Bluffton’s budget proposal includes tax cut for 2nd year

For the second consecutive year, Bluffton residents and business owners could pay lower property taxes.

Town staff presented a proposal from the new fiscal year 2018 budget Tuesday night that includes a roughly 4 percent tax cut, driven mostly by growth and rising property values.

If the nearly $37 million budget is ultimately passed prior to the start of the new fiscal year, the tax cuts would save a full-time owner of a home valued at $250,000 about $20 a year in taxes, according to town documents.

While that may seem a paltry sum, “to some people $20 a year is a big deal,” Mayor Lisa Sulka said.

The proposal does include the addition of two new employees, but town manager Marc Orlando told members of the Bluffton Town Council on Tuesday that staff has “scrubbed our budget,” allowing the town to do more with the revenues it receives from taxes and fees.

While all members of Bluffton Town Council said they support the idea of lowering taxes, some leaders — particularly Councilmen Dan Wood and Harry Lutz — wondered whether the focus should be on curbing density and overcrowding rather than tax rates.

Wood cited the recent and controversial Hilton Head National Golf Club redevelopment proposal as an example of the kind of growth that could negatively impact the town.

By using town funds to reduce future density, “we could save exponentially more dollars while also working to preserve our quality of life,” he said.

The town has a number of ways to control density: purchasing property, partnering with the Beaufort County Rural and Critical Lands program to preserve land, and building up its transfer-of-development-rights bank.

“Anything we can do to reduce density is a tax savings down the road,” Wood said.

Lutz echoed that sentiment, saying that reducing the potential for overcrowding could keep the cost of essential services and infrastructure down.

He also voiced concerns about scrambling for funds later in the fiscal year should the town find itself responsible for some Hurricane Matthew cleanup costs.

Councilman Larry Toomer said he understands his colleagues’ positions and will take them under consideration, but “if we don’t need to take peoples’ money, let’s not take it.”

Town leaders plan to hold a series of workshops over the next month to finalize the budget.

While town leaders mull the merits of a tax cut, Beaufort County Council is in the process of working through a new budget that could include a roughly 2 percent tax hike.

New fiscal year for both the town and county starts July 1.

This story was originally published May 9, 2017 at 8:57 PM with the headline "Bluffton’s budget proposal includes tax cut for 2nd year."