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Opinion
Property
tax reform has chance; could use help
August
16, 2005
Property
tax reform has a better chance of becoming a reality now than
ever before. Sen. Glenn McConnell, president pro tempore of
the S. C. State Senate, Rep. Bobby Harrell, Speaker of the S.
C. House of Representatives, and Gov. Mark Sanford have all
promised to give it priority when the Legislature gets back to
work.
In the meantime, though, if property owners want to
help, they can talk or write to their elected officials to
show support for reform. The more the merrier. Numbers speak
louder than words.
As in most things, a personal note or
face-to-face conversation has more impact than other forms of
contact.
BILL WERT, MAYOR OF THE Town
of Kiawah Island, says there are hurdles, to be sure. He says
lobbyists for the Municipal Association and the S. C.
Association of Counties are among those lining up to oppose
efforts to control spiraling property taxes. Also, coastal
counties have come into a multi-million dollar windfall with
the built-in, automatic, nobody accountable tax hike
euphemistically termed “reassessment.” That, it appears, has a
tendency to promote greed, and it will be hard to wean them
from that cash-cow.
That being the case, it’s clear
property owners have a huge task before them.
Furthermore,
considering association dues for municipal and county members,
taxpayers just might ask about the source of the money that
pays those dues. Is it public money? They also might ask about
the source of the pay for lobbyists and their
goals.
MUNICIPALITIES AND COUNTIES are
limited, of course, in available sources for funding their
work. The Legislature, no doubt, will look at some way to
correct that problem while property tax reform is
considered.
It’s obviously a tough problem to solve, and
there are no simple solutions. If tax reform means anything,
though, all interested parties will have to stop working at
cross purposes. In South Carolina, that is a huge “if.” But
there’s another “if.” If all else fails, voters can always
elect people who really want to do the job.
Editorial expression in this feature represents
our own views.
Opinions are limited to this page.
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