Charleston County Council raises taxes

Thursday, 20 May 2010
By Ashley Fletcher Frampton

CHARLESTON -- Charleston County Council voted Tuesday to raise property taxes and some service fees to balance its 2011 budget.

A majority of council members approved the budget, saying they preferred to raise revenues to keep public services intact instead of implementing layoffs or furloughs to lower costs.

“We can’t balance this budget on the backs of our employees,” Councilman Elliott Summey said.

Cutting employee positions or hours would mean cutting services, Summey said.

County employees haven’t received raises or cost of living adjustments in recent years, he said, and this year they lost about $1,400 in take-home pay because of higher insurance costs. The county also has shed 60 jobs over the past year through attrition, he said.

Council Chairman Teddie Pryor said, “To ask 1,200 people to carry the whole burden of Charleston County is unfair.”

Two more votes and a public hearing are required before the budget is final.

Higher taxes
The increase in property taxes amounts to $25.50 on an owner-occupied home valued at $250,000, county officials said.

Of that increase, $8 comes from an increase in the property tax rate levied for debt repayment. The other $17.50 is the result of the county’s decision to use 90% of revenue from the local-option sales tax to offset the property tax burden, instead of the usual 100%.

The budget calls for keeping 10% of that sales tax revenue, or $3.8 million, to cover general fund expenses.

Some council members described the move as a temporary way to plug the budget. When times aren’t as tough, the county could return to a 100% credit, Councilman Vic Rawl said.

The overall 2011 budget, including operating, debt repayment and other funds, totals $351.3 million. Spending is down $18 million from the 2010 budget.

Council members voted 4-3 in favor of the budget. Council members Joe McKeown, Dickie Schweers and Colleen Condon voted against it.

“There is no way I can support a tax increase in this economy,” Schweers said before Tuesday’s vote. “It troubles me.”

McKeown asked that the county take money out of its reserve fund instead of raising taxes.

County staff and some council members have said doing so could jeopardize the county’s bond ratings, raising the cost of future borrowings.

Behind the increase
Total county revenues have declined nearly $12 million since 2009, according to County Administrator Allen O’Neal.

Charleston County is losing about $2 million more in state funding in 2011, said budget director Mack Gile, and the county’s property tax revenue is expected to be down about $2 million.

The recession has eroded the property tax base in several ways, Gile said. This year, the county has seen about 10 times the appeals on property assessments as in the past.

Tax revenue from motor vehicles is down as well, because people aren’t upgrading and replacing vehicles at the rate seen in past years, and vehicles depreciate annually, Gile said.

Last year, the county used about $500,000 in parking garage revenues to help cover debt service. That extra revenue wasn’t available this year, Gile said, likely a result of fewer people using the garages.

Meanwhile, the county must pay an additional $2.8 million in order to staff and operate its new detention center for a full year. The facility opened earlier this spring.

The 2011 budget does not include $18 million that County Council has promised to Trident Technical College for a new nursing education building. That debt, contingent on promises from Berkeley and Dorchester counties, will be issued in 2012, officials said.

Higher fees
Council members also gave a first approval to a measure that increases fees for some services.

Fees will go up for some planning, zoning and development permits, for example, and for Sheriff’s Office records checks and animal shelter services.

Council members who supported the fee increases said they shift more of the cost of those public services to the people who use them, rather than spreading them among all taxpayers.