Gov. Mark Sanford’s decision to veto the 20 percent cap on property tax reassessments will likely mean different things to different people, finance officials in Florence and Darlington counties said.
Both governments took different tracks with the reassessment process. They sent out notices to property owners, but Florence opted to delay the implementation of theirs while Darlington County decided to move forward.
Kevin Yokim, Florence County’s finance director, said the county will likely play out a waiting game to see if the General Assembly ultimately decides to override the veto. If it holds, however, reassessment would likely commence in the coming year.
“We will go through reassessment next year, but it will still be based on 2004 values,” he said. “We’ll also have to decide if we need to send out notices again.”
Former Florence County Administrator Joe W. King said he agreed with Sanford’s decision.
“I think he did the right thing,” he said. “There were just too many complicating issues.”
The S.C. Chamber of Commerce expressed similar sentiments, saying the decision circumvents what would have been an unfair shift in the tax burden to a large proportion of homeowners, small businesses and manufacturers.
“The tax cap would have created a fundamental deviation away from fair market value assessment and cause a number of serious, and eventually catastrophic problems that would have been compounded year after year with new property assessments,” according to a press release.
Jack Newsome, assessor for Darlington County, said he doesn’t see the veto having any significant effect on property owners there.
“We couldn’t crystal ball this thing, so we went with the way state law was at the time,” he said. If the Legislature happens to override, Newsome said, then it will just be a matter of issuing refund checks to those who come in above the 20 percent cap.
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