Christmas comes early: Beaufort County homeowners who fell behind on tax payments get help
Three Beaufort County residents who have had trouble paying their property taxes will get an early Christmas present today.
An organization that started helping Gullah and black homeowners keep their property this year will present checks today at the Beaufort County Treasurer's Office. The checks not only help those in arrears but allow the homeowners to enter the county's installment program so they can keep up with their tax bills through smaller monthly payments.
Theresa White, president of the nonprofit Pan-African Family Empowerment & Land Preservation Network, will present checks to the following property owners:
- St. Helena Island resident Suzanne Robinson will receive $536.69 to pay three years' worth of taxes on her 1993 mobile home. The payment will keep Robinson's future state income-tax refunds from being garnisheed.
- Robinson's disabled brother Benjamin Heyward will receive $409.61 to pay the 2015 taxes on the family's two-acre parcel off Seaside Road. Robinson's mobile home sits on the land, which was sold at this year's county delinquent-tax sale.
- Disabled Burton resident Mike Burns will receive $215.71 to pay the 2015 taxes on his 2003 mobile home.
White said the money for today's payments come from the proceeds from Bluffton writer Laurie K. McCall's new novel "Swan of the Siren" and a donation from the Charleston chapter of the International Longshoremen's Association.
McCall will read and sign copies of her book from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at The Red Piano Too Art Gallery, 870 Sea Island Parkway, St. Helena Island. She is donating 40 percent of the proceeds of book sales to PAFEN.
She will be joined by Elijah Heyward Jr., author of "Stories and Poems of a Gullah Native," who will also read from his book.
Follow city editor Don McLoud at twitter.com/IPBG_Don.
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Oct. 2, 2015 From highly competitive tax auctions to a resurgence of development, pressures are mounting against heirs' property owners, making it more difficult for them to continue a land-holding legacy that extends from the end of the Civil War. | READ
This story was originally published December 16, 2015 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Christmas comes early: Beaufort County homeowners who fell behind on tax payments get help."