The legislation, filed by Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, last year ran into a brick wall of state real estate lobbyists opposed to raising the cost of home buying.
But although the changes make some local officials and real estate agents happier, a lobbyist with the S.C. Association of Realtors said he is as staunchly opposed to it now as he was last year.
Herbkersman's original bill would have allowed all municipalities in Beaufort County to charge the so-called real estate transfer fee. The Town of Hilton Head Island already charges a 0.25 percent fee, collecting about $3 million annually for buying open space, but it is the only local government in the state allowed to collect it.
While open space preservation was Herbkersman's intent in writing the bill all along, he has said, his initial version did not specify where the revenue would go. It also did not state an amount to be charged.
Both uncertainties were hang-ups for some local real estate agents.
New language in the bill clarifies that any local government charging the fee must use revenue for buying or improving open space. Improving open space could include building bicycle trails or buying picnic tables, Herbkersman said.
"The local Realtors wanted a specific reason," Herbkersman said. "They were misinformed by some of the lobbyists, thinking this money was going to the general fund and would stay up in Columbia."
The new version also states that the fee cannot exceed 0.25 percent.
Hutch Hutchinson, president of the Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors, said he is "very much in favor" of the bill now. His group did not fully support it before without a clear purpose for the money or amount to be charged, he said.
The Realtors association has not formally voted to support the new bill, Hutchinson said, but its members always have supported Hilton Head's program and an expansion of it.
"We like the way it's done on the island," he said.
Hilton Head began collecting the fee in 1990. Beaufort County, as well as the municipalities of Beaufort, Port Royal and Charleston, followed Hilton Head's lead and charged a similar fee. But after fights in the legislature and state Supreme Court, Hilton Head was the only local government allowed to charge a transfer fee under the state's 1997 Local Government Fiscal Authority Act.
The town won that right largely because it already had financing arrangements based on its fee.
Officials with the Beaufort County Association of Realtors could not be reached for comment on the bill's new provisions.
Another change Herbkersman has made to the bill opens the door for Beaufort County to charge the fee in unincorporated areas. County Council members, hoping to expand their land-buying efforts, asked Herbkersman last year to include them as well as municipalities.
Herbkersman said he plans to make another change requiring voters to approve the fee in a referendum before a local government can adopt it. He also plans to delete a requirement that the county's state legislators sign off on the measure if a local government wants to adopt it.
"It was by legislative delegation before, which was probably faulty," he said. "It just didn't give the opportunity for the people who wanted it to vote on it."
While some local real estate agents are behind Herbkersman's bill, area home builders have not been as supportive.
Mike Dontje, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Hilton Head Island, said in November that the group opposed not only the lack of specifics, but also the increase in home costs the fee would bring. Hilton Head's real estate market is unusual, he said then, because buyers can better afford the fee there than in other places.
Dontje said on Friday he had not seen the new version of the bill and could not comment on it.
"At this point, we're still at the same position we were at before until we've seen the bill and have had a chance to discuss it," he said.
Andy Banks, president of the Home Builders Association of the Lowcountry, could not be reached on Friday. But in November, he said even revisions to the bill making it more specific would not change the fact that it is a new tax on homes.
But perhaps a more formidable opponent of the bill is Nick Kremydas, senior vice president, general counsel and lobbyist for the S.C. Association of Realtors. Kremydas, who has been to Beaufort County several times to discuss the bill with local real estate agents, home builders and officials, has not budged in his position, despite Herbkersman's changes.
"Our position hasn't changed," he said. "A tax a tax is a tax, no matter how you dress it up. It's an additional fee that homeowners have to bear."
Kremydas said the Realtors support the preservation of open space, but he thinks local governments should use a tax already levied to pay for it. He said his organization was part of the lobby that killed the fees for every town but Hilton Head in 1991.
"The legislature has supported our position on this in the past, and we'll continue to work on it," he said.
Aware of the opposition he faces, Herbkersman is cautiously optimistic about the fate of his bill this year. He said he is "hopeful" it will make it past the House Ways and Means Committee and on to the full House this year.
"My feeling on it is, we're up there to represent the people of this area," he said. "It's called the House of Representatives, not the house of Realtors."