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Richland County…Your Taxes Are Increasing Again

By
Real Estate Agent with Russell & Jeffcoat Real Estate Corp.

Richland County...Your Taxes Are Increasing Again

Columbia, SC    In November of 2004 voters agreed to a sales tax increase from 5 cents to 6 cents on every dollar spent in Richland County.  With this increase County Council would refrain from raising personal property taxes in the future.  Any one who voted for this increase was duped.  Since then the rate has steadily increased.

Tuesday night County Council agreed to ask voters this coming November to increase the sales tax from 7 cents to 8 cents on every dollar spent.   That's a 60% increase in 6 short years.  Not only that, but your family outings to Applebee's and all other restaurants in Richland County will be hit with a new 10% tax!  Tell me council members...how much is enough?  The goal is to rescue the local transit system and to repair and widen several roads.  This is infrastructure related and is always a good thing, but they also want to build new sidewalks, bike lanes and greenways.  These amenities need to be put off until the horrendous economy of Richland County comes up for air.  We have double digit unemployment and the housing market has tanked.  Now is not the time for "feel good" projects.   My hat goes off to Councilman Bill Malinowski for consistently voting ‘no' on these issues.

Also on Tuesday night Council approved a tax increase of $.80 per $100,000 of home value to fund our libraries and a tax increase of $1.20 per $100,000 of value for owners of business properties.  They also approved a $3 MILLION appropriation for the expansion of the Eastover library and planning for a new library for the NE Columbia area.  I wish this was Monopoly money they were throwing around but it's not.  It is yours.

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