General
Statement of Policy
The
South Carolina Association of Counties is
committed to the concept of Home Rule. It is
only by allowing the citizens of the state’s
counties and communities to govern themselves
by electing their own local governing bodies
that local communities are able to tailor the
governmental services available to each
community’s individual needs and wishes. An
integral part of providing services for the
community is the ability to both adequately
fund and fund in a fair and balanced manner
the services provided.
In
the same manner that no two communities want
or need the same services or level of
services, no two communities need or want the
same package of revenue raising measures. The
South Carolina Association of Counties is
committed to providing a menu of revenue
raising mechanisms to ensure that local
governments can provide the services and
levels of service that the citizens demand and
expect. By allowing each community a range of
revenue producing mechanisms, each community
is better able to fund public services in a
manner which is fair and balanced for that
particular locality.
The
South Carolina Association of Counties
believes that no matter what revenue raising
mechanisms are used, the mechanisms must be
fair to both the individual taxpayer and the
community of taxpayers as a whole. Efficiency,
manageability, and stability of the revenue
sources used must also be factors in
determining the proper method of funding
locally provided services.
Policy
Positions
Appeal
Procedures
Payment
of Interest on All Property Tax Re-funds — Support
an amend-ment to § 12-54-25 to require that
interest be paid on property tax refunds only
when refunds occur as a result of the formal
appeal process.
Assessment
Issues
Adjustment
of Real Property Assessment Due to Fire Damage —
Support an amendment to limit the applicability of
§ 12-39-250 to owner-occupied residential real
estate and clarify the operation of the statute.
Disclosure
of Rents and Operating Expenses — Support
legislation to authorize the assessor to obtain
income and expense data for use in valuing income
producing properties within the county.
Motor
Vehicle Valuation Tapes — Support continuation
of the requirement that the S. C. Department of
Revenue provide vehicle valuation tapes to the
counties for property taxation purposes. This will
provide for the uniformity of vehicle valuation from
one jurisdiction to another.
Property
Tax Assessment Ratios — Oppose any further
proposals which would reduce or restructure the
property tax assessment ratio system. Assessment
ratio reductions shift the property tax burden to
other property tax payers and reverse recent
property tax relief programs for homeowners and
individual car owners adopt-ed by the General
Assembly.
Qualification
for Legal Residence Assessment Ratio — Support
legislation which continues to ensure that only one
residence qualifies for the legal residence special
assessment ratio and eliminates the statutory
language which might allow out of state residents to
claim more than one home as a legal residence.
Real
Time Additions to Property Tax Base — Refer
this issue to the study committee that the SCAC
President has been asked to appoint to study other
aspects of the property tax system.
Rental
of Legal Residence Property — Support
legislation to allow residential property to be
rented for 14 days without loss of the legal
residence assessment ratio.
Time
of Sale Rollback Recognition — Support a
change in the time for termination of the
agricultural use valuation. The agricultural use
valuation should be dropped when the land is sold.
Valuation
of Mobile Homes — Mobile homes constructed
after adoption of the federal HUD Code should be
appraised for property tax purposes in the same
manner as site-built homes, not through the use of a
depreciation schedule.
Valuation
of Subsidized Housing — Oppose any special
property tax valuation rules which do not recognize
the entire value of the property.
Expanded
Revenue Authority
Limitations
on Local Government Debt — Support an
increase of the Constitutional general
obligation debt limitation from 8% to 12% or
authorization of limited obligation tax bonds
which could be issued without being subject to
the general obligation debt limitation.
General
Annual
Financial Audit — Support an amendment to § 4-9-150 to allow
county council to designate the independent auditor for a period not
to exceed three years.
Conservation
Land Bank — Support an amendment to the Conservation Land Bank
bill which would allow for funding of the Bank without a corresponding
reduction in the Local Government Fund.
Coordination
among Local Governments Using the Same Tax Base — Oppose
legislation to require that each political subdivision consent to
changes to common tax bases.
Inflation
Factors — Support legislation to make uniform the various
inflation factors used to regulate local government millage rate
increases and local effort maintenance for schools.
