Commission Chairman Vows to Roll Back Tax Hike

Taylors residents will pay higher property taxes next year to rebuild a depleted reserve and to fund a station built nearly four years ago. 

But Doug Wavle, chariman of the Taylors Sewer and Fire Commission, promised that a portion of the tax hike - a 1.4 mill increase - would not be included in future budgets once the $800,000 fire station on St. Mark Road had been paid for. The budget that included the tax increase was authorized last month. 

"As soon as that lease is gone, that millage is gone," Wavle said. 

With the new millage increase, the owner of a $100,000 home would pay $195.20 for fire protection and $74 for sewer maintenance, a combined tax increase of $11.20 when compared to the last tax cycle.

The district built the station in 2007 using a lease-purchase option, but Wavle said commissioners have been too reluctant to increase requisite revenue to truly cover the new expenses attached to the project, which included six new firefighters (coupled with three transferred employees to make a three-man, three-shift rotation) and a new truck. Not enough new millage revenue was devoted in the past specifically to the Station 3 project, Wavle asserts. 

"If you don't increase taxes, and you spend more than you take in, how long can you really go on that way?" Wavle said. 

Another mill of the increase is expected to be devoted strictly to rebuilding the Taylors Fire Department's reserve, which was badly depleted in a cash-strapped 2010-2011 fiscal year.

By last December, the fire department couldn't meet payroll unless it borrowed from sewer funds. A month earlier, the crunch necessitated the layoffs of the fire department's three dispatchers. 

Last year, the special tax district funded an audit by Greenville accounting firm A.T. Locke. Wavle said ensuring a proper reserve was among the items touched on in the report.