This is the final Friday Report for the 2008 session of the General Assembly. All bills which did not pass this year are dead. The two-year cycle of the General Assembly will begin again next January with only bills introduced or re-introduced being considered over the next cycle. Shortly, SCAC will publish Acts Which Affect Counties, which serves as an exhaustive listing of those acts of the General Assembly which touch upon some aspect of county government. There will, of course, be numerous opportunities to hear in depth about selected topics at the SCAC Annual Conference and Institute of Government July 30-Aug. 3.

 1.

General Assembly Adjourns 

The General Assembly is finished for the most part, having addressed all of the actions taken before the June 25th session. However, they did amend the sine die resolution in S. 1469 to allow them to come back into session in October, if revenues in the first quarter of the 2008-09 Fiscal Year are 4 percent or more below projections used in the budget. Any October session would be limited to legislation to address shortfalls in revenues, gubernatorial vetoes and resolutions affecting the sine die adjournment date.

 2.

SCAC Had a Very Successful Year in the General Assembly

In the second year of the legislative session, it is unlikely for major legislation to be introduced and passed, unless it has already passed one chamber during the previous year. The second year is devoted much more to defense and a number of legislative proposals which would have been harmful were defeated. Despite that general rule of thumb, there were also several pieces of legislation passed which were supported by SCAC. A brief recap follows:

What Did Not Pass:

1. Repeal of Home Rule Constitutional Provision - S. 1105. This bill would have repealed the prohibition on single county legislation, which was a cornerstone of the 1973 Home Rule Act. Without this provision, virtually no decision of a county council would be exempt from reversal by the legislative delegation, and special purpose districts would be given a new life. S. 1105 received several hearings at the subcommittee level. Further consideration of S. 1105 was halted to allow for an in-depth study of the concept during the interim. Sen. Larry Martin is said to be Chairman of the study committee, although no formal announcement of appointments to this study committee has been made.
    

2. Local Spending Caps - H. 3615 and S. 718. H. 3615 would have imposed a spending limitation of the increase in the Consumer Price Index plus the increase in inflation upon local governments in addition to the existing millage rate cap. H. 3615 did not make it out of the House Ways and Means Committee. S. 718 was drafted as a state spending limitation, but several groups advocated adding local governments. The Senate did move S. 718 forward, but without a local spending cap. This was in large part due to the participation of local officials at the study committee’s public hearings last fall.
    

3. School District and Municipal Capital Projects Local Option Sales Tax - S. 1232 and H. 4378. S. 1232 (R. 362) will allow Horry and Charleston County school districts to call a referendum for a school project local sales tax, but an amendment to apply that statewide was defeated. H. 4378 would have allowed a municipal only capital projects sales tax, and it was defeated on the House floor.
    

4. Online Spending Registry. This proposal—requiring every expenditure of $100 or more to be posted to a searchable website with a detailed explanation and to be updated monthly—was defeated in subcommittee as S. 1144 and in the budget conference committee. The budget proviso was the last proviso considered, and it was only due to the efforts of numerous county officials that neither the House nor Senate version of this proviso was adopted. This avoided a huge expenditure of taxpayer resources in terms of both money and man-hours.
    

5. Local Sales Tax Exemption for Food - H. 4355. This bill sailed through the House, making the exemption for food from all local option sales taxes mandatory, and was amended in the Senate to make it optional. The provisions relating to the local sales tax exemption on food were stripped from H. 4355 in conference committee.
    

6. Stormwater Fee Exemption - H. 4337. This bill would have exempted agricultural and undeveloped land from stormwater management fees. It  died on the Senate floor.

What Passed:

1. Local Government Fund. The Local Government Fund was fully funded, according to the statutory formula.
    

2. E-Recording of Deeds - Act No. 210 ( R. 203, H. 3451). This bill authorizes a county to set up an electronic land title recording system.
    

3. Law Enforcement Training Reimbursement - Act No. 269 (R. 321, H. 3326). A jurisdiction which has a law enforcement officer hired away from them by another law enforcement agency would be reimbursed for 100 percent of the training expense within one year of completing mandatory training and 50 percent of the expense if hired less than two years, but more than one year after completing mandatory training. Reimbursement would be paid by the agency hiring the employee.
    

4. Illegal Immigration Enforcement - Act No. 280 (R. 327, H. 4400). This act requires all employers to verify the legal status of all new hires through the federal E-verify program or a valid driver's license/ID card issued by SCDMV.
    

