State law currently requires all properties to be reassessed to reflect market value every five years. The bill, which now advances to the full House of Representatives, would let owner-occupied houses maintain the same tax assessment until the property is sold, a system known as "point-of-sale reassessment."
Actual tax payments, however, still would rise for inflation or the locally established tax rate. The legislation would apply to primary residences, which are taxed based on 4 percent of their market value. Assessments on all other types of property would continue to be revised every five years.
Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, said he supports the bill as long as Beaufort County can throw out the 2004 reassessment. Of parcels in Beaufort County that include land, 62 percent had their taxable values rise by more than 40 percent.
The state Board of Economic Advisers expects that if the bill becomes law, local governments will have to raise the property tax rate to capture more revenue from other types of property. The bill will shift $66.2 million in taxes away from owner-occupied residential property statewide in its first year alone, according to a board report. Over five years, more than $151 million in taxes will be transferred away from owner-occupied residential property.
Freezing homes' property values at the purchase price is generally a good idea, Herbkersman said.
"You know going into it what your taxes are going to be and what they're going to be limited to," he said Tuesday.
But the bill, as written, would take effect for reassessments after 2004. That means it wouldn't affect last year's reassessment in Beaufort County.
Herbkersman has filed legislation that would allow the three counties that reassessed last year to throw out the reassessment and revert to the previous year's values. But his bill hasn't received a committee hearing, so he said he will try to amend it onto whatever property tax bill gains popularity.
"What I'm going to do is tack mine on to whatever (bill) comes through and see if I can push it through that way," he said.
Other lawmakers have filed bills that would overhaul the state's system of property reassessments and taxation.
Rep. Richard Chalk, R-Hilton Head Island, is sponsoring a bill that would cap increases in tax bills at 15 percent. Chalk said he expects his bill to get a subcommittee hearing next week.
Herbkersman said the point-of-sale reassessment bill is the legislation most likely to pass.
"That one's got the most horsepower right now," he said.
On Monday, the committee also approved bills that