Joint
Acquisition, Financing and Administration of Projects, Systems or
Programs — Sup-port proposed legislation which addresses a
general purpose joint agency operations and bond authorization.
Local
Government Fund — Urge continued full funding of the Local
Government Fund formula. The Local Government Fund functions as
property tax relief. To cut this source of funding would put added
pressure upon the millage rate applied to all classes of property.
State
Mandates — Support amendments to § 4-9-55 to clarify that the
two-thirds vote requirement be met on second reading of legislation.
Support amendments to the fiscal notes statute, § 2-7-76, to clearly
make it applicable to appropriations bill provisos and require fiscal
impact statements at the committee level in addition to the fiscal
impact statements required during floor debate on legislation.
Statewide
Central Business Licensing — There are numerous practical,
technical and legal issues to be addressed and worked through prior to
integrating local government licensing and permit-ting processes into
the state’s centralized permit-ting and licensing system. Until such
time a thorough study can be made and any problems adequately
addressed, local permitting and licensing processes should not be
included in any centralized system.
Property
Tax Enforcement And Collections
Auto
Dealer Continuing Education — Support the addition of a county
auditor as a member of the board which develops the curriculum for
auto dealer continuing education.
Automobile
Property Tax Enforcement — Support measures to continue to
improve collections of vehicle property taxes which have been billed,
but not collected, and inclusion of all taxable vehicles in the tax
system. Estimates of uncollected vehicle property taxes approach $100
million statewide. The package of additional measures the Association
supports includes:
1.
Instead of transferring a license tag upon purchase of a new
automobile, a citizen would be issued a new license tag which had
either a 120-day sticker or the same sticker date on the tag which
would have otherwise been transferred to the new vehicle. Taxes on
the new vehicle would be due upon the expiration of the sticker for
the newly issued tag.
2.
Require a decal indicating the county of residence on all license
plates.
3.
Authorize the enforcement of property taxes, vehicle registration
statutes, and possibly automobile insurance laws in the same manner
as ordinances. Specifically, allow code enforcement officers to
issue ordinance summons for these violations.
4.
Require vehicle registrations to contain a physical address for the
vehicle registered, in addition to the mailing address of the owner.
5.
Determine if legislation is needed for a county to use the
"Denver boot" on vehicles for failure to pay property
taxes.
Electric
Utility Deregulation — SCAC asks that any utility deregulation
take into account the impact on local government revenue and that
local governments be held harmless in some fashion for any loss of
utility-related revenues.
Interest
on Property Tax Payments — Support SCATT proposed legislation
that would state that interest does not apply to property tax
payments.
Motor
Carrier Taxation — Support an amend-ment to the motor carrier
taxation system to delete the requirement that a motor carrier be
South Carolina-based in order to be included in the taxation system.
Support a further refinement of the distribution formula to more
closely parallel the physical location of the assets being taxed.
Non-Resident
Vehicle Registration — Support legislation to provide a process
for the auditor to inquire as to the status of a vehicle not
registered in South Carolina and solicit sufficient data to determine
if the vehicle should be registered in the county.
Partial
Payment of Property Taxes — Oppose authorization of partial
payment of property taxes.
Personal
Property Taxes — Support the unifica-tion of real and personal
property tax bills for personal property in rental condominiums and
business personal property into the real property tax bill for the
location with which the personal property is associated.
Property
Tax Study Committee — Ask the SCAC President to appoint a
committee to study aspects of the property taxation system and make a
report back to the Steering Committee in time for consideration during
the 2002 legislative policy development process. The committee should
be representative of the officials involved in the property taxation
system.
Property
Taxation of Mobile Homes — Support legislation to clarify and
establish streamlined collection efforts relating to property taxes on
mobile homes.
Surviving
Spouse License Tags — Support legislation to allow an inherited
deposee to change the title and registration of a vehicle into their
name without charge and without changing the property tax year of the
vehicle.
Tax
Sale Partition Standards — Support an amendment to § 12-51-40
to clearly set forth standards to be used to divide property for tax
sale.
