Moultrie News

Moultrie News A weekly paper covering Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. To submit news, email [email protected] Moultrie News:
Your source for all things local!

Serving and celebrating the East Cooper Community including Mount Pleasant, Daniel Island, Isle of Palms, and Sullivan's Island.

09/24/2025

The Moultrie News was on-location earlier today at the Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch, where staff and guests were treated to a family-friendly Halloween tractor tour. In this clip, the tractor is entering the Disco Dungeon with KC & the Sunshine Band playing in the background. Boone Hall Farms

09/23/2025

✅ Setting the Record Straight on Pay, Surpluses & Public Safety

There’s been a lot of noise out there, don't fall for the political smokescreen, so let’s keep this simple:

1️⃣ Do our police officers and firefighters deserve to be paid the market rate for their jobs?
Yes. That’s how we retain good people instead of losing them to neighboring communities.

2️⃣ Can we pay salaries out of a “surplus”?
No. Surpluses are one-time windfalls—often from higher-than-expected sales tax or careful budgeting by our staff. By law, half goes to roads & stormwater, and the other half strengthens our reserves. Surpluses can fund projects or equipment, but you can’t build permanent salaries on temporary dollars.

3️⃣ What about reserves?
We maintain at least 25% of our budget in reserve (plus an extra 10% for hurricanes, earthquakes & emergencies). That’s good fiscal planning—and why we have a AAA bond rating.

4️⃣ So what does this mean for staffing?
First, we ensure our people are paid fairly. Second, we responsibly add public safety personnel to improve service—more patrol presence, more fully staffed fire engines, and better coverage for our growing community.

💬 Bottom line: Fair pay + smart staffing = safer neighborhoods and stronger community services.

09/23/2025

You get what you pay for.

Mount Pleasant is an affluent community with enviable safety statistics - though there have been some troubling recent incidents.

The question is whether the citizens want our town to stay safe. I think the resounding answer is YES!

Our recent wage and compensation survey revealed some troubling numbers when it comes to first responder pay. We also have a numbers problem when it comes to staffing.

Today, we voted 5-4 to maintain our millage rate at 41, capturing the reassessment of property values and generating enough revenue to ensure our first responder salaries can be competitive and that we can increase the number of positions for first responders - also to ensure we remain comparable to our neighboring cities.

Neighboring cities who, by the way, have millage rates that dwarf ours. Charleston sits at 89.8 and North Charleston at 95. We’re at 41!!

So please do not point fingers at our budget and claim it is bloated. Our town runs on a shoestring compared to our neighbors, and our administrator and staff do a wonderful job to maximize the services provided with minimal dollars.

Note: Legally we could have raised millage by over 8 mills and we did not. We simply maintained at 41. This was not a “max tax increase” as had been claimed.

We are a world class town deserving of world class service - particularly public safety.

If my last major act on counsel was to help ensure public safety for our community, I am satisfied.

09/22/2025

MORE MONEY FOR POLICE & FIRE

This morning, the Mount Pleasant Town Council voted 5-4 to maintain the same tax rate for the coming year. Due to the county’s five-year property reassessment, keeping the tax rate level will generate an additional $5.5 million/year.

The money will be used to increase the salaries of police, firefighters and other critical positions to remain competitive with our neighbors as well as enable the town to add new police officers and firefighters.

Our first responders have seen their departments stagnate in terms of overall staffing. We have roughly the same number of police officers and firefighters as we did in 2019, despite increases to the population and the number of calls for service.

The statistics are troubling. Charleston has 2.8 police officers per 1,000 residents; Mount Pleasant has 1.7. Many of our fire trucks, which should have four firefighters per national standards, are only staffed with three.

A recent wage study highlighted the disparities. A police officer with a bachelor’s degree can make $6,000 more a year in Charleston. A firefighter can make $5,000 more by going to work at Goose Creek.

When I ran for Town Council, I pledged to do everything possible to increase the wages of our first responders. The people who sacrifice life and limb for our town deserve to be able to make ends meet. That increasingly is not the case.

We also need to invest in hiring new police officers and firefighters to improve the public safety of our town. One of the most frequent requests I receive from citizens is that they want more police officers patrolling their neighborhoods.

Critics of keeping the same tax rate point to a $3.5 million surplus last year. I believe that is misleading. We live in an area that can be hit with natural disasters and must stockpile some resources to be able to respond and rebuild. Our town also has a $325 million list of infrastructure improvements that is currently unfunded.

By keeping the same tax rate, residents can expect to pay an extra $100 a year on a house that is tax-assessed at $700,000 (not Zillow pricing).

The Moultrie News is requesting Lucy Beckham HS high-res football still and action shots. We will happily credit any stu...
09/20/2025

The Moultrie News is requesting Lucy Beckham HS high-res football still and action shots. We will happily credit any student or parent photographers with photos to share. Charleston County School District Beckham PTSO Email us at: [email protected].

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East Cooper Community
Mount Pleasant, SC
29464

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