5. Homestead Exemption Applications - Act No. 184 (R. 203, S. 652). This act allows the assessor to accept application by mail or internet for the elderly and disabled homestead exemption.
    

6. Tax Changes - S. 1171 (R. 359). This act amends §12-6-3310 to allow limited liability companies (LLCs) to qualify for certain economic develop-ment incentives in the same manner as corporations. The act also allows a county to change the amount of time a boat with multiple state tax situs must be located in South Carolina to become taxable to 180 days in the aggregate.

Jail Recodification — S. 181

S. 181, the jail recodification bill, is one of the big disappointments of the year. The Senate overrode the Governor’s veto of S. 181; however, the veto was sustained by a large margin in the House. Several House members spoke in support of the veto, warning of future law suits against the Department of Corrections based upon a failure to locate a prisoner close to his county of residence The provision addressing the location of state inmates within the DOC system which sparked the concerns was not part of the SCAC proposal, but was added to the bill on the Senate floor. S. 181 was a product of several years' work by SCAC's Local Detention Study Committee—which included county jailers, administrators, sheriffs and the Department of Corrections—and was much needed..

 4.

Taxation and Finance Bills

1. Reassessment Delay - H. 3975 (R. 377). This act was signed by the Governor on June 18 and allows a county to postpone reassessment for one additional year.
    

2. Residential Improvement Districts (RIDs) - H. 4745 (R. 422). This act became law June 17. The act is based upon the county improvement districts in Chapter 35 of Title 4—expanding upon that authorization, which allows assessments to finance public infrastructure and improvements.
    

3. Affordable Housing TIFs/Water District Sewer Service - H. 4743 (R. 386). This bill became law when the General Assembly overrode the Governor's veto. The act allows affordable housing to be the focus of a tax increment financing (TIF) district. It also includes the contents of H. 3030 to allow certain rural water districts to construct and operate sewage systems within the district. H. 4743 does not contain the COG provision which was in H. 3030.
    

4. Realtor Business Licenses - H. 4554 (R. 421). H. 4554 became law when the Governor's veto was overridden. This act is intended to clarify where realtor income is taxed for business license purposes and to avoid multiple taxation of that income. The act also prohibits a city or county from imposing a business license tax upon the gross receipts of an auctioneer for the first three auctions conducted by the auctioneer in the county or municipality, unless the auctioneer maintains an office in the county or municipality.
    

5. Sprinkler Installation Property Tax Credit - H. 4470 (R. 385). The Governor vetoed this bill, but it became law when the General Assembly overrode that veto. This legislation allows a county to grant a property tax credit equal to 25 percent of the cost of installing a fire sprinkler system. For those taxpayers who receive a property tax credit, they will also get a state income tax credit equal to 25 percent of the installation cost of the sprinkler system. There are no caps on the amount of the cost of the sprinkler system. Water tap and maintenance fees for sprinklers are capped at actual costs.

 5.

General Government Operations and Structure

1. Recreational SPD Dissolution - H. 4754 (R. 424). This bill was signed into law on June 16. It allows a special purpose district that only provides recreational services to voluntarily dissolve and transfer its authority to the county. The SPD has to hold a public hearing prior to adopting a resolution and requires a two-thirds majority of the SPD board, county council and the county legislative delegation to approve the dissolution.
    

2. Firefighter Background Checks - Act No. 309 (R. 397, H. 5009). This bill provides that no person may volunteer, be hired as a firefighter or perform firefighting duties who has been convicted of, pled guilty or pled nolo contendere to arson within the past 10 years. The bill was signed by the Governor on June 11.
    

3. Combined Registration and Election Boards - S. 1106 (R. 352). S. 1106 became law on June 12 and is an effort to combine county registration and election boards in a constitutionally sound manner. The bill codifies the numerous local acts which have been used to combine these boards, without making substantive changes to existing structure in each county.
    

4. EMT Background Check - Act No. 304 (R. 381, H. 4334). This act requires a criminal background check before employment as an EMT or upon renewal of an EMT license. It became law on June 11.
    

5. Local Sales Tax Food ExemptionGeneral Election Funds - H. 4355. A conference committee stripped out all of the tax provisions of the bill and adopted a report appropriating $3 million for the 2008 general election. The balance of the funds provided in the bill will go towards the purchase of new school buses. The bill is awaiting consideration by the Governor.

 6.

1. Erroneous Mortgages Satisfaction - H. 3033 (R. 409). This bill was signed into law on June 16 and would create a procedure for the filing of a rescission of an erroneous mortgage satisfaction.
    

