Aiken County is major beneficiary of SCE&G property tax payments

Aiken County ranks sixth in the state in the amount of property tax it receives from SCANA Corp., the parent of South Carolina Electric & Gas Co.

According to a company filing, SCANA and its subsidiaries paid more than $150 million in property taxes in South Carolina during 2011, including $8.4 million to Aiken County.

The utility’s Urquhart Steam Generating Plant is in Beech Island.

SCANA’s largest single
tax payment, $28.7 million, was made to Lexington Coun­ty.

Other significant payments included $26.4 million to Richland County,
$23 million to Fairfield Coun­ty, $12.3 million to Charles­ton County and $11 million to Orangeburg Coun­ty.

SCANA, based in Cayce, has about 665,000 power customers in South Car­o­lina and more than
1.2 million natural gas customers in South Caro­lina, North Carolina and Georgia.