COLUMBIA, S.C. — Some Richland County residents say they’ve seen an increase on their latest property tax bill.
According to Richland County’s Auditor, Paul Brawley, the increase is the result of a county wide reassessment on property taxes last year.
Residents were notified of the upcoming changes back in August.
“Most of the citizens that received the reassessment notice, I think they received them in August from the county assessor’s office and in most of those cases the property values have gone up and a lot of the cases it went up between 10 and 15%," explained Brawley.
Concerned Richland County taxpayers expressed their anger on social media, asking why their money is going towards areas like Midlands Technical College or Riverbank Zoo?
Brawley says it's all a part of making a better Richland County.
“Why we may not go to the zoo it's one of the things that attract a lot of people to Richland County and as a result of that hospitality taxes and other things come into the county because of that," he said.
If you were not on that list on people to receive the notice this summer, that likely means that your property value did not increase by more than $1,000.
“But if you still don’t agree with what your value is and it didn’t increase by more than $1,000 you have until January 15th which is the first penalty date to pay your taxes to appeal it, ” said Brawley.
If you were one of those people to get a notice you have until November 14th the go to the tax accessors office to appeal your tax balance.