MORNING NEWSBREAK | The Charleston County School District Board of Trustees on Monday voted 5-4 to approve a tax increment financing (TIF) district to help fund development of Union Pier.
Board chair Keith Grybowski, alongside trustees Carlotte Bailey, Ed Kelley, Pamela McKinney and Leah Whatley voted in favor of the measure. Trustees Daron Calhoun, Darlene Roberson, Carol Tempel and Courtney Waters voted against it. This represents another faction-line vote since the Moms for Liberty–backed majority of the board took power in 2022.
If the TIF district ultimately is established, the school district would give up taxes generated in Union Pier from rising property values for a certain amount of time. Union Pier is publicly owned currently and not taxed. In return for giving up taxes, the deal would allow the school district to have all of the office space in 75 Calhoun St., which now includes some city offices.
Some board members were in favor of approving with full participation, but other members said they did not want to wait 30 years to see revenue and would prefer 10 or 15 years to opt into the TIF district.
“Given that there’s not a direct educational benefit, and we’re not actually in the business of process development, I’m just trying to figure out why we would take this as something we should be doing as a school district,” Waters said in one report.
During the public comment section of the meeting, Charleston residents also voiced their concerns against participating in a TIF district.
“Why is the school district being asked to bear the largest share of the cost of this deal when it is the city of Charleston and the developer getting the largest share of the benefit?” asked one community member.
Another added, “Now some of us can afford an increase in property values, we take it for granted — no big deal. But there are a lot of people — white and Black — on a fixed income that cannot take another penny in the increase of their property tax.”
The TIF district proposal now goes back to Charleston City Council.
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