Yemassee wants Beaufort County to annex it. Not everyone is on board.
Most of Yemassee, a small town in the center of South Carolina’s Lowcountry, is in Hampton County. About one-third of it lies in Beaufort County.
But Yemassee leaders are pushing to change their boundaries, laying the groundwork to secede from Hampton and join Beaufort to get lower taxes and more efficient emergency services.
Yemassee Mayor Colin Moore and Town Clerk Matt Garnes have asked Beaufort County leaders about the potential to be annexed. A majority of Yemassee’s 1,500 residents live in Hampton County, and its town hall, police department, fire department, and other town offices also are in Hampton County.
Elected officials in Yemassee appear to support the annexation effort, along with at least one Beaufort County Council member.
“All in all it sounds like it would be a big win for the town, residents and staff,” Garnes said Wednesday. “We’d get a whole lot. Many more benefits than we have now.”
Meanwhile, Hampton County leaders say they found out about the plans only this week, were “blindsided” by the move and have been bombarded with questions from residents.
“It’s a slap in the face to Hampton County,” county administrator Rose Dobson-Elliott told The Island Packet. “I don’t know if this is a land grab (or) they’re trying to take our citizens and a portion of our tax base.”
Included in the annexation would be an access point to I-95, where residents say economic growth would be “devoured” by Beaufort County. They fear uncertainty with their school districts that have educated generations of Yemassee families. Fennell Elementary, for example, is the only school in town.
In recent years, Yemassee has been on a tear of annexing properties and neighborhoods into the town limits. The town increased its population by 50% between March and August 2018, when it scooped up unincorporated parts of Hampton County, promising better police and fire services, according to previous reporting from The Island Packet.
Sixteen other cities and towns in South Carolina have borders that go beyond one county, including Charleston and Columbia, the two largest cities in the state.
Yemassee mayor, town clerk leading the effort
In December, Yemassee’s leaders approached Beaufort County about the possibility of annexation.
Moore and Garnes said they’ve talked with Yemassee council members about the annexation and said they had no opposition.
But the proposal is still in the discussion stage, leaders from the town and Beaufort County say.
Mayor Moore remembers the annexation idea first coming up in 1994 when he was on town council and his brother, Jack Moore, was mayor.
At the time, several citizens approached Yemassee leaders, saying the town should be in one county rather than two.
“We looked at it then, and we liked the idea of Beaufort County because of the assets and what it brings to the table for Yemassee citizens,” he said. “It went on like that for probably a year, but we never talked to Beaufort County about it so it died down.”
The idea resurfaced in 2017 when Moore became mayor. He said he recently decided to bring it to Beaufort County officials.
“I was a little bit weary about it at first, wondering if they would want it,” he said. “We mentioned it to them and it was amazing how onboard with it they were.”
How does annexation work?
Yemassee’s annexation would affect only the areas of the small town that are part of the municipality, which include the town’s center and most businesses.
To become part of Beaufort County, 10% of registered voters in Yemassee must sign a petition in support of the annexation, according to South Carolina State Code. Once the petition is complete, the land included in the annexation plan is surveyed and an annexation commission — two members from Hampton County and two from Beaufort County — oversees the process.
While the members of the annexation commission would be appointed by S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster, the town of Yemassee would be required to pay for the surveying process and annexation commission. Currently there are no estimates for what annexation would cost the town, Yemassee town clerk Garnes said Wednesday.
Once the petition is approved, the costs paid and the commission appointed, the governor would order an election in which registered Hampton County voters in the area to be annexed, as well as Beaufort County voters, would be eligible to vote.
If the vote fails, Yemassee could not hold another annexation election for four years, according to state code.
Garnes said he had not seen a petition but said he expects one to be started this week, and for the process to progress “fairly quick” after that.
Who knew about this?
Although state representatives from Hampton County seemed to be unaware of the plan, Beaufort County Council Vice Chairman Paul Sommerville said Beaufort County Council and staff have heard about Yemassee’s plans.
“For the most part, a lot of the details have yet to be made clear,” Sommerville said. “Yemassee is driving the train.”
Sommerville said that if Yemassee were to approve annexation, the town and Beaufort County would have to immediately discuss intergovernmental agreements for issues like impact fees.
“We already have a relationship with them, it makes sense for us to have as close relationship with them as we can, and it’s odd when you’re in two different counties,” he said.
Hampton County council member Ronald Winn said there have been no public discussions about the annexation efforts, and all communications with the council have been based on “hearsay.”
Administrator Dobson-Elliott said she has reached out to Yemassee leaders and Beaufort County Council members and is disappointed they’re “not picking up the phone.”
“My recommendation is: ‘we’ll see you in court,’” she said about Yemassee and Beaufort County.
But calls to both the Municipal Association of South Carolina and the South Carolina Association of Counties revealed that staff in both organizations are familiar with the efforts and have discussed annexation with Yemassee officials.
Hampton County council chair Clay Bishop said his phone was ringing almost constantly on Wednesday with residents asking about annexation. He said the effort seems to be spearheaded by the Yemassee government, and most residents don’t have enough information.
But from what he knows about the potential annexation, the county leader isn’t for it.
“Everywhere we go, regionalism is all the talk,” Bishop said. “All counties work to move forward. Then when you have counties trying to devour portions of your county, that works against regionalism.”
Tommy Kelly, a pastor in nearby Varnville who plans to run for Hampton County Council, said he opposes annexation because losing Yemassee and its entrance to I-95 would mean sending more commerce out of the county.
