The James Island Public Service District includes the Town and the unincorporated area of James Island. The majority of the voters in the District live in the Town. PSD property taxes are paid by property owners in the Town and the unincorporated area.
PSD property taxes appear on the tax bill of every property owner in the Town of James Island and all voters residing in the Town of James Island are eligible to vote for PSD Commissioner.
No PSD property tax appears on the tax bill of any property owner in the City of Charleston or Folly Beach, even if they live on James Island. No voter residing in the City of Charleston or Folly Beach is eligible to vote for PSD Commissioner, even if they live on James Island.
The proposed 13% tax hike will directly impact everyone in the Town and the unincorporated area of the PSD. The 13% tax increase means that payments to the PSD on the County tax bill coming this October will be 13% higher than the amount that had to be paid to the PSD on last October's bill. The more valuable your house, car or other taxable property, the more it will be.
Nearly all of what is now unincorporated James Island was in the Town of James Island in 2011. (A handful of homes around Houghton Avenue were the only unincorporated area on James Island between 2006 and 2011.) I care very much about the property tax burden for those in the unincorporated area. I would like to help them too, but for that to happen, they need to rejoin the Town.
There have been seven attempts to form a Town on James Island in the modern era. The final four were successful in forming a Town, but the City of Charleston sued the first three times and used the Court system to close the Town down. The seventh effort was fully successful and the time limit for filing a legal challenge passed years ago. The Town of James Island is here to stay. But to avoid a legal challenge by the City of Charleston, Free James Island incorporated an area based on a philosophy of "when in doubt, leave it out." While the majority of those who were in the Town in 2011 were able to vote to reform the Town in 2012, many had to be left out. I promised then that I would do my best to give them a chance to vote too.
The formation of a new Town is called incorporation and the addition of people to an existing Town is called annexation. Both require contiguity. A new municipality must be formed in areas that are contiguous. A municipality can annex additional properties or areas that are contiguous. The simple meaning of contiguous is "next to."
Because of the pattern of annexation by the City of Charleston on James Island, none of the remaining unincorporated area on James Island is next to the Town. It is separated from the Town by areas that have already been annexed by the City of Charleston.
In 2014, Representative McCoy and Senator Thurmond filed legislation that would have allowed voters in the unincorporated area of the District to vote to rejoin the Town. That legislation required that the PSD Commissioners agree to a referendum. Representative McCoy got the bill passed in the House. Senator Thurmond shepherded the bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee. But the Coastal Conservation League had Senator Kimpson and then Senator Pinckney put a hold on the bill, blocking consideration by the whole Senate. Thanks to the effort of PSD Commissioner Inez Brown-Crouch and many friends of the Town in the Sol Legare, Battery Island, and Grimball Communities, both of those Senators eventually relented. However, the Coastal Conservation League had stymied our efforts to allow an opportunity for our former residents to vote on whether to rejoin the Town.
In 2017, Representative McCoy, working with Town Councilman Josh Stokes, tried a different approach. House Bill 3669 clarifies contiguity to allow a municipality entirely within a PSD to annex a parcel or area within the same PSD across breaks in the contiguity of the PSD. The Town is entirely within the James Island PSD and all of the unincorporated area of James Island would be contiguous to the Town given this clarification. To reunite the Town, it would require that 25% of the registered voters in the unincorporated area of the PSD sign a petition. There would then be an election and if the majority of those voting favored returning to the Town, then the Town would be reunited. This bill would require no action by the PSD Commissioners.
Speaker of the House Lucas told me he supports our effort. Unfortunately, the Senate has become even more difficult. Senator Thurmond moved to Mount Pleasant and didn't run for reelection. He was replaced by Senator Senn. Senator Senn wrote me last year stating that she would support the Town's effort at reunification only if Robert Wise agreed. Who is Robert Wise? He is the District Administrator of the PSD. While I am not sure why Senator Senn places so much weight on the opinion of the PSD District Administrator or why he does not want to see the Town reunited, I believe that if the PSD Commissioners were willing to support allowing the people of unincorporated James Island an opportunity to rejoin the Town, then Robert Wise would give Senator Senn the OK to file companion legislation. While passage in the Senate would still be difficult, right now, the PSD is the key road block.
Why this important now?
If those in the unincorporated area of James Island could rejoin the Town, then they too could benefit from the ability of the Town to obtain revenue from many sources other than property tax. The proposal of the Town to allow for a property tax credit against PSD taxes could be available to everyone who lives in the PSD.
PSD Commissioner Kathy Woolsey has placed this matter on the agenda for the June 25th meeting. Please come to the public hearing at 5:30 and ask that the PSD Commissioners work with the Town to benefit all the people of James Island.
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