Mount Pleasant, South Carolina – Mount Pleasant Town Council has pushed forward with increasing the property tax or millage rate in order to enhance the salaries of first responders.
The town’s property owners may face an increase in their taxes, as council held a special meeting to vote on the matter. Charleston County reassesses each property every five years. If the value has increased, the taxes are most likely to have risen. Mount Pleasant sets its own millage rate to keep everything in balance. The Town Council opted to boost it by 3.7 with no rollback.
“We had a choice of 3.7 mills, and with inflation and everything else, we felt the need to stay up with the times and ensure that the level of service that our town requires is maintained, rather than reduced. Have the ability to use it to care for our team,” stated Mount Pleasant Council Member John Iacofano.
This is estimated to result in a $100 boost for a $700,000 valued home.
“Four of us believed that instead of raising taxes on our residents, we might apply it to it. So, there was no argument about what we needed to do for our first responders; it was only a matter of which pool of money to use,” said Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie.
It comes after municipal workers undertook a wage survey that revealed a compensation discrepancy for first responders. The departments can recruit, but the biggest issue is maintaining staff and ensuring they receive a reasonable compensation. The majority of council agreed that a raise for first responders is required; the disagreement was over where the cash should come from. Opponents sought to use current funding.
“The figures were set up. There was a $3.5 million surplus last year; we could easily use the current year’s surplus or portion of it to accomplish this without raising taxes,” Haynie stated. “That’s the reason for my vote.”
While others in favor, including Iacofano, believe the increase is well worth it to be supported in this manner.
“We have allowed ourselves to fall too far behind, and we are losing great personnel to municipalities around us, which we cannot accept. We don’t even pay average right now, and do we want to be average? Do we want to be the best? I want Mount Pleasant to be the finest!”
The millage rate is set to take effect in January 2026.
