By Betsy Finklea
The Dillon County Council was informed at a recent meeting that reassessment will have to be postponed until next year.
County Administrator Clay Young said this postponement would be done by ordinance. The ordinance readings have to be completed by June. They will have to reassess the properties and put them in the system and notices of the reassessment will go out next March or April. When asked by Councilman Stevie Grice why this was necessary, Young said it was due to the tax assessor not getting being able to get the information in the time frame. He said this should have been done this time last year, but it wasn’t.
Vice-Chairman Harold Moody said that he thought the council had discussed getting an outside firm to do the reassessment this time. Young said they can do that and this may be something that council wants to consider. If that is the case, Young said they can get the firm in during March or April to get the information compiled. Moody asked if they would still have to put off reassessment if they hired a firm. Young said this is correct. It was last reassessed five years ago.
Moody commented that just because something is reassessed does not necessarily mean it goes up; it can also come down. Young said that was correct. There is a cap of a 15 percent increase every five years on how much owner-occupied housing can be reassessed due to Act 388.
Every property in the county will be reassessed except for the industry which is done by the state.
Homeowners, rental property, and commercial property is done by the county.
Moody said he would like to have a workshop on what they would like to do in the future.
The ordinance is not official or final until the third reading.
The council has passed two readings of this ordinance.