Tax
Situs of Aircraft and Watercraft — The test governing the
property tax situs of aircraft and watercraft needs to be amended to
make any aircraft or watercraft that is located within the borders of
the state for some continuous period of time or some longer aggregate
period of time within any given year subject to property taxation for
the year, with credit given for property taxes paid to another
jurisdiction. Taxation officials should also be allowed to require
disclosure of flight logs.
Temporary
License Tags — Support a system of temporary vehicle tags which
will facilitate law enforcement and make property tax records more
accurate and current. The cost of producing and handling temporary
vehicle tags must be covered by charges.
Property
Tax Issues Involving School
Funding
School
Millage Levy and the EFA
— Support legislation to clearly require the use of the estimated
attendance figures provided by the Department of Education when
determining the per pupil funding requirement. In addition, there
should be an adjustment in the following tax year to compensate for
the variance between the estimated and audited attendance figures.
The
South Carolina Association of Counties supports legislation to clearly
designate the use of the appropriated budget amount as the benchmark
figure to be used for purposes of calculating maintenance of local
effort under the EF
ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
The
South Carolina Association of Counties believes
that bringing new industry into the community
and encouraging the expansion of existing
industry is vital to the continued growth and
vitality of communities across the state. Not
only does new investment in the community
increase the tax base, it creates jobs and
ensures the retention of existing jobs in the
current environment of corporate downsizing.
Expanding the available jobs creates opportunity
for the young people of the community and
creates a ripple effect whereby the small
businesses are provided with customers and
clients that have the economic ability to
purchase their goods and services.
Economic
development incentives can be a powerful tool in
the process of attracting new investment and
expansion of existing businesses. However, the
decision to grant an incentive from a source of
revenue which supports local services must be
made with the knowledge of the effect of that
incentive on the local government’s continued
ability to meet the needs of its citizens. That
decision is one which should be left entirely to
the local officials who must weigh the effects
of the new investment, any increased demands for
local services, and the local government’s
ability to meet those needs.
Policy
Positions
Fee-in-Lieu-of-Tax
Summaries — Support propos-ed -SCATT legislation that would
require a summary of fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreements -be given to the
county auditor, treasurer and assessor.
School
District Participation in Economic Development Incentive Negotiations
— Refer this issue to the SCAC Board for final decision as required
by future developments.
2000-2001 Revenue,
Finance and Economic
Development Steering Committee
Barrett
S. Lawrimore, Chairman
Charleston
County Council Chairman
County
Representatives:
John E. Caldwell, Newberry
County Council Chairman
Jeffrey A. Horton, Spartanburg
County Council Vice Chairman
Wilhelmina Pl. Johnson, Darlington
County Council Chairman
John Kost, Horry
County Council Vice Chairman
Robbie Metts, Berkeley
County Director of Administration
Isaiah Odom, Bamberg
County Council Chairman
L. Hoke Parris,
Cherokee County Council Chairman
Bruce E. Rucker, Lexington
County Council Chairman
C. Michael Short, York
County Council Chairman
Steven E. Stewart, Greenville
County Administrator
John D. Weir, Jr., Chester
County Supervisor
SCAC
Board Members
Belinda
Copeland, Darlington
County Treasurer
Patsy G. Knight, Dorchester
County Treasurer
Clyde B. Livingston, Orangeburg
County Council Vice Chairman
James
H. Rozier, Jr., Berkeley
County Supervisor
K. G. Rusty Smith, Jr., Florence
County Council
David K. Summers, Jr., Calhoun
County Council Chairman
President's
Appointees:
George N. Bryant,
Pickens County Auditor
John A. Cloyd, Richland County Assessor
Nelson Lindsay, Kershaw County Economic
Development Director
John D. Scarborough, Berkeley County Economic
Development Director
Linda Sharpe, Aiken County Treasurer
Bernice Wright, Beaufort County Assessor
SCAC
Staff Contact: Robert S. Croom
The
responsibilities of the Revenue, Finance,
and Economic Development Steering
Committee include issues relating to the
ad valorem tax system, to include
assessment, collection, and administrative
functions; local option sales tax and
other specific authorizations for local
use of sales taxes; business license
taxes; service and user fees; franchise
fees; state aid to subdivisions’ local
government fund; lease-purchase financing;
fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreements; and
economic development incentive programs.
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