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Will third time be the charm for town of James Island?
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
Betsy Reid is glad her James Island business, T.J. Tire & Automotive Center, is within the Charleston city limits. She is also fine with her home being in the newly incorporated town of James Island.
“I’m very happy with the services,” Reid said.
The only reason she prefers her business in the city is that she feels she gets better police protection, she said.
“Every time I needed them, the city was there,” she said.
Like most James Island residents, Reid crosses the boundary between the city and town several times a day. The business next to hers was formerly in the unincorporated area of James Island and now lies in the town, which received its charter July 6 from South Carolina Secretary of State Mark Hammond.
This is the third incorporation by James Island after two previously formed towns were dissolved by the state Supreme Court. Since James Island’s first incorporation efforts more than 10 years ago, the city of Charleston has twice fought these attempts to form a separate municipality and won.
The city’s view is that the new town would be a patchwork of land parcels ringed by tracts within Charleston’s city limits and that its boundaries would be vague. City supporters think the formation of a new town in the area will weaken the city’s economic strength and its opportunity to grow.
Supporters of James Island think the town will have more local control over zoning and more local government representation. As a municipality, James Island will also receive its share of money from the local option sales tax.
Opponents of the new town think taxes could rise and that the island does not have a large enough tax base to pay for services such as sanitation, road maintenance and fire and police protection.
Supporters say local options sales tax money will help pay for those things and may even provide some tax relief.
“Tax-wise, I don’t care who you’re with,” Reid said. “Taxes are taxes.”
Strong feelings
Another James Island business owner feels a bit more strongly about the Charleston vs. James Island struggle.
“I’d rather be in the town of James Island,” said Jenny Son, who owns House of Paints on Camp Road. Son moved to the island with her parents in 1958, when she was nine.
“I do not want to be part of the city of Charleston because all the tax dollars will go downtown to feed the mayor’s projects,” she said. “Our tax dollars will go downtown for those projects to attract tourists and not used on James Island, where they might be necessary.”
Howard Duvall, executive director of the South Carolina Municipal Association, said he thinks the formation of the town of James Island will have an economic impact on the other political subdivisions in Charleston County.
“When you make a false city that doesn’t want to provide the services that the city of Charleston provides, then you’re weakening a very important part of the economy of this state,” Duvall said. “The state of South Carolina depends on the economic development activities that are attracted because of the quality of life in the functioning cities of the county and if we siphon off the revenues that provide that quality of life, then we’re hurting not only Charleston County, but the regions around it and the state.”
With some 20,000 residents, the town of James Island is the county’s fourth-largest municipality. Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. does not think the island’s tax base is big enough to support it.
“They’re not going to get free services from the county,” Riley said. “They’re going to be made to provide their own services. They only have the tax base of home or residential property and you can’t run a city on that, so they will have to have quite high property taxes.”
Charleston objections
The mayor refutes allegations that the city wants to prevent James Island from becoming a town because the city wants the island’s tax revenue.
“Really, it isn’t much of a tax base,” Riley said. “The city is interested because it’s the right public policy and the city of James Island in many ways is already in the city of Charleston.”
About 40% of James Island is already within the city limits, including its recreation center, tennis courts and the James Island Charter High School, Riley said.
“The city is not encouraging fragmentation of government, having little towns here and there when they’re functioning as part of the city,” he said.
The city of Charleston intends to file another lawsuit challenging the legality of the island’s incorporation and lawyers are currently working on the case, Riley said.
State Rep. Wallace Scarborough, R-Charleston, said James Island already has proven its ability to viably function. Scarborough recently helped state Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, draft new legislation that made it easier for unincorporated areas to become municipalities.
“James Island has proven over the last two incorporations that they are a viable tax-collecting entity,” Scarborough said. “They have been banking money every time. What the city of Charleston says is, we’re going to lose tax revenue because of this. Is that to say Folly Beach and Sullivan’s Island and Moncks Corner are not viable and need to be dissolved because they are taking away money from the larger municipalities?”
Divvying up the pie
Charleston has been aggressively annexing property on James Island in recent years, house by house and neighborhood by neighborhood.
Kathleen Wilson, who represents the city portions of James Island on the Charleston City Council, said the city has annexed more than 300 properties since the last town of James Island was dissolved.
“They were all at the property owners’ requests,” Wilson said.
Wilson lives within the city limits on James Island but was once in the unincorporated area.
“I must say the public service district services were very good,” Wilson said. “It isn’t the quality of service, it’s just the belief in what constitutes a town and what’s good for the overall area. Do we need another municipality forming?”
Charleston County controller Harold Bisbee said the city of Charleston lost between $25,000 and $30,000 in state-shared revenues when James Island was operating as a town in 2004. North Charleston lost a little less and Mount Pleasant lost about half that amount.
The town of James Island won’t dramatically affect the county’s budget, Bisbee said. By law, all municipalities will get at least the same amount of local option sales tax they received the previous year, and then James Island will get its share.
“It won’t cost us any money, but what it will cost us is growth,” Bisbee said. “If we had $100,000 last year, we’ll get $100,000 this year, but with the way (the county) is growing, it could be $160,000. We won’t get that $60,000 if James Island gets it, but we won’t lose anything.”
James Island can officially begin operating as a town after elections on Aug. 29 determine the town’s governing officials.
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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