Florence County Council faces complaints over tax increase by school district

Florence County Council members said they’ve heard from residents who are unhappy about a recent property tax increase, but want the public to know they didn’t raise their millage.

Property taxes rose for residents in Florence School District 1, based in Florence, which has sold bonds to begin infrastructure work on property for relief elementary and middle schools along Hoffmeyer Road in Florence, said Luther Rabon, the district’s chief financial officer.

The school district has the authority raise its property taxes under state law, and county council has no involvement in the matter, Councilman James Schofield said.

“It is not within our purview,” Council Chairman K.G. “Rusty” Smith Jr. said.

Some county residents, however, have blamed council for the tax increase, Schofield and Smith said.

The confusion arose because the county sends out all tax notices and collects taxes for the school districts; special purpose districts, such as fire districts; and municipalities, Smith said. The cost of postage would add up quickly if the notices were sent separately, he said.

The district has made an eight-mill increase for the general fund, Rabon said. That’s a 4.9 percent increase over the previous year’s millage.

Debt service, meanwhile, rose from 19 mills to 33.4 mills, he said, and that’s an increase of nearly 76 percent over the previous year’s millage.

The district also will need at least 32 mills during the coming years if it builds the schools, Rabon said.

Florence School District 1 has a two-year, pay-as-you-go plan to raise $422 million in revenue with $4.1 million due in interest.

The most recent bond sold by the district was worth $4.2 million and was approved in September, Rabon said.

The relief schools are being built to deal with overcrowding in the district, which has about 180 portable units at its existing schools, Rabon said.

The district, which has 21 campuses, has built no new schools in 14 years.

The average age of its facilities is 41 years, and about a third of its campuses are more than 50 years old.

“I don’t disagree; we need some (new) school buildings … but in the middle of a recession … people are struggling to keep their heads above water,” Schofield said. “Twenty-three mills is just a lot.”

Schofield also said council members were unaware of the tax increase until tax notices were mailed this fall.

Property taxes on a $50,000 home rose 68 percent, from $38 to $64. The taxes for a $100,000 business also increased 68 percent, from $114 to $192, according to previous Morning News reports.

The district’s board of trustees has approved the concept of spending:

• $17 million on the new elementary school, which would act as a relief school for Carver and Delmae elementary schools

• $20 million on a new Moore Intermediate School, which would begin housing grades six through eight instead of grades five and six

• $17 million for a new North Vista Elementary School

• $17 million for a new Royall Elementary School, which would be built on the current Moore Intermediate School site

The district also is working as partners with Francis Marion University to convert the Poynor building into a performing arts high school. The plan is contingent on another board vote on the tax increase, which will come early next year.

In 2007, the school district’s board lost a bond referendum to raise money for capital projects.

Schofield and Smith said county council has passed a budget with a 1 percent across-the-board cut to all county departments so that it would not have to raise property taxes.

The county budget did, however, include a 63 percent increase in its annual solid waste household fee, which rose from $35.52 to $58.

“It’s 16 cents a day,” Smith said of the new fee.

The increase is also less than half of the original budget proposal, which would have made the fee $89 a year.

The fee goes toward operation of the county’s manned convenience centers as well as the disposal and hauling of garbage.

The county has faced a $2.2 million cut in state funding to local governments, Smith said.

He said in a previous interview that the county also faces $7.8 million in state-imposed mandates, and its state health insurance premiums are increasing by $350,000, county documents show.