Existing laws can remedy tax-relief issues

By Bruce E. Yablin

With the current stalemate on tax reform in the state Senate, there are two important laws to reform property taxes already on the books that are not being used.

The first is Section 12-45-75 of the S.C. Code of Laws, which allows pre-paid installments of real property tax at the option of the counties. If this were to be adopted by Georgetown County, which has a tax year of January to December and a fiscal year of July to June, quarterly installments could be invested in 12- to 15-month high-yield accounts until they are needed for county operations. The interest would help offset higher taxes and provide available money for reinvestment locally.

This method of collection would ease the burden on owners who own a home free of mortgages, who are on a fixed or low income. Homeowners with mortgages already enjoy this advantage with their escrow accounts, which are part of the monthly mortgage payment.

Two bills to make this mandatory are now in the Assembly: S-1007 in the Senate and H-4336 in the House. Tell your senators and representatives to support them.

Most of the tax relief being considered is for owner-occupied homes only. This does not help renters or time-sharers.

[The second law], Article X Section 3, was amended in 2000 to exempt all or a portion of the value of private passenger motor vehicles, boats, boat motors, airplanes, etc., to be replaced by a sales and use tax by a referendum in the county.

Attempts to swap sales tax for real property tax have failed.

Replacing the personal property tax would help all taxpayers. An exemption of $1,500 on motor vehicles, $5,000 on boats, $2,000 on boat motors and $20,000 on aircraft would take most of these properties off the tax rolls and leave only the highway fee, $15 in Georgetown County.

People with expensive vehicles and boats would receive a tax break. Also, this exemption would not be a case of affluent parts of the county against everyone else.

Both of these tax-relief issues can be handled locally by the County Council and the citizens of the county.

We must urge our Council members, who are up for re-election, to adopt Section 12-45-75 and put the sales tax option of Article X Section 3 on the next ballot.

The next [Georgetown County Taxpayers Association] meeting will be at 7 p.m. June 8 at the Hispanic Assembly in Maryville.

Call 546-4610 for more information.

The writer, chairman of the Georgetown County Taxpayers Association, lives in Georgetown.