Dorchester to study installment tax payments

SUMMERVILLE — Dorchester County will study whether to let residents pay their property taxes in installments, an idea that half a dozen other counties around the state have been trying.

Council is expected to give the proposal initial approval this evening and send it to a committee for more study. The main question in several council members' minds is whether sending out notices and collecting tax money in six chunks would cost more than it's worth.

Council will also study how many people would actually benefit. For instance, the plan would not help most people with mortgages, because their tax bills are typically escrowed and included with their monthly house payment.

The option would mainly help families and senior citizens on limited incomes who don't have mortgages on their houses, according to Angie Crum, president of the Ridgeville chapter of the NAACP. She appealed to council earlier this month to implement the installment plan.

State law allows counties to collect property taxes in six installments that are all due before the normal deadline to pay taxes, which is Jan. 15. It amounts to the county collecting money in advance, based on the previous year's tax bill. Overpayments would be refunded with interest.

Neither Charleston County nor Berkeley County offers the option.

Also this evening, Dorchester County Council is expected to give initial approval to a proposal to set some standards for rural areas zoned absence of controls. Councilman Richard Rosebrock said he made the proposal after the county had no choice but to allow a junkyard in the Rosinville community, which has no zoning in place.

Read more in Tuesday's Post and Courier.