Richland County hikes taxes Council OKs spending plan that boosts funds for schools,

The State Newspaper ^ | 6-23-2006 | MissEdie

[MissEdie]

RICHLAND COUNTY TAX INCREASE Richland County homeowners will pay between $83 and $127 more in property taxes on a home with a taxable value of $100,000 under the spending plan Richland County Council approved Thursday.

The tax increase includes spending for school districts, county operating expenses, including the sheriff’s department, and agencies such as the library, the zoo and the recreation commission.

A total budget figure was not immediately available.

In the Richland 1 school district, property owners will pay between $82.99 and $127 more on a home with a taxable value of $100,000.

In Richland 2, property owners will pay between $83.29 and $127.30 on a similar home.

Individual tax increases will vary, depending on which of the 20 taxing districts in the county you live in.

Here is how the bulk of tax money will be spent for the year beginning July 1:

• The largest amount of money will go to schools. Richland 1 will receive nearly $150 million, about $9.8 million beyond the minimum the state requires the county to pay.

Richland 2 will receive about $80 million, about $200,000 shy of the district’s full request. The approved funding represents $2.2 million more than the county is required to pay.

County Councilman Paul Livingston, who had called for a review of the school districts’ budgets, said education leaders told him the spending could not be cut.

“I may not necessarily agree with the increases in the school (budgets), but since it’s their decision, I’m going to support what they request,” he said.

• The county’s general fund, which includes such daily operations as the sheriff’s budget, will receive $53.4 million. That’s an increase of 2.3 percent. The additional money will pay for 20 additional sheriff’s deputies and 10 patrol cars.

• The Richland County Public Library’s full $16.3 million request was approved, up about $2 million from this year. The money will pay for books, films, online services and five new employees, among other things.

Richland homeowners and car owners also will pay more in fees.

• Vehicle registration fees will go up $5, to $20 from $15, to help fund road maintenance.

• Garbage fees will go up $37 to $205 from $168 for curbside collection, and up $72 to $400 from $328 for backyard collection.

[MissEdie]

I wanted to post this for all you legally astute Freepers out there, and for the rest of you SC Freepers. The legislature passed property tax reform only a few weeks ago that was supposed to do away with part of our property taxes in exchange for a $.01 sales tax increase that would go into effect state wide. Can counties increase a portion of the tax that the legislature has done away with? I know Sumter county is trying the same thing, increasing the property tax that was supposed to be eliminated, specifically the school operating costs portion.

[Seruzawa]

Heh heh. When will the taxpayers learn? This sort of thing goes on all the time. A couple of years ago the Utah State Leg. passed a law reducing the tax rate on summer cabins by half. The counties immediately doubled the property valuations on all such cabins.

Govt is corrupt. Always. I can't figure why so many people trust it.

[Buckeye McFrog]

This is an example of something that is going on all over the country....The Property Tax Shuffle. State Pols react to increasing anger over property taxes by offering to shift the tax burden onto someone else (i.e. raise the sales or income tax, in return for some kind of property tax reduction). Inevitably the end result is a county or school board ends up raising the millage again from the new base rate, and you end up paying both the new sales or income tax, AND continually increasing property taxes.

I was living in Michigan when John Engler (a Republican, unfortunately) hoodwinked us into raising the constitutionally-limited state sales tax from 4% to 6%. There was a brief reduction in property tax, but then almost immediately local govt. and school boards set about raising them again. The identical thing is now going on here in PA with Fast Eddie Rendell.

My advice to anyone out there is to reject any kind of property tax "reform" offered by your state govt. Only constitutionally mandated cuts and limits (i.e CA Prop 13)
are likely to have any long-term effect.

[longtermmemmory]

In florida the local counties have enacted permanent non-recuring one time annual charges to try and bypass tax caps.

[SC Swamp Fox]

South Carolina Ping

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