Beaufort incumbents accused of backing a tax hike. It’s a lie, they say. What’s the truth?
Two challengers, Josh Gibson and Julie Crenshaw, are hoping to win seats on the Beaufort City Council and are using an eye test to accuse their opponents of raising local property taxes. The incumbents are punching back with denials.
With two weeks remaining before the Nov. 5 election, these contradicting assertions have become a major dividing line between the four candidates running for two seats. They clashed over the issue at a forum Monday at the University of South Carolina Beaufort attended by about 100 people.
Incumbents Neil Lipsitz and Mitch Mitchell insist that they did not increase taxes for property owners and called the accusation a lie in front of the crowd.
Yet residents, challenger Gibson pointed out, did see property tax increases.
“I cannot sit here idly being accused of having raised your taxes,” Mitchell said. “We did not.”
Gibson, however, wouldn’t accept the explanation. “If it’s more dollars than it was before, then it went up,” he said.
The details involve the millage rate and property assessments
Two assertions can simultaneously be true and, in this dispute, it appears that may be the case. To understand what’s going on in this dispute it is important to define the key factors that result in a homeowner’s property tax bill:
Millage rate: According to the city’s website: “The millage rate is the tax rate set by each taxing jurisdiction, such as the county, school district, or municipality. A mill equals 1/1000 of the assessed value of the property subject to property taxes. For example, if the assessed value of a property totals $100,000 the value of a mill is $100.”
Assessed Value: According to the financial website Investopia, assessed value is calculated as a percentage of the property’s fair market value. Locally, Beaufort County has a mandatory periodic review to revise the assessed value of properties to stay current with changing market conditions. If a home increases in market value, its assessed value will increase proportionately each time it is reassessed.
How are property taxes calculated? A homeowner’s annual property tax bill is a straightforward calculation with several variables including the millage rate and the assessed value. An increase in a total tax bill over previous years can come from higher millage or increases in assessed value. Governments have control over changing the millage rate, but have little control over home values, which are set by market conditions.
Did the millage rate change?
Beaufort City Manager Scott Marshall, who was not at the forum, told the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet Tuesday that the city’s tax rate of 73.9 mills did not increase over 2024’s rate.
The tax rate decreased by 4.3 mills between fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024.
However, Beaufort County reassessed property values countywide in 2023. And that reassessment did result in increases in property tax bills, Marshall said.
For tax purposes, Beaufort County is mandated to reassess property every five years and it impacts property taxes, which are calculated by multiplying the appraised property value by the assessment ratio and the millage rate.
The accusation
At the forum, Mitchell and Lipsitz sat on one side of the stage. Crenshaw and Gibson were seated on the other side. The tax issue divided them, too.
Gibson noted that his own property taxes went up 9% last year and anybody who checks their own bill will find increases, too.
The people who voted for those tax increases, Gibson said, are “Mitch and Neil.” “There’s no denying that,” Gibson said.
The denial
Mitchell and Lipsitz did deny the charge, with both pointing out that the reason for the increases was the countywide reassessment of property, not their votes for the city of Beaufort’s budget, including the property taxes. Mitchell called the charge an “untruth.” Lipsitz said he was offended by it.
The incumbents could have reduced spending, Gibson added, to offset the expected rise in taxes from a county reassessment.
Mayor Phil Cromer, who is running against Councilman Josh Scallate for mayor attempted to start a discussion of spending reductions during the 2025 budget talks earlier this year but “was shot down” by the rest of the council, Gibson said.
“If we roll back the taxes?” Lipsitz countered, “what services do you want cut?” — fire, police or public works? Inflation, he added, also made a roll back difficult.
“There are no free lunches,” Mitchell added.
Crenshaw, the other challenger, said she would have supported Cromer in his attempt to decrease the millage rate and accused the City Council of wasteful spending.
In June, the City Council approved a $55.7 million consolidated budget for 2025.
The two candidates who win the most votes will serve four-year terms and be part of a council that has a full plate of thorny issues to address from a Waterfront Park where the underwater infrastructure is failing to figuring out who will run the city’s marina to getting a handle on explosive growth.
This story was originally published October 22, 2024 at 12:48 PM.
