By Josh Gibson
We’re close to election day, and throughout my campaign I’ve learned a lot about what’s important to the citizens of Beaufort. There are two things that keep coming up from almost everyone — growth and taxes. They’re two separate issues but they always overlap.
Right now, you’re getting the worst side of both of these issues. Growth is exploding at an unsustainable rate, if we’re going to protect what’s beautiful about Beaufort. On top of that, your taxes are going up too. More traffic, clear cutting of trees and higher taxes is not a recipe for a livable city.
I don’t want Beaufort to turn into what has happened to Bluffton or Mount Plesant. They both used to be charming historic towns, but now they are overrun with with traffic jams, an exploding cost of living, and a loss of the culture that made them so uniquely beautiful.
If you ask me, the incumbents aren’t keeping an eye on what’s best for Beaufort.
We’ve had several forums now, and I’ve yet to hear a serious policy solution proposed by either of the incumbents to these problems, but I have actual solutions.
Here’s what I want to do. I want to put a pause on permits for new apartment complexes while we figure out a new policy to limit the pace of growth in the city. There are currently 2,431 apartment units permitted that haven’t even begun construction yet. That’s plenty to meet the immediate demand for housing, so it shouldn’t negatively affect the market prices of housing while we work on a solution.
The second thing we need to do is follow the leadership of Phil Cromer and review our budget more thoroughly than has been done in the past. The city has been too quick to sign off on expensive projects and huge engineering bills for infrastructure … $10 million dollars for a pump station in The Point, that the community never asked for, $400,000 to study the idea of a three-block sidewalk, all before we even get to the actual construction costs.
This summer, the Mayor presented the idea that the Council should work with the City Manager to find a place to save money because the city’s property taxes had been going up at two to three times the rate of inflation for most taxpayers. All four of the other incumbents, including Mitch Mitchell and Neil Lipsitz, ignored his idea and moved ahead to rubber stamp the budget that had been presented to them.
This is what you get with the leadership you have now. Higher taxes, exploding growth and absolutely no new ideas about how to do anything about it.
To make matters worse, the council members continue to deny that they’re responsible for your tax rates or the city’s budget. How are we supposed to trust them to act on our behalf when you point out that your taxes are going up, they tell you that you’re wrong? Meanwhile your bank is telling you that your mortgage payments are higher because they raised your taxes. Both things can’t be true.
More than once, in recent meetings, when I’ve tried to discuss this with the incumbents, and Mr. Lipsitz has repeatedly brought up the fact that my wife’s name is on the title to my home. What a bizarre response to a tax question. Aside from the obvious fact that women are allowed to own property, the more relevant thing is that he won’t look far enough down on my tax bill to see that the city’s proportion of my taxes has gone up 9% in one year. He and Mr. Mitchell made that happen, but they continue to deny it, as if you can’t understand basic math.
I’ll make this as simple and transparent as I can, since Mr. Lipsitz is so interested in my property taxes. Just for the city, not the county or school district, my own taxes were $1760.28 in 2022 and went up to $1913.27 in 2023. According to every mathematician, economist and accountant that I’ve spoken to, that is an increase of about 9%. More importantly for you, that pattern matches most taxpayers throughout the city.
I’d rather be talking to you about the most efficient and effective ways to use your taxes, on parks, traffic, parking, police, and safety. But until we agree on who’s responsible for our taxes going up, we can’t take the incumbents seriously when they say they’re the best people to run the City of Beaufort.
Josh Gibson is a candidate for Beaufort City Council.
