CITY OF CHARLESTON RAISES PROPERTY TAXES

The Daily Journal reports:

Charleston raises property taxes

By Scott Miller , Staff Writer

Property tax bills in Charleston will rise about 4.5% next fall now that the City Council has approved the first tax increase since 1999.

Critics at Tuesday’s council meeting, when the increase was passed, said the city was taxing low-income property owners out of town. But Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said additional money is needed to fund improvements to the fire department.

The fiscal 2008 budget includes $2.6 million in new taxes and $2.4 million in fire department upgrades, a direct response to the June 18 Sofa Super Store blaze that killed nine firefighters.

The budget creates positions for 18 additional firefighters, six new dispatchers, four training officers, four inspection employees, new vehicles and equipment, among other upgrades. The $143.9 million budget, a 9% increase from last year, raises the property tax rate by 3.3 mills, or 4.5%, to 77.1 mills. A mill is equivalent to one dollar for every $1,000 of assessed property value.

The owner of a home assessed at $175,000—a figure Riley used when discussing the tax increase—will pay an additional $23 annually. The owner of commercial property valued at $500,000 in Charleston will pay $99 more. Commercial property owners will pay more because their property is taxed at 6% of market value rather than at 4%.

No one spoke during a public hearing on the budget two weeks ago, but a handful of residents denounced the tax increase Tuesday. One was a Charleston real estate broker who led the successful statewide effort to replace property tax revenue with a sales tax increase to fund schools.

“Even now, with the relief we’ve gotten, taxes are still too high,” said Emerson Read, chairman of nohometax.org. “This is going to affect mostly low- and middle-income (residents), first-time home buyers and elderly retired people.”

Resident Jack Simmons agreed, saying the city was taxing people out of town.

“One of our basic freedoms is the ability to own a home,” he told the council.

Riley called the tax increase “a last resort” and again noted that the city has cut taxes 12 times since 1990.

Council members Henry Fishburne and Larry Shirley voted against the tax increase. Council members Deborah Morinelli, James Lewis Jr., Robert Mitchell, Jimmy Gallant, Wendell Gilliard, Louis Waring, Yvonne Evans, Paul Tinkler, Anne Francis Bleeker and Kathleen Wilson voted in favor.

Fishburne said the city could have trimmed fat in the budget, possibly by lowering the 2.5% salary increases given to city employees. He had previously argued that City Council does not receive enough time to evaluate the mayor’s budget proposals. Riley introduced his proposed budget about a month ago.