Florence County Citizens In Action

Governor Sanford has Vetoed this Enactment by the SC Legislature. It may come up again in the current legilative session

BELOW IS VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION, CONCERNING A BILL TO CAP REASSESSED PROPERTY TAXES AT 20%.

After reading this information, you may want to contact the Governor to encourage him to veto this bill.

Call the Governor at 803-734-2100.

The Governor's fax number is 803-734-5167. His e-mail is [email protected]

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Reassessment Cap

The 20% cap on reassessment of real property in South Carolina would negatively impact those who are already paying their fair share of property tax. This would be the taxpayer on the bottom and in the middle regarding the value homes. Homes that are assessed at the bottom of the scale and in the middle of the scale have been capable of being assessed fairly for a number of years.

LARGE AND EXPENSIVE HOMES HAVE NOT BEEN FAIRLY OR EQUITABLY ASSESSED DUE TO OLD FORMULAS THAT HAVE BEEN USED BY THE COUNTIES. For instance, if you are wealthy and decide to build a $2,000,000.00 home it would seem that the fair market value of the home would be $2,000,000.00. Not so, it would only be worth that amount if there were sales in the area indicating that homes of that value would sell for that amount. If there are no sales to substantiate expensive homes (which certainly cost much more than $70.00 per square foot to build), then formulas, which are old and out dated are used to calculate the value. Sales of less expensive homes, and homes which would be purchased by taxpayers in the middle-income range, are selling all the time. As a result of these sales, comparable value is used to set values on all homes of comparable value. This may result in homes that you and I can buy being calculated at a higher per square foot value than large and very expensive homes, which have no comparable sales to look at.

In Florence, however, there have begun to be sales of homes in the expensive range. Taking that into consideration, reassessment would begin to become more equitable as these sales would be used to set the comparable for homes of this more expensive nature. They might not get to fair market value, but the assessment would be closer to the value than exists today. However, on the eve of getting some of these homes assessed more equitably, along comes the 20% cap. This would dictate that the assessment be made on the value of homes at the 1999 value, and they could only be raised by 20% and not up to the more equitable value.

There are a host of ramifications that also surround this concerning business and other property assessments, but bottom line this will transfer the tax from those more capable of paying to those who are already overtaxed or less capable of paying.