Keep taxes and power in local hands

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Beth Padgett • Braves' exit brings some sadness and opportunity (04/04/04) • Movie brings message of hope and forgiveness (03/14/04) • Keep taxes and power in local hands (03/07/04) • Left-lane driving gets on our nerves (02/22/04) • At least Jackson's 'reveal' has us talking (02/07/04)

Whenever the state Legislature tries to change the one tax that doesn't pump money into state coffers, it invariably makes a mess of things.

One of the primary reasons the property tax is so hated is because it's so conspicuous. But this also is a virtue, because it allows people to know just what they're paying for the services they receive from their local governments.

And in fairness to those who absolutely detest this tax, another reason it's despised is because it is an inescapable tax on our homes. Our private property is something we hold especially dear, and for good reasons. The ownership of private property is a right that is essential to our liberty.

But taxing that property to provide local services is not a bad thing. In fact, it's a generally fair approach to taxation, and it's a recognition that the taxes are in some way providing a benefit to those who own the property. Our homes are worth more when we have police and fire protection, EMS coverage, educated children, garbage collection and cultural and educational amenities that include libraries, museums and entertainment centers.

Property taxes gained even more critics after Act 208 forced local governments to conduct routine reassessments of residential property. The reassessment act wasn't some whimsical legislative notion. It grew out of a need to correct a serious inequity that had occurred because the value of some homes remained unchanged on the county tax rolls while new homes, or homes that had been sold, were taxed at an appreciably higher rate.

The periodic reassessments we now have help correct that imbalance in the value of homes. It means that people are not paying significantly higher property taxes than their neighbors simply because they have lived in their home for quite some time.

Still, property taxes aren't popular with many people, and state lawmakers are always looking for a way to soothe disgruntled voters. Several bills are working their way through the legislative process that will dramatically change the local property tax system. All of them will do some degree of damage.

Two of them deal with reassessment: one by capping the rise in a home's value to 15 percent every four years and another by applying the higher value to a home only after it is sold or transferred. In each case, but particularly the second one, unfairness would creep back into the system.

Far more damaging is the effort to replace the local property tax with an increase in the sales tax. One version comes from House Majority Leader Rick Quinn, R-Columbia. Another comes from state Sen. David Thomas, R-Fountain Inn.

Abolishing the property tax on residential property and cars (and on businesses) is a horrible idea. One of the simple rules of life is this: Whoever writes the check has the power.

State government should not be in the business of deciding how to divide up money for local services in Greenville, Florence, Anderson, Orangeburg and the other 42 counties. Once it gains this extraordinary power, it also will gain extraordinary control of local governments.

The three-legged stool of taxation works best: income and sales taxes to pay for state services, and property taxes (and some local-option sales taxes) to pay for local services.

State legislators don't seem interested in making a change that doesn't stretch their authority or undermine local governments. As this newspaper reported last year, some of the tax breaks that local governments are giving industries are being abused. The Legislature can, and should, close the loopholes that have distorted the purpose of these tax breaks and shifted a greater share of the property tax burden to homeowners.

But short of tweaking that law, and ensuring that governments don't get a windfall after a reassessment, the Legislature should not spend time this year changing property tax laws. Any of the suggested improvements will invite even more problems.

Write to Beth Padgett, editorial page editor, at bpadgett@greenvillenews.com.