County leaders from around the state will head to Columbia on Wednesday to try to sort out what they’re going to do when Gov. Mark Sanford signs or vetoes a bill limiting how much property values can increase in periodic reassessments.

Before the Legislature adjourned earlier this month, it passed a bill that sets a 20 percent cap on increases in property values on homes and businesses for tax purposes.

“The governor is reviewing the bill” and has not decided what action he will take on the bill or when, Sanford spokesman Will Folks said.

Income tax reduction, not property taxes, has been one of the governor’s key issues.

The bill could stay on Sanford’s desk without action until January, because there is no requirement that he act on it before the Legislature returns in the new year.

The South Carolina Association of Counties has organized the meeting for nine counties now in the process of reassessing property values: Allendale, Bamberg, Beaufort, Berkley, Colleton, Darlington, Florence, Horry and Richland.

The counties were planning to use higher assessed property values in tax bills they'll send out this fall, said Michael Cone, the county association's executive director.

The legislation helps people with properties that increased significantly in value in the past five years avoid sharply higher taxes. “The guy at the top, he's getting the break, and the guy at the bottom is supplementing the guy at the top,” Cone said.

In Beaufort County, which has some of the state’s most valuable homes, assessor Bernice Wright said up to 75 percent of the property owners would pay less in taxes with the reassessment cap.

But the remaining taxpayers will make up the difference and there “will be increased taxes on automobiles, boats and business property,” she said.

“This is a tax shift. That's what this bill is,” Cone said. “It's shifting the burden from one class of property to another class of property.”

While counties tried to fight the legislation, Cone said the association hasn’t taken a stance on whether Sanford should veto it. Even if Sanford signs it, lawsuits could delay its implementation. And that could force counties to pay refunds that would come from school and public safety budgets, Richland County Auditor Harry Huntley said.

For most counties, the best course probably will be to wait a year to implement reassessment plans, Cone said. That would help them avoid refunds.

But Beaufort County already has used its one-time delay. Leaders there had hoped to send out property tax notices in July before sending bills out Sept. 1, Beaufort County Administrator Gary Kubic said. Delays could slow cash flow and force the county to borrow money to run schools and agencies.

“It gets to be a real mess,” Kubic said.

Beaufort County is programming its computers to handle taxation with and without the 20 percent cap, Kubic said. Depending on what Sanford does, “we can go one way or the other.”

During his administration, Sanford has focused more on reducing the state’s income taxes rather than property taxes.