Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the new Ways and Means subcommittee will review several property tax relief proposals, including freezing property values until the land is sold, increasing the state's sales tax to replace some or all of property tax collections and capping tax bills in reassessment years.
Beaufort County residents and local officials have been monitoring tax relief talks after a countywide reassessment last year left some residents with sticker shock as property values increased as much as eight times their 2003 values.
Harrell said Beaufort residents aren't alone in the call for tax relief, but rural counties haven't supported property tax measures in the past and local governments and school districts around the state have questioned how some measures would affect their budgets.
"Local governments say leave it alone, but the people want us to do something about it," Harrell said at the Beaufort Republican Women's luncheon held at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
Harrell said the new committee will be formed over the coming weeks.
"Hopefully we can fashion some sort of property tax relief that can get through the House and the Senate," he said.
The chairman was upbeat about the state's budget that recently received unanimous approval from the Ways and Means Committee and should be on House members' desks for approval next week.
"South Carolina's fiscal house is back in order," he said.
Harrell said three straight years of budget cuts were beneficial in that they forced the state to live within its means. Now that state revenues are back up, priorities in the new budget include needed pay increases for state law enforcement and other state employees, and increased education funding as well as earmarks to pay back trust funds raided during the lean years.
"We're through the rough times," he said. "It's time to put the money back."
With Beaufort and other military communities around the state preparing for a base closure process expected to shutter a quarter of the country's bases, Harrell said losses in the last closure process a decade ago have made South Carolina conscious of the dangers.
Though there is little legislators can do in Columbia, Harrell encouraged residents to personally contact their federal representatives in Washington, D.C., and express the importance of the local bases.
"There's nothing like personal contact with the people you represent to focus your attention on an issue," he said.