Since the state House and Senate passed a last-minute bill limiting increases in property values to 20 percent in the last days of the legislative session earlier this month, Sanford has refused to comment on the bill. Spokesman Will Folks has repeatedly said the governor is reviewing it but he has no indication of when Sanford will make a decision.
If the governor signs the bill before July, the county can apply the 20 percent cap and send out tax notices and bills accordingly, County Council Chairman Weston Newton said Monday at a council meeting held at the Bluffton library.
However, preparing dual bills -- capped and uncapped -- for the county's 108,700 properties will cost between $64,000 and $70,000, officials said.
If Sanford does not sign the bill by July, the county would send out tax bills based on updated property values that are not capped, Newton said.
But if Sanford signs the bill after July, after the uncapped bills have been mailed, the county's tax bills would all be invalid, he said. Depending on the time, the county could be forced to issue refunds and recalculate and resend all tax bills. That scenario could mean the county would need to borrow money, paying interest, to run county operations while refunding tax payments.
Even if the governor vetoes the bill, legislators are likely to override it when they reconvene in January because the bill passed with overwhelming support in both houses. That, too, would make Beaufort County's tax bills invalid and could require refunds.
Counties are permitted by state law to delay the reassessment process for one year, an option other counties scheduled for reassessment this year are considering because of the uncertainty. Beaufort County, however, used up that option when members delayed the process in 2003 while considering a similar 15 percent cap that would have applied only locally.
S.C. Department of Revenue officials have said there might be a way to delay reassessment again if no course of action is clear, Newton said.
"Much of what we've been doing in the past 10 days is fact-finding," Newton said. "Absent (Sanford's) signature, we are left trying to figure out what he might do and when."
The county will not know what tax rate to set for its 2005 budget until the governor acts, county administrator Gary Kubic said. And no local governments will know how much money they can borrow in the coming year until the 20 percent cap matter is settled, one way or another.
That is because local governments are limited to borrowing 8 percent of their tax base by state law. If reassessed property values are capped, the total tax base is lower than without the cap.
Kubic said the borrowing dilemma is particularly relevant to the school district, which had planned to borrow money for several major construction projects in the coming year. The district is near its borrowing capacity, making the expanded tax base crucial.
In other business Monday, County Council:
The school district's budget request is $131.2 million, up from $125.1 million this year. That request included $100.8 million in county tax dollars, but the council voted Monday to fund only $97.8 million in county tax dollars.
Both budgets were approved 11-0.
The ordinance was brought forward after Hutchinson Island Terminal requested a permit to move its current operation to another location on the island, just south of the county's public boat landing.
Newton remanded the matter to a committee to determine whether barge landings are appropriate for the community preservation district.