The Beaufort representative told fellow council members at an Intergovernmental Relations meeting Monday that he hopes they will support him in passing the resolution onto the Beaufort County Legislative Delegation.
State law mandates the reassessment of all property in the county every five years. Stewart claimed the resolution would encourage the delegation to pursue a change in the law allowing the reassessment of property at the so-called "point-of-sale."
After a year delay, Beaufort County residents are receiving the first reassessment on tax values in Beaufort County since 1998, with some residents seeing as much as a 500 percent spike in the tax value of their property. Stewart said some of the sticker shock could dissipate if new property owners were given an accurate tax value on the date of the sale as opposed to three or four years later when all property in the county is reassessed.
"The place it gets really significant is with commercial properties," Stewart said. "They have the potential for a substantial shift in value."
Stewart expects to present the resolution to the County Council and its municipalities in the coming months before presenting it to the delegation.
The resolution faces a state law that explicitly limits reassessment of properties on the county's tax roll to every five years, said S.C. Department of Revenue spokesman Danny Brazell.
"In our opinion the state statute clearly says reassessments occur every five years," Brazell said. "The statute doesn't say it could happen every year."
The law states: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, once every fifth year each county or the State shall appraise and equalize those properties under its jurisdiction."
County Council Vice-Chairman W.R. "Skeet" Von Harten said the law requires the county to be consistent in applying reassessments and rules out the point-of-sale plan.
"All property must be reassessed at the same time," he said.
Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, said Monday night that the point-of-sale issue had been presented to the General Assembly earlier this year, but to no success.
"We had a bill on the plate this year and it never went anywhere," he said.
The bill had received limited review by the House, but never got to the Senate.
"There were a lot of property value bills on the table this year and others just seemed to have more support," said Richardson, the county's senior legislator.
One measure approved by the General Assembly would cap reassessed property values across the state at 20 percent. The cap awaits approval by the governor.
The County Council delayed reassessments by a year to consider capping increases in reassessed property values at 15 percent. But the council abandoned the cap in February because of unanswered questions regarding the legality of reassessing property at the point-of-sale.
"I'm not sure that was ever addressed," Councilman Mark Generales said Monday.
A case going before the state Supreme Court later this year is expected to answer questions on the legality of both a cap and reassessing properties at the point-of-sale.
Brazell said the state department hasn't been asked to supply an opinion for that case.
Stewart maintains that reassessing property values every year is an option for the county.
"If we choose to do a reassessment every year, we could do it," he said.
But Brazell said the state law clearly states that reassessments occur every five years and can't be completed every year if the county so chose.
"Our interpretation is that would apply as well for point-of-sale," he said.