Duke’s 2016 property tax bill is satisfied

When you are Oconee County it’s nice to have Duke Energy in the neighborhood!  The electric utility satisfied its 2016 tax bill covering its massive property holdings in Oconee with a pair of electronic wire transfers received during the last two weeks by the office of County Treasurer Greg Nowell.  Those payments amount to $30.7 million dollars, two-thirds of which will be used to pay the bills of the county public school district.  The public schools are the major beneficiary of what is paid by the county’s largest taxpayer.  A breakdown provided by Nowell’s office shows the public schools will use $16.4 million dollars of the payment for operational costs; the remaining $4.6 million is applied to district debt.  That leaves around $9.7 million for Oconee County general government.