My number one objective for Goose Creek will always be economic development.
Economic development is the lifeblood of a city. When done right, a city’s economic development is proportional to its residential development. It allows a city to meet its citizens’ needs by attracting proportional spending from outside. Homes – residents – will always receive more than they give, and businesses will always give more than they receive.
With that in mind, we cannot continue to add residential neighborhoods to Goose Creek without also adding commercial investment.
Since the early 2000’s our city’s boundaries have grown, and so has its population. Montague Plantation Road alone has added thousands of new homes without any significant commercial investment. And again: more residents without new business is not sustainable.
We all want great police and fire protection.
Yet since 2008, as our population and land mass has grown, we’ve added zero police officers. I believe that we need to add 12 to 18 new officers (and at least two investigators) to continue to implement our successful “community policing” policy. Understanding the budget constraints, our police requested only six new officers for 2017. Yet we were only able to –barely – afford two.
Increased demands are also squeezing our fire department.
In order to build and staff two new fire stations (Old Mount Holly Road and the fire department headquarters) the city raised property taxes two years in a row. Soon, we will have to add two more stations, at Carnes Crossroads and Henry Brown Blvd. Construction will be about $5 million for both stations; staffing will be another $2.5 million annually.
How do we pay for new police and fire services?
Without an infusion of commercial investment, it is not possible.
Even if another property tax increase was not unpalatable to all of us, state law limits how much cities can increase property taxes in a single year. If we were to raise property taxes in 2017, it would garner about $80,000. This doesn’t get us far.
Furthermore, existing property taxes on a $300,000 home are $546 a year. The cost of a police officer is roughly $100,000 a year. We would need 183 new homes at that value to hire one police officer.
How did we get here?
To its credit, many years ago the City of Goose Creek obtained a TIF (Tax Increment Fund) District. In short, the city was able to keep $30 million that it would not have otherwise had over a 15-year period.
This money paid for capital improvements, including a new City Hall, and kept property taxes low. While utilizing this TIF saved us a lot, it was essentially a non-recurring revenue stream. Today, we have to fund capital projects like fire stations out of the general fund. The problem is, we have nothing to replace the revenue generated through the TIF.
Because of this stark reality, several years ago City Council wisely commissioned an economic study. The study gave us a blueprint for economic development, and one of its core recommendations was a rebranding of our city. Following this recommendation, several months ago City Council hired a highly respected marketing firm to do just that.
The experts soon realized what many of us have long known: Over the past four decades, Goose Creek has blossomed into a diverse, well-educated, high earning community. And that reality is a story that needs to be shared.
It needs to be shared with our neighbors in Charleston and Summerville. It needs to be shared with the business owner in California looking to relocate. It needs to be shared with the car parts manufacturer in Sweden looking for its piece of the fruitful economic pie that the Lowcountry has become.
It needs to be shared with everyone.
And this leads us to the logo. Part of the rebranding includes updating – if not altogether changing – a logo that, despite the strong feelings it understandably gives to longtime residents, does not represent what our city has become.
The marketing professionals believe strongly that a new, more colorful logo will help paint the picture of who and what we are. I am not a marketing professional, and I would not have thought to make such a recommendation. But after hearing all of the information, I agree that a new logo is appropriate.
These professionals have been tasked to come up with a great logo, and that’s exactly what I will demand that they do. But this potential logo change is but a small piece of a challenging puzzle.
This discussion is not about a logo. It’s about our city. And it’s about our future.
The progress that Goose Creek has made over the past four decades is awe-inspiring. Let’s work together to keep that progress going.
Regards,
Greg Habib
Goose Creek City Councilman
