Tax Credit Progress

The James Island Public Service District (JIPSD) Commission has agreed to work with the Town on a cost sharing plan that includes a credit against the property taxes levied by the JIPSD in the Town.   The plan is for Town to use some of its other revenues to pay for some of  cost of providing fire protection and solid waste collection to Town residents in exchange for the JIPSD consenting to the Town providing a credit against the JIPSD line on the County property tax bill.   As a result, homeowners and other property owners in the Town would pay less property tax to the JIPSD.   In effect, the property owners in the Town would be paying the JIPSD directly for part of the cost  of providing fire protection and solid waste collection through property tax but they would also be paying part through their Town government.

The JIPSD Commission voted 7 to 1 to sign an MOU with the Town to pursue the project and agreed to have the Pope-Flynn law firm jointly represent the Town and the JIPSD to work through the details fully protecting the interests of both entities and also to defend our agreement from any legal challenge. 

Incredibly, there has been an effort on social media to attack this proposal as unfair because the Town will be using its revenues to provide benefits to the taxpayers of the Town and not taxpayers in the City of Charleston.  However, taxpayers in the City do not pay taxes to the JIPSD at all, but rather pay property tax to the City of Charleston. The City does use a small part of its various sources of revenue, including property tax, generated all over  the City, to pay the JIPSD for fire protection services provided to some City residents, especially on James Island. The City is compelled to do this by court order, though that will end in 2032, thirteen years from now.

It is entirely reasonable for the Town to use the revenue generated its is jurisdiction to pay the JIPSD for services for its residents, like the City of Charleston already does. The City has a budget approximately 50 times larger than that of the Town. It would be entirely unreasonable for the Town to use its limited funds to pay for services for City residents, even those on James Island--including the fire protection they receive from the JIPSD.

Further, it would be unfair and unreasonable for the taxpayers of the Town to continue to pay the same amount of property tax for fire protection and solid waste collection from the JIPSD when they would be paying for part through their Town government.

The plan that the Town and JIPSD is pursuing will not have any adverse effect on any City resident whether on James Island or not. The benefits will go to the residents of the Town.   And that is the responsibility of the Town government--to provide services to its residents.   The JIPSD role will be to accept the Town's money and to consent to allowing the Town to provide a credit on the JIPSD line on the property tax bill. 

Perhaps there are some City residents on James Island who believe that the Town should use its limited resources to provide them benefits on an equal basis to its own residents.   Fortunately, such people do not vote in either Town or JIPSD elections.   The recent increase in the JIPSD property tax did not appear on any property tax bill of anyone who lives in the City, and no one in the City voted to remove the three Commissioners who supported that increase in November. 

The Town and the JIPSD worked together in the nineties for a tax credit, but Town 1 was ruled illegally formed right before it was implemented.   The City of Charleston did challenge that plan, but that was because if the Town lost on appeal, the City expected it would collect a substantial portion of the Town's assets.  They pursued other court actions to limit expenditures by the Town of James Island during its final year.   The City did prevail, Town 1 did close, and the City and other governments in Charleston County got a big payoff. 

Today, the City of Charleston is not challenging the existence of the Town, has no potential claim to our assets, and has little reason and no legal right to challenge our expenditures. 

The proposal for the Town to again work with the JIPSD on tax credits was first introduced in 2010, but put on hold until after the Town was cleared by the South Carolina Supreme Court.   Unfortunately, the Town was closed and the City of Charleston (and Charleston County and other municipalities in Charleston County) got a big pay day. 

During the effort for the fourth (and final) incorporation in 2012, the feasibility study included credits against JIPSD property tax as a way that the Town would help pay for fire protection and solid waste collection.   The first proposal to the JIPSD Commission came in 2013 and it has been repeated every year since.   The difference?   In 2019, a majority of Commissioners approved an MOU and agreed to work with the Town.   The reason this happened in January of 2019 was because that was the first regular meeting of the Commissioners that were elected last November.

I would note that the same voices on social media that make the outlandish claim that using Town funds to provide benefits to Town residents is unfair to James Islanders annexed to the City also supported the 13% property tax hike and worked to reelect those JIPSD Commissioners who passed it.

Sometimes it is difficult to take some of the ranting and raving on social media seriously. Well, maybe we shouldn't.