Kelly said several leaders have worked to enhance Exit 38 to make it hospitable to businesses, and Beaufort County taking control of it would be “like if someone comes in and takes those benefits.”
He said if more businesses go to Beaufort County, “the rich will get richer from this and the poor will get poorer from this.”
Bishop agreed.
“The loss of an interstate exit could potentially cripple an entire county,” he said. “Around the (interstate) exchanges is where there is almost always growth… that’s probably the most attractive part of it to Beaufort County.”
‘Every penny counts’
While proponents say there are many reasons to annex, money appears to be the motivator for Yemassee residents and elected officials.
The town’s relatively few residents have a high poverty rate, census data show. Hampton County ranks 9th in the state for the highest poverty rate.
In 2017, 23.5% of Yemassee families — nearly 1 in 4 — fell below the poverty line. In Beaufort County, just 7.3% of families fell below the poverty line in that same year.
“When you’re in a place where most people have moderate-to-low income, every penny counts,” town clerk Garnes said.
In addition to high poverty rates, Winn, the Hampton County council member, said his county has one of the highest tax rates in the nation.
And he’s right.
Taxes are calculated by taking a home’s assessed value — 4% or 6% of the home’s sale value — and multiplying it by the county’s millage rate. A millage rate is a tax rate decided by each county based on its needs. After the base taxes are calculated, local millage rates including those for schools, fire departments and utilities are added on.
While neighboring Beaufort County pays a tax millage rate of 0.06, Hampton County residents pay over double that, at 0.19.
That means a home in the Beaufort County section of the Town of Yemassee worth $300,000 ($12,000 of assessed value) would pay around $1,963 in taxes each year, while a home worth the same amount in the Hampton County section would owe $3,464.
Lower taxes may be attractive to Yemassee residents, but how the local government uses those taxes is also important when deciding whether to annex, Winn said.
He said the county is criticized for “too much spending on frivolous things,” and Yemassee residents have been frustrated over a recent allocation to construct new hangers at the airport on the outskirts of Varnville to bring in more business.
Winn and others say Hampton isn’t a strong place for business. He cites high energy costs that have driven out three large firms while he’s been on county council.
“We’re in worse shape now that we were 20 years ago,” he said of commerce in the county.
New emergency services
Sommerville said if Yemassee is annexed into Beaufort County, the county will have to redraw its fire district boundaries to include the town.
Because Beaufort County chartered the Sheldon Fire District in 2013, the county has the power to redraw the fire response area to include Yemassee.
However, Sheldon Fire is providing service to Yemassee outside of its boundaries, and the map already has to be redrawn to include parts of Yemassee, even if it isn’t annexed into Beaufort County, Sommerville said.
Sheldon Fire District is providing fire services to the Beaufort County side of Yemassee “and they’re not getting tax revenue from it,” Sommerville said.
Sheldon District Fire Chief Buddy Jones said he just heard about the possibility of annexation on Tuesday and, regarding changes of service areas, added, “I just have to do what the County Administrator and the County Council tell me to do.”
Hampton County Emergency Services serves the Town of Yemassee on the Hampton County side, while Beaufort County Emergency Services serves the Beaufort County side.
“If this annexation takes place, then Hampton will pull their equipment out of there, and Beaufort will put their equipment in and have to replace the ambulances and staffing,” Sommerville said.
What will happen to the schools?
As part of the annexation, Garnes said, Yemassee would become part of the Beaufort County School District.
If that happened, Hampton County Council chair Bishop said many worry that Yemassee’s sole elementary school, Fennell Elementary, would close.
“I’m particularly concerned about the Fennell Elementary situation, I went there and my kids went there. If this annexation went through, all the teachers and faculty will lose their jobs,” he said.
However, state law contradicts that.
South Carolina Department of Education spokesperson Ryan Brown said Wednesday that changes in county lines do not automatically alter school district lines.
“The lines are drawn how they’re drawn,” he said of school districts, noting that it’s not unusual for some districts in the state to include slivers of neighboring counties.
Though school district lines can be changed, a look at state law shows that the process to do so is not a simple one.
According to the law, changes to district lines would require an act of the General Assembly or the authorization of county boards of education.
In the latter case, though, boards can only approve a change in district lines if they have the written approval of the state senator and the entire house legislative delegation of the involved county.
The boards also need either a written petition signed by four-fifths of the electorate or a written petition signed by one-third of the electorate, paired with a majority vote in an election held by the school boards in the affected districts.
Any change to the school district lines in Hampton and Beaufort counties “would be unlikely,” Brown said.
Beaufort County School District spokesperson Jim Foster said Wednesday that school board member Earl Campbell, whose district includes Yemassee, brought the possibility of an annexation to the board’s attention at an agenda-setting meeting Jan. 13.
The district and board have not been approached by anyone from the town or Beaufort County, Foster said.
At the Jan. 13 meeting, board chairperson Christina Gwozdz suggested the school district’s attorney first research the legal issues involved in any annexation, but no further board discussion has occurred, Foster said.
He said as of Wednesday school district’s attorney has not yet looked into the matter.
What’s next?
Moore and Garnes said the town intends to host “educational town hall meetings” with officials from Yemassee and Beaufort County to better inform residents what annexation consists of and what it would mean for them.
“Beaufort County has been very, very helpful with the process,” Garnes said. “They’ve been a great partner. We’re excited to move forward and hopefully the project passes.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 4:53 PM.
