A bill that the General Assembly has sent Gov. Mark Sanford has great potential to help Horry County Council deal with growth. Council members are engaged in their annual struggle to meet the demand for public services, especially police and fire protection.

This year, because rapid residential growth has overwhelmed the county's capacity to meet that demand within the scope of its budget, council members are probably going to have to raise taxes. Because residential growth shows no sign of slacking off, the council likely will face the same challenge every year from now on. Growth does not initially pay for itself.

How might the legislative bill in question be of help to the council - in future years if not this year? Most of the growth with which the council is contending is in unincorporated subdivisions east of the Waccamaw River, where residential density per square mile is relatively high. The bill, which awaits Sanford's signature, would make it much easier for such areas - Carolina Forest, for example - to incorporate into independent cities or towns. The measure also would make it easier for residents of older unincorporated communities such as Little River, Garden City Beach and Socastee to look anew at becoming municipalities.

Essentially, legislators have reduced from 15,000 to 7,500 the number of residents a prospective new city or town must have before it can consider incorporation. No longer would a community that meets that requirement also have to beg permission to incorporate from cities or towns closer than five miles away. That requirement in current law allowed North Myrtle Beach to frustrate a Little River attempt at incorporation in the 1980s.

True, incorporating a community would add a layer of city property taxation to the taxes residents already pay. Their new city or town would need money with which to finance police and fire protection and other services - or with which to purchase those services from better-established municipalities or from the county.

But their county taxes probably are going up anyway. And the better county services they receive in return still won't be as good as the services they could provide for themselves by forming their own municipality. Police officers and firefighters from properly financed municipal departments, for example, could still respond to emergency calls more quickly than county police officers and firefighters. As residents of well-run municipalities along the Grand Strand can attest, you get the quality of services you are willing to pay for.

Don't misunderstand: The bill is not a cure-all for the headaches of rapid growth. In many cases - Little River, Socastee and Carolina Forest, for instance - annexation into nearby cities or towns might make more sense, as North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach have first-class public services. It is a pity that current S.C. law hampers municipalities to grow through annexation, as that's a more efficient way to provide upgraded services than forming new cities and towns.

But the measure has great potential to help County Council members improve services to rural residents, who also pay county taxes - and tax increases. It's not fair to raise taxes on them to pay for improving services east of the river. The bill also would help other S.C. county councils facing the same challenge. For that reason especially, Sanford should let it become law.