Where Do They Stand on the Issues #2 Town Tax Credit

The Town collects no property tax.  How is that possible?  The Town is entirely included in the James Island Public Service District.  The JIPSD provides fire protection and solid waste collection in the Town.   These are paid for by the JIPSD millage--in 2022, it was 60 mils, which would be about $720 for a typical James Island home.  

In 2019, the Town and JIPSD adopted a cost sharing agreement.  The Town pays for a share of the cost of providing fire protection and solid waste collection in the Town in return for the JIPSD agreeing to allow the Town to provide a credit against the JIPSD line on the property tax bill.   

The Town receives approximately $1.2 million each year from the South Carolina property tax credit fund to reduce the property tax burden for taxpayers within the Town.  For the last five years. the Town has used this money to reduce the property tax paid by residents of the Town.   In 2022, the savings come out to $210 for a typical $300,000 James Island home.   That reduced the JIPSD taxes by 32% and the overall property tax bill for homeowners by approximately 13%.   Tax credits are provided for all property in the Town including businesses, rentals, vehicles, as well as boats and other personal property.

Should the Town continue to use the money from the property tax credit fund to provide a property tax credit on the property tax bill by continuing with the Cost Share Agreement with the JIPSD?

Where does each candidate stand on this issue?

Where Do They Stand on the Issues #1 Should the Town Begin Collecting Property Tax?

 Where do they stand on the issues?

The Town of James Island is having an election on Tuesday, November 7th.

The Mayor and all four seats on Council are up.

I am not running, and there are three candidates to serve as Mayor: Brook Lyon, Gresham Meggett, and Josh Stokes.

There are seven candidates for the four seats on Council:  Dan Boles, Lewis Dodson, Jeff Hayes, Cynthia Mignano, Troy Mullinax, Zinnie Quinn, and Warren Sloane. 

Where do the candidates stand on the issues?  

What are the issues?

I want explore some of the issues that I think face the Town and find out the position of each candidate for Council.

Should the Town of James Island begin collecting a property tax?

The Town of James Island (all four incarnations) has never collected property tax. 

The Town currently has a millage of 17.9, but we provide a 100% property tax credit, so there is no property tax collected by the Town on residences, rental properties, business property, vehicles, like cars, or personal property like boats.

If you look at your property tax bill, there is a Town of James Island line and a millage, but the net amount collected is zero.  There are plenty of other lines on the bill, such as Charleston County, Charleston County schools, the James Island Public Service District and more.   So, residents of the Town play plenty of property tax--just no additional property tax to the Town.

Where does each candidate stand?

Should the Town begin collecting property tax?