The current Beaufort City Council race has been a non-stop back and forth about property taxes. On one side is candidate Josh Gibson saying that the reason he is running for council is because, “Those guys raised my taxes.” On the other side are ‘those guys’, incumbent City Councilmen Neil Lipsitz and Mitch Mitchell. The fourth candidate, Julie Crenshaw, has expressed her support for Josh Gibson’s assertion that the current City Council has consistently voted to approve budgets that raise taxes.
Neither side seems ready to back down or admit they are mistaken. Josh Gibson even offered to sit with Beaufort citizens and look up their tax bill on the county’s online tax lookup to prove that their taxes have gone up. Mitch Mitchell on the other hand insists, “We did not raise your taxes.” Mitchell and Lipsitz often cite the county’s 5 year reassessment of home values, and the fact that they reduced the millage for the TY 2024 budget.
Gibson’s argument is by the numbers. If your taxes are one thing one year, and they are higher the next, your taxes went up. He says that City of Beaufort property owners have seen a noticeable increase every year for the past four years. Mitchell and Lipsitz argue that the increases were out of their control.
So which is it? In order to answer that question, looking at the city’s financial transparency website will get you all the data you need. Understanding how the taxes are calculated and who has control over that will get you the rest of the answer.
Who controls your taxes?
Property taxes are calculated using a millage rate. The candidates have used this term a good bit during the campaign on both sides of the argument. The millage rate is the dollar amount you pay in property taxes for every $1,000 of your home’s assessed value. One mill equals $0.001. So, if the millage rate is 73.9 (which it is for TY2024 in the City of Beaufort), you pay $0.739 for every thousand dollars of your home’s assessed value. If your home is assessed at $400,000, you would pay $0.739 x 400 or $296.60 for your City of Beaufort property taxes.
When the city creates its budget for the year, it tries to estimate the amount of property taxes it will bring in that year. In order to have enough money coming in to operate the city, they determine what the millage rate should be and present that to the City Council. The City Council then approves the millage rate and the details of the budget for the year.
The City Council controls the millage rate and therefore controls the amount of your taxes. The county assesses the value of your home which will also determine how much you pay, but the final say is with the City Council who sets the tax rate for City of Beaufort taxes.
What does the data say?
The arguments amongst candidates are centered around the last four years. The budget and tax data are readily available on the city’s website.
| Value of 1 Mill | Millage Rate | City Revenue from Property Taxes | FY Appropriations (Operating Budget)* | |
| TY 2020 | $96,098 | 75.77 | $7,251,964 | $23,633,412 |
| TY 2024 | $128,731 | 73.9 | $9,266,244 | $30,121,631 |
| % change | +34% | -2.5% | +27.8% | +27.4% |
The budget amounts have gone up significantly in the last four years to include the amount of money collected through property taxes. This means that the citizens of Beaufort are paying more in taxes. With a significant 34% increase in the value of 1 mill, the only way to stabilize or lower taxes is to lower the millage rate which can only be done by City Council. The millage rate has gone down between 2020 and 2024, but only by 2.5%, not an amount that would offset the large increase in the value of 1 mill.
The data also shows that the operating budget for the city has increased 27.4% in four years, significantly higher than the 4.51% average rate of inflation for those 4 years.
So, who is right in the city council candidate tax debate? The incumbents say they did not raise taxes. However, the numbers tell a different story. Mitchell and Lipsitz did vote for a budget that slightly lowered the millage, but that same budget still raised taxes.
City of Beaufort taxes have gone up significantly each year of the four years Mitchell and Lipsitz have been on council. Gibson’s argument may seem simplistic, but it is difficult to refute when the city’s own reports show that they are bringing in $2M more in taxes in 2024 than they did four years ago.
Beaufort Insider published this previous article about the increase in City of Beaufort’s taxes: City of Beaufort Taxes Continue to Increase: City Spins the Facts
