Five things to know about how Hilton Head will spend $76M of your taxes next year
While residents and businesses attempt to figure out how to hold onto health and money during the coronavirus pandemic, the finance director for the Town of Hilton Head has been busy putting together a budget in an anything-but-ordinary fourth quarter.
Finance Director John Troyer is a near-constant presenter to the town’s finance committee, which has slowly been deciphering how the pandemic will affect the town’s finances.
But the start of the new fiscal year, July 1, waits for no one.
Hilton Head’s Town Council will vote on the $75.9 million budget for a final time Tuesday.
It includes a big question mark on how much pain the pandemic will cause the town in the form of business license fees, taxes and tourism dollars.
Here are five things residents and property owners should know:
1. You won’t pay more in taxes
The town’s millage — the rate at which property owners are taxed — remains the same: 28.1.
The millage rate is the number of dollars of tax assessed for each $1,000 of property value.
According to the budget documents, the town’s finance officials believe the town has enough money in reserves to keep the government operating during the pandemic.
2. The town won’t fund a referendum marketing firm (although it’s already paid $18K)
Six months ago, most conversations at Town Hall were centered on a $65 million arts and parks referendum that would bump up taxes to fund cultural entities on the island such as the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina and Mitchelville Freedom Park.
Shortly after the town council’s workshop in December, the town hired a marketing firm to disseminate information about the vote, which was slated for May 5. The consultant was set to be paid $75,000 for four months of work.
Then the pandemic hit.
The referendum was put on hold (currently slated for November 2021), and the town’s new budget doesn’t include any money to pay a marketing firm in the next year.
However, the marketing firm, NP Strategy LLC, was paid $18,750 on Feb. 13, just two weeks after it signed the town’s contract. No more payments will be made to NP Strategy because the referendum was shelved, according to Troyer, town finance director.
3. There’s $25K for affordable housing initiatives
The Town Council voted to keep $25,000 in the budget to finance affordable housing plans, overriding staff’s recommendation to cut it. Money from that budget was used in years past to pay for an affordable housing study on the island.
Although there are no concrete plans for how the money will be used in the upcoming year, town council member David Ames said at the May 12 meeting that retaining the funding helps align the town’s budget with the council’s priorities.
Housing developments at the Hilton Head Christian Academy site and one proposed for the Palmetto Bay Road area are in the works.
4. And another $25K for Gullah Geechee cultural preservation
Town Council also voted to keep $25,000 in the budget for Gullah-Geechee preservation initiatives, even after staff recommended cutting it.
The Gullah-Geechee Land and Cultural Preservation task force hired a consultant last year whose report suggested how to better preserve and serve Gullah culture on the island.
Earlier this year, Mayor John McCann suggested disbanding that task force. His suggestion was met with opposition from the task force leaders and council member Marc Grant, who said there is still a lot of work left to do with the consultant’s report.
Although the town has no detailed plan for how the money will be used, leaders of the task force want to implement the consultant’s recommendations, which range from establishing a historic neighborhood overlay district to creating a property tax support fund on the island.
5. Coronavirus impact is still up in the air
The next year’s budget doesn’t specify the amount of loss from the coronavirus, as others have done.
Tuesday’s vote will be on the budget presented last year as part of a two-year budget, but Troyer said a mid-year budget adjustment may be necessary when the impacts become clearer.
Generally, Troyer said the town was in a good place to soften the blow to revenue brought by the coronavirus pandemic. He said in May, and reiterated Monday, that there should be no tax or fee increases because the town’s reserves were plentiful at the start of the pandemic.
Bonus: Parks and parking project updates
Two major projects, a Shelter Cove parking plan and a roads project, were removed from the capital improvement project budget. Removing those projects reduced the CIP budget by $2.6 million, according to the budget documents.
The $20 million Lowcountry Celebration Park, located in the Coligny area, is nearly complete and will open this fiscal year.
