Beginning Saturday, if you buy something in the city limits of Myrtle Beach you're likely going to be hit with a new sales tax that will be used to fund tourism promotion on the Grand Strand.

But that tax hasn't come without controversy. Perhaps the loudest voice of opposition, former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride, who has filed a lawsuit against the city.

He says, if the new tax is implemented Saturday, the city will be breaking the law.

"The Myrtle Beach City Council did not follow the law. The Myrtle Beach City Council did not follow their rules of procedure," stressed McBride.

McBride has filed a lawsuit claiming the city council did not follow procedure during the sales tax vote in May. He says they only voted to end discussion of the tax increase and never had an official and final vote on whether to implement the tax.

McBride says the council just said it was passed without actually voting on it.

"(Saturday) the city should stop all collections of the ad tax from any of our residents or the hundreds of thousands of visitors who are here for the weekend," said McBride.

But city officials disagree.

"We're confident that city council acted appropriately when it approved the ordinance, that its approval was correct. Obviously it's in the court's hands now and we'll let the courts sift that out, but we believe city council did act correctly on that," said Myrtle Beach Spokesman Mark Kruea.

One of the points brought up in McBride's lawsuit is what's called the Roberts Rules of Order, which basically is a method of procedure for passing motions in city council settings. The suit claims that the city adopted the Roberts Rules, but Kruea says Myrtle Beach does not follow those rules of procedure.

McBride has spent the last few weeks collecting signatures on a petition asking the city to allow residents to vote on the tax increase.

NewsChannel 15 asked McBride if the lawsuit is more of an effort to get the procedure right, or to stop the tax that he has rallied against, to which the former mayor responded, "It's a little bit of everything."

State law says once a municipality approves a new law they must wait 60 days before officially implementing the new law.

McBride hopes his lawsuit will force the city to re-vote, this time following what he describes as the proper procedure. McBride says at which point the city will have to wait another 60 days to enact the tax -- if approved -- giving the former mayor more time to collect more signatures on his petition.

But Myrtle Beach has other plans.

"The marketing fee does take effect (Saturday), absolutely," stressed Kruea.