August 31, 1999


FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATELY


State and Local officials will gather to look at property tax and other local funding issues this month. The 1999 General Assembly enacted legislation requiring the Comptroller General to undertake a local government funding system study and for the Center of Governance of the University of South Carolina's Institute of Public Affairs to provide staffing for the project. As stated in the legislation, its mission is "the development of a local government funding reform plan that addresses the needs of local government for a stable and diverse funding system that is accountable to the taxpayers and ensures equitable sharing of the tax burden".

To accomplish the project, the General Assembly provided for the Local Government Funding System Steering Committee. Comptroller General Jim Lander announced the following members who will constitute the Steering Committee: Senator John Drummond, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; Grady Patterson, State Treasurer; Jim Lander, Comptroller General; Senator C. Bradley Hutto (appointed by Senate Finance Chairman); Representative Robert W. Harrell, Jr. (appointed by Ways & Means Chairman); Representative Alfred B. Robinson, Jr. (appointed by Ways & Means Chairman); Representative Timothy C. Wilkes (appointed by the Gov-ernor); Polly C. Jackson, member of the Lancaster County Council (appointed by the Governor); and Elizabeth Carpentier, Director, Department of Revenue. The first meeting of the Steering Committee will be on September 8, 1999 at 1:30 p.m., in the Governor's Conference Room, 1st Floor, Wade Hampton State Office Building, Columbia, South Carolina.