A special tax district for the town of Mt. Pleasant ends in June which means next school year, the Charleston County School District will see a boost of close to $8 million. It’s because of the end of a 15 year TIF (Tax Increment Financing). Basically, the town of Mt. Pleasant was able to divert some property taxes to economic development because the area was growing so quickly.

Mt. Pleasant Mayor Linda Page says, “Those projects are separated out and they are funded separately, so it doesn’t have anything to do with our day to day budget. It has to do with those big projects where we really stepped outside and did these huge redevelopment projects.”

Some of those projects include the new Town Hall, Waterfront Park, Shem Creek, and Coleman Boulevard. Tax payers will not pay any more or any less money, it’s just a matter of where that money ends up.

Charleston County School District Chief Financial Officer, Glenn Stiegman, says, “Mt. Pleasant will get no less money because their bonds are paid, and we will receive the money the tax payers will be paying anyway.”

CCSD has already included the millions of dollars in next school year’s budget, and it’s going to jobs.

Stiegman says, “We are recommending to the board to restore 45 of the positions we reduced this year in elementary schools. We are also looking to rebuild some of the positions we have in terms of literacy and student support services.”

This will bring back about 1/3 of the teacher jobs CCSD cut last year due to the budget deficit, and bring down class sizes.

Stiegman says, “You’ll have fewer children in the class and more teachers in the schools.”