A lawsuit filed against the City of Greer alleges the city failed to cut its property tax rate enough after a 2025 countywide reassessment, driving up bills for homeowners on the Greenville County side of the city, and that it used a $100 million borrowing scheme to dodge constitutional debt limits on a new sports complex. Former State Senator Lewis Vaughn, a Greenville Republican, brought the suit against the City of Greer, Mayor Rick Danner and the ForGreer program.
The case, first filed in July and amended and refiled in mid-October, was updated to add former Mayor Don Wall, Michael Douglas Greer, James Edward Wall and the South Carolina Public Interest Foundation as plaintiffs, according to Greenville Online. South Carolina law requires taxing entities to roll back millage rates to keep revenue unchanged after assessed property values rise, and the lawsuit claims Greer's 2025 rollback should have been 6 mills rather than the 2 mills the city applied. The City of Greer has not responded to requests for comment, while the defendants' lawyers have denied the city's financial actions violated the law.
According to filings cited in the lawsuit, the shortfall caused Vaughn's own tax bill to climb from $992 to $1,121 between 2024 and 2025. The suit further claims that virtually every Greer property owner on the Greenville County side of the city paid more in taxes last year as a result. The city's lawyers countered that insufficient evidence supports the claim that nearly every affected property owner paid more in 2025, and in an October 7 response denied that Greer's millage violated state law.
What the Rollback Dispute Actually Seeks
Despite the sharp numbers, the lawsuit is not asking for cash refunds. Court filings reviewed by HERE Greer Politics indicate the plaintiffs want judicial orders requiring lower municipal tax rates and corrected rollback formulas going forward, rather than reimbursement of what residents already paid. The suit states that the city's failure to correctly implement the legally required rollback resulted in Greer collecting tax revenues substantially in excess of what the law authorized.
That distinction matters for the thousands of Greer households who may be watching the case for a payout that isn't actually on the table. Instead, the fight centers on whether the city's rate-setting process going forward complies with the formula state law demands after a reassessment.
The $100 Million Question Behind ForGreer
The lawsuit's second major claim targets how Greer financed its broader $100 million capital program, alleging the city improperly used the ForGreer nonprofit entity, established in 2024, to borrow beyond its general obligation debt limit. South Carolina law limits municipal general obligation bonds to 8% of a city's total assessed taxable property value, and Greer's cap sits at roughly $23.6 million. The city instead entered into a $100 million lease-purchase agreement through ForGreer, which the suit alleges was an attempt to circumvent that debt ceiling.
That financing structure isn't unique to Greer. Under Article X, Section 14 of the South Carolina Constitution, the same 8% debt cap applies statewide unless voters approve a referendum, which is why municipalities across the state have turned to Installment Purchase Revenue Bonds issued through nonprofit entities to fund major infrastructure, according to the Municipal Association of South Carolina. Defendants' lawyers have denied that Greer violated the state constitution or sought to circumvent state law in financing the $100 million lease, and said in their response that the city's actions are consistent with state and federal law and were adopted in good faith.
What the Money Is Building
Of the $100 million at issue, $60 million is earmarked for a new sports and events center expected to open in 2027. The city has separately detailed the project as a 200,000-square-foot facility on a 26-acre site that, as of October 2, was fully enclosed and set to include nine basketball courts convertible to 18 volleyball courts, a wrestling room, an indoor walking track and an on-site Prisma Health orthopedic clinic, according to the City of Greer. In August, the city and Prisma Health announced a 10-year, $3 million naming rights deal making it the Prisma Health Performance Center.
ForGreer has already produced one completed project: a $16 million public safety training center that opened in September, funded through $40 million in Series 2024 Installment Purchase Revenue Bonds, as Hoodline previously reported. That facility features a four-story fire tower and a tactical shooting range, and the Greer Fire Department holds an ISO Class 1 Public Protection Classification, a distinction held by fewer than 500 departments nationwide that can lower insurance premiums for residents and businesses.
Growth Pressure Behind the Spending Push
City officials have framed the ForGreer initiative as a response to explosive regional growth. Census Bureau estimates released in March showed the Greenville-Anderson-Greer metro area grew 9.25% between April 2020 and July 2025, adding nearly 86,000 residents to surpass 1 million total for the first time. That boom has fueled friction elsewhere in the county too, including fights over apartment development that Hoodline has covered in its reporting on rising rejections of housing proposals.
The South Carolina Public Interest Foundation, now a co-plaintiff, was founded in 2005 by the late Edward D. Sloan Jr. specifically to bring taxpayer lawsuits compelling state and local authorities to comply with constitutional spending limits and statutory requirements, according to Greenville Business Magazine. The organization has also been active elsewhere in state litigation, including a separate case before the South Carolina Supreme Court challenging Governor McMaster's National Guard deployments.
Vaughn brings decades of state government experience to the suit. He served 20 years in the South Carolina General Assembly representing Greenville and Spartanburg counties, in the state House from 1989 to 1995 and the state Senate from 1995 to 2008, according to records from the South Carolina Legislature. With the city's lawyers having filed their formal denial in early October, the case now moves toward further proceedings as both sides dispute whether Greer's growth-driven borrowing and tax rate decisions crossed constitutional lines.
