‘We already pay!’ Hilton Head launches website to oppose county’s law enforcement fee
Hilton Head Island officials launched a new attack on the proposed law enforcement fee for its residents on Sunday.
This one has a URL.
The town’s website, wealreadypay.org, makes Hilton Head’s case for rejecting Beaufort County’s new user fee for Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office services. Beaufort County Council voted to impose the fee this summer after a year of back and forth with the town over what would be a fair rate for police services. The town calls the fee double taxing.
Hilton Head has promised to take the county to court over the fee. Each residential property owner would have to pay between $88 and $101 each year. Business owners would have to pay $69 per hotel room or between $33 and $242 per 1,000 square feet of commercial space.
Groups that represent business interests, such as the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, have not taken a public stance on the matter or contributed money to the town’s effort to oppose the fee, chamber Director of Communications Charlie Clark told The Island Packet.
The town’s new website was created in-house by the town’s information technology team, and no additional money outside the communications budget was needed for the creation, according to town Director of Finance John Troyer.
It features Hilton Head’s case for opposing the fee, which includes that town leaders believe island residents already pay for law enforcement services via taxes. Beaufort County Council leaders voted to impose the user fee because other municipalities also pay for the Sheriff’s Office and contribute to their own police forces.
“The citizens of Beaufort County are owed some money,” Council Member Brian Flewelling said in August. “All the other citizens ... are basically subsidizing the cost of law enforcement, or at least a large part of it, in the Town of Hilton Head. It’s unfair to the rest of the citizens to shoulder that burden.”
Hilton Head is the only Beaufort County municipality that does not have its own police force. Sheriff P.J. Tanner, who has vowed to stay out of the budgetary matters, says he polices the entire county equally whether the municipality has its own police force or not.
The website reiterates arguments some Town Council members have for dropping the payment to the county they see as extra.
“As Hilton Head Island property owners, you already pay for law enforcement services. ... 70% of the Island’s residents live in a gated community, where they also pay for and have the added protection of private security. This private security relieves some of the burden from the Sheriff’s deputies,” the site says.
How much is the fee?
TischlerBise Inc., the consulting firm the county hired to determine the actual costs of sheriff services, told officials that it costs Beaufort County about $4.4 million a year to police Hilton Head.
Earlier this summer, Julie Herlands, a consultant at TischlerBise, outlined how the county could implement a user fee schedule.
Her proposal, which includes fees for residential and non-residential properties, would bring in an estimated $4.4 million to cover the costs of sheriff’s services to the island.
It includes:
- A $101 fee for single-family units
- An $88 fee for multi-family units
- A $242 fee for 1,000 square feet of retail space
- An $82 fee for 1,000 square feet of office/service space
- A $33 fee for 1,000 square feet of industrial space
- A $90 fee for 1,000 square feet of institutional space
- A $69 fee per room for lodging
The fee proposal is subject to change, and council has final say on what it looks like and how it will be implemented, council member Chris Hervochon said in July.
The fees would likely be added to property owners’ tax bills, Hervochon said. Beaufort County tax bills are finalized in October.
How did we get here?
In November, when McCann stripped the payment of services to Beaufort County, he reasoned that Hilton Head taxpayers were shelling out twice for law enforcement services: once in taxes property owners pay to Beaufort County and again in the form of the $3.6 million annual payment from the town’s general fund.
He said the additional payments happened with a “misplaced understanding” that Hilton Head was paying extra for more services in comparison with other towns. After meeting earlier this year with Sheriff P.J. Tanner, McCann said he realized the town was getting the same amount of law enforcement services as other places.
But McCann said the island is getting only “minimal” services from the sheriff’s office on such responsibilities as enforcing town ordinances, so he proposed that the town reduce its payment on June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
In return for not paying for sheriff services, McCann suggested that the town assume responsibility of county-maintained parks, the Island Recreation Association and the county-owned roads on the island.
Since that initial letter, the town and county have negotiated several swaps and trades to make up the difference.
In July, Hilton Head appeared to back off from its refusal to pay for policing services. Hilton Head Island’s Town Council voted to pay $2 million a year to the county for law enforcement services and take over maintenance of county-owned roads and parks on the island.
County Council member Hervochon referenced a final offer from the county to Hilton Head last week where the town could have paid less than $4.4 million each year, but he did not elaborate on the details. Hervochon said the town turned down the offer.
