COLUMBIA ? Voter approval of a sales tax increase to offset property taxes won't be a sure thing, even in counties where home-owners' demands for lower tax bills started the Statehouse debate, county administrators say.

"You have to wonder how high citizens will want their sales tax. I think it would be an interesting election," said Charleston County Administrator Roland Windham Jr., who noted Friday that voters went to the polls three times before Charleston's half-cent sales tax took effect last May.

The Senate late Thursday finally approved a property tax relief package that would increase the statewide sales tax by a half-cent ? an extra penny for every $2 purchased ? to cut county operating costs from tax bills. The half-cent would not apply to groceries or hotel accommodations.

The half-cent would be rounded on purchases, said Department of Revenue spokesman Danny Brazell. For example, if the price of something calls for a sales tax of 30.6 cents, it would be rounded up to 31 cents; a sales tax of 30.4 cents would become 30 cents.

The Senate plan also allows voters to decide on a county-by-county basis whether to raise their local sales tax even higher to cut school operating costs and other forms of property taxes.

Most of the state's 46 counties already levy extra sales tax on top of the state's 5 cents on the dollar. The local pennies fund capital projects, property tax relief, or both. Six counties tack on an extra 2 cents.

"There is no need to put up to 2 cents more," said Howard Duvall, executive director of the Municipal Association of South Carolina. "We do not think the local option is a step in the right direction."

Allendale County Administrator Arthur Williams said his county, with a sales tax already at 7 percent, likely would not hike the sales tax any higher.

"If we go to 8 cents, what little shopping is done here, I think people would do it in other counties with lower assessments," he said.

One penny of Allendale County's 7 cents is paid to renovate the courthouse. Residents complained, but have "learned to live with it," Williams said. "But it would create a hardship to go to 8 percent."

Williams said he would prefer the state sales tax not increase at all.

How much of a sales tax increase it would take to remove school operating costs from tax bills would vary by county. Removing that portion just from owner-occupied homes would range from a low of .24 cents in Marion County to 3.58 cents in McCormick County. In Charleston County, where the local sales tax is already 6.5 cents, it would take an additional .93 cents.

But Emerson Read, a Charleston resident whose group NoHomeTax.org has pushed for property tax cuts, blasts the Senate plan as not going far enough. His group, and other anti-property-tax groups across the state, like the House plan. Passed in February, it would raise the state sales tax by 2 cents statewide, if voters approve it. The extra revenue would cut all local governments' operating costs from tax bills, leaving just 15 percent from local debt.

"The Senate passed the buck to the voters," said Don Weaver, president of the South Carolina Association of Taxpayers, who prefers the House plan. He added, however, that he appreciates the work of senators who "kept the battle going."

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said he too is disappointed the Senate plan didn't go further. He called the local option, approved after statewide plans repeatedly failed, the "last life boat off the Titanic."

The Senate still must give the plan third reading, which it plans to do in a special session Monday. The property tax debate is bound to continue in a conference committee between House and Senate members as they work out the differences in the bills.

"No, it's not enough," House Majority Leader Jim Merrill, R-Daniel Island, said about the Senate plan. "But it will allow us to continue the debate."

 

State-by-state sales taxes

Here's a look at state sales tax percentages from across the nation, as of Jan. 1, 2006:

Alabama: 4 percent
Alaska: none
Arizona: 5.6 percent
Arkansas: 6 percent
California: 7.25 percent
Colorado: 2.9 percent
Connecticut: 6 percent
Delaware: none
Florida: 6 percent
Georgia: 4 percent
Hawaii: 4 percent
Idaho: 5 percent
Illinois: 6.25 percent
Indiana: 6 percent
Iowa: 5 percent
Kansas: 5.3 percent
Kentucky: 6 percent
Louisiana: 4 percent
Maine: 5 percent
Maryland: 5 percent
Massachusetts: 5 percent
Michigan: 6 percent
Minnesota: 6.5 percent
Mississippi: 7 percent
Missouri: 4.225 percent
Montana: none
Nebraska: 5.5 percent
Nevada: 6.5 percent
New Hampshire: none
New Jersey: 6 percent
New Mexico: 5 percent
New York: 4 percent
North Carolina: 4.5 percent
North Dakota: 5 percent
Ohio: 5.5 percent
Oklahoma: 4.5 percent
Oregon: none
Pennsylvania: 6 percent
Rhode Island: 7 percent
South Carolina: 5 percent
South Dakota: 4 percent
Tennessee: 7 percent
Texas: 6.25 percent
Utah: 4.75 percent
Vermont: 6 percent
Virginia: 5 percent
Washington: 6.5 percent
West Virginia: 6 percent
Wisconsin: 5 percent
Wyoming: 4 percent

 

Sales taxes by county

Thirty-seven of the state's 46 counties already levy extra sales tax on top of the 5-cent statewide sales tax. A breakdown of total sales taxes in each county:

5 percent:
Anderson, Beaufort, Georgetown, Greenville, Greenwood, Horry, Oconee, Spartanburg and Union.

6 percent:
Abbeville, Aiken, Bamberg, Barnwell, Berkeley, Calhoun, Cherokee, Chester, Clarendon, Colleton, Dorchester, Edgefield, Fairfield, Florence, Kershaw, Lancaster, Laurens, Lee, Lexington, Marion, Marlboro, McCormick, Newberry, Orangeburg, Pickens, Richland, Saluda, Sumter, Williamsburg and York.

6.5 percent:
Charleston

7 percent:
Allendale, Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Hampton and Jasper.

 

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