according to the presentation delivered by Pedersen.

The city plans to implement a step pay plan similar to those used by neighboring police departments, according to a study completed by city officials.

“The step pay plan boosts current officers’ salaries by a few percentage points each year to compensate for increased workloads and provide an incentive to remain with the department past the critical five-year period,” according to a press release distributed by Myrtle Beach City Spokesperson Mark Kruea.

The pay increase will go into effect with the January 12 pay period. Officials say all city staff will receive a 1.75 percent salary increase, and will then be eligible for an additional pay hike, up to five percent, based on performance. The police department employees will follow that same 1.75 percent increase, plus a 3 percent merit increase, which is an average of what other city staff receives, officials say. With the step pay plan, officers then receive a third pay raise, noted as a “market rate salary adjustment” of five percent.

The additional five percent raise is only available to sworn police officers, detention officers, and telecommunication officers. The police department’s administrative and non-sworn staff are not eligible for the market rate hike.

In addition, the city plans to increase the starting salary for incoming officers. Effective January 12, uncertified officers will begin at $40,000, an increase from $36,245. Certified officers will earn $44,000 upon graduation from the SC Criminal Justice Academy, which is a hike from $39,706. The first class officers’ beginning salary will climb to $46,000.

Pedersen says the salary increase cost will ultimately fall on city residents.

In his presentation Tuesday morning, Pedersen noted on the slideshow that the city expects a three-mill tax increase, which means city residents’ tax bill will increase by 3.8 percent. Pedersen says the city’s budget for 2018-2019 will include the tax hike.

Pedersen says it is necessary for city residents to pay more taxes because the police department is severely challenged in keeping officers beyond five years.

“We’ve lost experienced officers to other departments due to our lower salary in that mid-career time frame,” Pedersen said.  “The step plan not only brings our compensation in line with other agencies, but it lets officers know what they can expect.”

The city’s goal with increasing officer salaries is to cut the turnover rate in half and recruit more officers to fill current and future vacancies. Certified officers who remain with the Myrtle Beach Police Department can expect a minimum salary increase of 45 percent by the end of the step plan’s 10 years, the press release states.

The city will ask state lawmakers to help fund Chief Amy Prock’s plan to add 70 officers over seven years, but spokesperson Mark Kruea said paying salaries is a separate issue.

“We’re looking for some sort of assistance with some tourism-related revenues to pay for the tourism-related slice of the police department that we have to provide,” Kruea said. “But we recognize that we have to pay for the police salary side.”

For a $200,000 home, a 3.8% increase in property taxes is about $24.

The new plan is something mayor-elect Brenda Bethune will have to tackle in January.

“To me, when you look at the cost to the city of something negative and bad to happen, something like what happened last summer, that impact is much worse than having to raise our taxes at a low rate to cover our public safety,” Bethune said after Tuesday’s meeting.

Increasing pay for Horry County Police Officers is something Police Chief Joseph Hill has talked about since he took the job over a year ago.

After Myrtle Beach’s announcement to raise taxes to increase pay for officers, News13’s Taylor Herlong asked Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus if that’s something the county would look at doing as well.

“No, we’re not looking to raise taxes now. We’re looking to some other alternative ways. We’re looking at ways to raise the salaries without putting more police officers on. We’ve gone with as many as 30 that we had funded, but haven’t been able to put into place all the way down to about 10,” said Lazarus.

During a budget meeting about two weeks ago, the county talked about giving officers more money if they continued their education after they moved funds from the county’s road fund.

Under Myrtle Beach’s new plan, a Myrtle Beach officer would make about $7K more than a county officer, and News13 asked if they’re worried about losing officers to the city under the new proposal.

“That’s one of the reasons we raised our salaries like we did was to be competitive, especially with Myrtle Beach because it got us up to about where we were equal with them. So, that’s something we’ll have to look at,” said Lazarus.

Lazarus says he’s hoping the county’s new plan to pay for officers to go back to school will help to keep them with the county, but that plan still has to be voted on by full council at the next county budget retreat.