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COLUMBIA - A resolution letting voters decide in November if the property
reassessment system should change received key Senate approval Thursday.
The proposed change to the state constitution easily won the necessary
two-thirds approval.
The ballot question would ask voters if they want to limit the amount
property values can go up during reassessment. County assessors could not
increase values more than 15 percent every five years. The limit would not
apply to property sold or improved between reassessment cycles.
"This is Robin Hood in reverse," said Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Ridgeland,
one of two to vote against the measure. "These tax cap proposals favor those
with the most expensive properties. We are spreading the taxes to those with
some of the least expensive property."
Voters could opt out of the new system on a county-by-county basis. But
Pinckney said the poor homeowners in Beaufort County, for example, would be
outvoted by the affluent who would benefit.
The resolution passed after Republicans defeated a Democratic effort to also
ask voters if they want all school operating costs to come off of their tax
bills. Republicans argued a ballot question cannot be two-pronged.
Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, said it would confuse voters who might
support one part of the question and not the other.
Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, offered to break his proposal into a separate
question. Under his amendment, a "yes" from voters would make the state
responsible for all school operating costs and remove about 60 percent of
taxes from all property, including businesses, cars and rental homes.
Hutto said the expected $2 billion cost could be funded through increased
sales, cigarette and alcohol taxes, removing sales tax exemptions and, if
necessary, a statewide property tax.
"Turn all the cost of education over to the state," said Senate Minority
Leader John Land, D-Manning. "This is the only way South Carolina will ever
catch up ... so that a child in Clarendon County has the same opportunity as
a child in Rock Hill."
Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, called it a compelling argument but said
it was neither "the time nor the hour" to propose it. He said his
subcommittee should study it as it tweaks a House plan.
Leatherman's panel will take up a package approved by the House last week
that would cut most property taxes on owner-occupied homes by increasing the
state sales tax from 5 cents to 7 cents.
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, has repeatedly said
the Senate needs to keep the reassessment question and the tax-substitution
issue separate. Tacking one on to the other would kill both efforts, he
said.
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