COLUMBIA - The Senate churned its wheels on property taxes Thursday, but Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, hopes that leads to forward progress next week.
Senators adjourned for the week without taking a single vote on proposed property tax changes.
But Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau, presented a vast plan that would:
- eliminate school operations property taxes on homes and businesses
- increase the sales tax by 2 cents without exempting food
- create a "circuit breaker" to ensure that no one spends more than 2 percent of his or her household income on property taxes
- boost the cigarette tax by 93 cents to $1 a pack
- increase the sales tax cap on cars to $900
- allow a statewide millage on any property, including vehicles, except owner-occupied homes
- double the taxes on beer, wine and liquor
- remove several current exemptions from the sales tax
Mr. Grooms said the proposal addresses school funding by forcing the state to live up to its responsibility of funding education, but allowing individual school districts to decide how the funding should be spent.
Mr. McConnell said Mr. Grooms' proposal is, at least, a place to start negotiating.
The Senate resumes the debate next week, but time is running out. If the Senate doesn't pass property tax relief next week, it might be hard to pass property tax changes in the Senate and reach a compromise with the House before the session ends June 1, Mr. McConnell said.
Reach Kirsten Singleston at (803) 414-6611 or kirsten.singleton@morris.com.
