Is County Council tone deaf?
In our last general election, County Council placed a referendum on the ballot for a 1% Sales Tax increase. It was resoundingly defeated by more than 70% of the voters. Did they not get the message?
Currently, (Council) is proposing to, once again, increase our sales tax by 1%, but not for capital and infrastructure projects. This time, they are abrogating their responsibilities to control and regulate growth, using current zoning codes, regulations and environmental restrictions. They have allowed unfettered building of cramped developments and become amazed when traffic congestion and public anger increases.
So, rather than do the job that we elected them to perform, they will increase our sales tax, amid rising inflation, looming recession, increased job loss, and rabid price increases, meanwhile decreasing tax revenue, by buying up and removing properties from the tax rolls. All in the name of slowing out-of-control growth they are responsible for!
Yes, this Council is tone death, especially after they voted themselves a pay raise last year, while you lost your income due to lockdowns and business closures during the pandemic.
What can we do? Act now, write your member, show up at the Monday, Aug. 8 meeting and get your voice heard. Tell them, “Do your job! No new taxes!”
– Ann Ubelis, Lady’s Island. Ubelis is the Chair of the Beaufort TEA Party.
Unhappy with the county tax office
The Beaufort County Tax (office) needs people working there that know what they are doing. We moved from Bluffton to Beaufort 28 months ago. They never changed the address for the boat we have. They did for the motor.
We only send out payments for what ever we receive in the mail or online. We paid the boat motor tax that we received in the mail. When we were prepping the boat for the summer we saw that the boat tag was out of date. Going online, we saw that the boat address was not updated.
I called the County tax people; they looked it up and said it was the SCDNR’s fault. I called the SCDNR, talked to them, they had the correct address. After talking to the County three times and the SCDNR three times, I went online and paid the tax of $60 plus a $10 late fee. I called the SCDNR, talked to them and had to mail in a $30 late fee. I mailed out the $30 fee with copies of the paid bill with the county June 16.
As of today the SCDNR has not received the check. Either the SCDNR lost it or the U.S. Postal Service lost it, as I mailed it at the Post Office. Now I have to print out the latest email from the SCDNR and mail another check and pay money to the bank to have a stop payment on the other check! Our late fee’s and stop payment fee are more than our tax. Thank you Beaufort County, SCDNR and USPS.
– Richard Adomat, Beaufort
