School board votes to set general-fund millage at 109.1 mills after debate over CPI add-on

Horry County School District board members on Aug. 14 debated how to respond to the county’s 2024 reassessment before ultimately moving to set the district’s general-fund millage at the state-calculated rollback of 109.1 mills.

At a special-call meeting, district finance director John Gardner told the board the district’s previously adopted millage was 118.1 mills and that the statutory rollback calculation produced 109.1 mills. Gardner said staff recommended applying the consumer price index (CPI) to the rollback — a 4.4 percentage-point adjustment — which would raise the district’s proposed operational millage to 113.5 mills while leaving debt service at 10 mills. Gardner described the CPI addition as a commonly used statutory allowance to protect revenue against assessment appeals and growth-related uncertainty.

Board member Shanda Allen moved to adopt the rollback rate of 109.1 mills, arguing that adding CPI and calling the result a “rollback” would be misleading to taxpayers and would shift a greater share of the burden onto non-owner-occupied and commercial property owners. Allen said, “You can’t call it a rollback and not a tax increase when…we want to put it at 113.5.” Supporters of the CPI adjustment, including board members who cited rising operating costs and recently approved salary increases, said the incremental revenue would protect the district from dipping into reserves.

The board debated the choice for more than an hour. Members pressed Mr. Gardner for details on distributional impacts: owner-occupied residences with a 4% cap would see little or no change, while rental and commercial properties could face higher bills. Gardner said the reassessment excluded growth and estimated roughly $27–30 million in new taxable growth that would affect the district’s revenue picture regardless of the millage decision.

When the chair called the question, members voted by roll call. The transcript records a fragmented tally — individual members announced yes and no votes — and contains internal confusion immediately after the count, with one speaker saying the motion had not passed and another saying the motion had passed at 109.1 mills. The board then moved to resolve debt service separately; members unanimously approved keeping debt service at 10 mills.

The board did not adopt the staff-recommended 113.5 mills. The transcript indicates the board adopted a millage of 109.1 mills, but the contemporaneous record of the vote contains contradictory statements and should be confirmed in the official minutes and the clerk’s certified tally.

Next steps: the district will transmit the adopted millage rate to the county auditor to meet the statutory deadline for tax billing. Mr. Gardner warned that setting the rate tonight was necessary to avoid delaying tax bills.