COVID-19 updates: South Carolina health officials reported 641 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 345 probable cases on Monday, with 7 additional confirmed deaths. With 22,454 tests reported Monday, 4.4% were positive. As of 1:41 p.m., April 5 via S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control: Confirmed cases in S.C.: 467,750 (+641)Total positive cases in Charleston County: 40,971 […]
The College of Charleston School of the Arts has its first in-person live event in over a year coming up this weekend. The school is presenting Arts Under the Oaks, a two-day festival featuring opera, musical theater and dance showcases. Taking place live at CofC’s Stono Preserve (5297 Dixie Plantation Rd. in Meggett), the event […]
Taxes in Charleston will increase next fall.
Charleston City Council on Tuesday night gave its second and final approval of the 2021 budget, which includes a $24 to $72 increase in property taxes, depending on the size of the house and whether it is rented out or owner occupied. Â
In Charleston and Berkeley counties:
Tax on a $300,000 owner-occupied home would increase $24 next year.
Tax on a $300,000 rented home would increase $36 next year.
Tax on a $600,000 owner-occupied home would increase $48 next year.
Tax on a $600,000 rented home would increase $72 next year.
On Tuesday night, the budget received a second and third approval, each an 8-5 vote. Council members Marie Delcioppo, Kevin Shealy, Karl Brady, Mike Seekings and Harry Griffin opposed the increase.
After six months of consideration, deliberation and a unanimous vote of endorsement by an appointed ad hoc committee, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg presented his 2021 budget to Charleston City Council for the first time in late October. The irony is not lost on us, and we are sure is it not on you, that during those same six months, the Charleston we all know was hit as hard as any city in the country by the collateral economic and social effects of a global pandemic and national unrest. And we knew it.
Given the realities of our times and the actual and measurable economic burden 2020 has inflicted on the citizens and small businesses in our community, we could not have imagined that the budget would propose property tax increases (a combination of tax rate increase and a rollback of the heretofore sacred local option sales tax credit) of historic proportions.