Anonymous
05-27-2005, 12:56 PM
From.......... http://www.commonvoice.com/article.asp?colid=2156
In July, Greenville County homeowners will be getting their new assessment in the mail. That will tell you what the assessor thinks your home is worth, and the new assessment will be used to determine your taxes.
State law prohibits local governments from using reassessment to get a tax windfall. In general, if reassessment increases the assessed value of property in a county by say, 25%, then the local taxing bodies have to roll back their millage rates by 25% in order to keep the average tax bill the same. In theory, if your property value appreciates more than average, reassessment will raise your taxes. If your property value appreciates less than average, you should see your taxes fall.
But there’s an exception. The law does not require the taxing bodies to adjust the millage on the levy that’s used to service bond indebtedness. Why? Sen. David Thomas explained on the Ralph Bristol Show yesterday, “There was an exception because you just didn’t have a problem with these bonds because they were fairly small numbers 25 or 30 years ago, so it only dealt with the rollback for operational revenue.”
Then, along came the Greenville County School District’s $770 million building program that turned into a $1 billion program. Now, we’re talking real money.
According to Thomas, the school district has decided not to roll back the millage rate on its bond issue – not because it needs the tax increase to service the debt. It does not, and officials admit they do not. So why not roll back the millage rate? “When I asked them that question,” said Thomas, “they said because they constitutionally can keep it.” As Thomas explained it, the Greenville County School District will raise your property taxes JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN.
The district will no doubt use the windfall to expand its billion-dollar building program, but district officials promised five years ago that the billion-dollar program would meet its needs for the next 20 years.
In July, Greenville County homeowners will be getting their new assessment in the mail. That will tell you what the assessor thinks your home is worth, and the new assessment will be used to determine your taxes.
State law prohibits local governments from using reassessment to get a tax windfall. In general, if reassessment increases the assessed value of property in a county by say, 25%, then the local taxing bodies have to roll back their millage rates by 25% in order to keep the average tax bill the same. In theory, if your property value appreciates more than average, reassessment will raise your taxes. If your property value appreciates less than average, you should see your taxes fall.
But there’s an exception. The law does not require the taxing bodies to adjust the millage on the levy that’s used to service bond indebtedness. Why? Sen. David Thomas explained on the Ralph Bristol Show yesterday, “There was an exception because you just didn’t have a problem with these bonds because they were fairly small numbers 25 or 30 years ago, so it only dealt with the rollback for operational revenue.”
Then, along came the Greenville County School District’s $770 million building program that turned into a $1 billion program. Now, we’re talking real money.
According to Thomas, the school district has decided not to roll back the millage rate on its bond issue – not because it needs the tax increase to service the debt. It does not, and officials admit they do not. So why not roll back the millage rate? “When I asked them that question,” said Thomas, “they said because they constitutionally can keep it.” As Thomas explained it, the Greenville County School District will raise your property taxes JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN.
The district will no doubt use the windfall to expand its billion-dollar building program, but district officials promised five years ago that the billion-dollar program would meet its needs for the next 20 years.