Absolutely vital bit of news on Myrtle Beach’s ongoing war against biker fests. The city is taking the almost unheard of municipal position that attracting visitors has a downside, an actual cost, to public coffers.

Usually the cost of policing and cleaning up after public events or festivals — which are almost always themselves directly subsidized by host taxpayers — is never mentioned. Certainly the nuisance or inconvenience visited on local residents who do not participate in the event is never seriously considered as a reason not to have the event.

Instead the public is hit between the eyes with “economic impact” numbers that are sketchy at best, yet are reported as gospel by local media outlets, some of whom often have a hand in promoting the event!

In the case of Myrtle, bikers are simply too down-market for the city fathers’ lofty civic expectations. Remember that when the city and Horry County go begging for money in 2010 and beyond.