Edisto Beach, SC-What about Point of Sale Taxes
The highly flawed 2006 property tax code has severely hurt real estate sales on Edisto Beach. So when is going to be fixed? Here is the recent update:
Legislation addressing point of sale property tax assessment remains the number one legislative priority for South Carolina REALTORS® this session. The leadership and staff of your association spent the summer and fall traveling the state, meeting with Senators, hosting local delegation meetings, meeting with local elected officials, compiling data, keeping the issue in the press and organizing an aggressive REALTOR® campaign supporting point of sale reform.
As you know, point of sale assessment is adversely affecting the real estate market and commercial investment in our state. Without commercial investment and the jobs it brings, we cannot grow our state out of the current recession. SC Realtors believe addressing point of sale through passage of H.3272 will provide an immediate economic catalyst to reignite our economy. Our opposition has argued that H.3272 is just another patch to the tax reform legislation that was passed in 2006, known as Act 388. SCR agrees that Act 388 has some serious long-term problems. H.3272 has a shelf life of only 5 years - enough time to put South Carolinians back to work and lead us out of the recession. H.3272 gives the Tax Realignment Commission and the General Assembly the time to do what needs to be done - an overhaul of the entire tax code.
H.3272 caps point of sale reassessment at 15% and uses that value as the baseline for the next countywide reassessment cycle. The legislation is sunset to five years and applies to transactions from January 1, 2009 forward. After receiving approval by a vote of 85 to 23 by the House, and unanimously passing the Senate Finance Committee, the bill immediately stalled once it hit the Senate floor, until the Senate voted to set H.3272 for Special Order by a vote of 34 to 7. This is a procedural maneuver that improved chances of having the bill considered despite the objections raised by Senators Matthews, Hutto, McGill, Leventis, Williams, and Nicholson. While the Senate did not pass H.3272 in 2009, we retain our slot on the Special Order calendar going in to 2010. We will not relent on this issue, and your involvement is critical. SC REALTORS® must rally around this issue to ensure passage early in 2010.
We as Citizens of Edisto and property owners must continue to put pressure on our legislature. About a month, we almost let a municipal lobbying group pass some unfavorable code that would have slowed our chance at getting this tax code fixed in 2010. Here is the story:
Several municipal council resolutions have surfaced the past two weeks opposing any change to point of sale assessment. The Municipal Association is aggressively encouraging all cities and towns across the state to pass these resolutions. It is incredibly important that your local association be vigilant and find out if your city council(s) will be taking up a resolution opposing H.3272. Now is the time to call your council members and appropriate local government staff. Please ask them if they intend to take up the resolution, ask that Realtors be given the opportunity prior to that meeting to educate the Council on what point of sale means to your community, and ask them not to bring the resolution before Council. Being active at the local level is vitally important to our success at the Statehouse. Thanks to house speaker Bobby Harrell in his efforts to squash the resolutions. Edisto real estate is safe for the time being. But we need to mandate the change in the SC Tax Code in 2010.
Please continue to keep informed and involved. It takes all of us to get things done. We have to keep pushing and making noise. We need to get our lawmakers focused on the things that matter. Jobs and taxes. If we let the good old boys keep doing what they have been doing...we will get the same results. Have a Great Weekend!
Cal Griffin
The Edisto Real Estate Advisor
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Reprinted from the SC Realtors
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