2. Child Support Garnishment/Centralized Child Support Collection -
   H. 3478 (R. 373). H. 3478 was signed into law on June 11. The act allows a judge to order wage garnishment, if a person is at least three months in arrears on child support and creates a statewide centralized system for child support collection by 2010, as is mandated by the federal government.
    

3. Deed Recording Fee Exemption - Act No. 292 (R. 379, H. 4067). This act exempts from deed recording fees real property deed transfers from a trust to a trust beneficiary. The bill was signed June 11.
    

4. Protective Orders - Act No. 303 (R. 380, H. 4312). This act provides that a protective order established by reason of incapacity other than age does not automatically terminate upon the incapacitated person reaching the age of majority. The act also grants persons holding a health care power of attorney the same right of access in a health care facility as immediate family members. This act was signed by the Governor on June 11.
    

5. Evidence Warehousing/Unidentified Body Identification - S. 429. S. 429 contains the evidence warehousing requirements supported by the Innocence Project program to allow post-conviction DNA testing for crimes involving death or first degree burglary. This will require clerks of court and sheriffs to retain evidence in these cases for longer periods of time. S. 429 was amended to include the contents of S. 890 that require DNA samples be taken upon a custodial arrest and a requirement that county coroners take DNA samples from unidentified bodies to compare against a missing persons database and transport bodies to MUSC for storage/possible return to families of the deceased. This bill is awaiting action by the Governor.
    

6. Textile Communities Revitalization Act - H. 4950. This bill redefines what is an eligible site for incentives under this act to accommodate larger mills which may have to be demolished and redeveloped, rather than rehabilitated. The Governor vetoed this bill, and the veto was unanimously sustained in the Senate. However, a nearly identical bill became law as part of S. 1171 (R. 359).

RATIFICATION OF ACTS

The following bills were passed by both chambers and were sent to the Governor:

(R. 401) S. 181 - Provides for an update of the laws relating to local jails to reflect current practice, court cases and delete obsolete code provisions. The Governor vetoed this bill and the Senate voted to override the veto, but the  veto was sustained by the House.

(R. 402) S. 530 - Codifies numerous provisos which have been in the budget act for several years. Allows coastal counties and municipalities to adopt, by reference or otherwise, the provisions in the 2006 International Residential Code (IRC) necessary to prevent properties insured by the National Flood Insurance Program (NIFP) from being retrograded to a lower class for purposes of the flood insurance premium discounts allowed jurisdictions participating in the NFIP’s community rating system.

(R. 403) S. 577 - Expands the jurisdiction of magistrates court, authorizes a $25 fee to the clerk of court for processing a surety’s motion to be relieved on a bond, and requires a courtesy summons to be sent to person charged with a misdemeanor where the warrant is signed by non law enforcement personnel. The Governor vetoed this bill, but it was overridden by the House and the Senate.

(R. 409) H. 3033 - Provides a procedures for the filing of a rescission of an erroneous mortgage satisfaction.

(R. 410) H. 3094 - Provides that a convicted sex offender cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school, daycare center, children's recreational facility, park or public playground.

(R. 411) H. 3212 - Provides that a person who holds a valid out of state concealable weapons permit by a reciprocal state must be honored by this state, if the reciprocal state requires a background check and a course in firearm training and safety.

(R. 414) H. 3623 - Authorizes the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy to take on many of the functions formerly assigned to the Department of Public Safety.

(R. 416) H. 3812 - Creates two additional millage cap limitation exceptions. The Governor vetoed this bill, but the veto was overridden by the General Assembly.

(R. 419) H. 4344 - Creates the Palmetto Pride Nonprofit Corporation, which is authorized to implement statewide and local programs for litter control.

(R. 421) H. 4554 - Provides clarification for where realtor business income is taxed for business license purposes and avoids multiple taxation of that income by giving credit to the jurisdiction where the sale occurs, when the sale is reported to the broker in charge office in another jurisdiction from the jurisdiction where the sale occurred. The Governor vetoed this bill, but the veto was overridden by the General Assembly.

(R. 422) H. 4745 - Expands the authority of residential improvement districts by allowing assessments to finance public infrastructure and improvements.

(R. 424) H. 4754 - Authorizes a special purpose district that only provides recreational services to voluntarily dissolve and transfer its authority to the county.

(R. 429) S. 429 - Provides for post-conviction DNA testing for crimes involving death or first degree burglary and requires DNA samples to be taken upon a custodial arrest. This legislation also authorizes DNA samples to be taken from unidentified bodies to create a missing persons DNA database.