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Panel weighs bill to let South Carolina towns with no millage adopt property tax capped at one-third of general fund
Summary
A Senate subcommittee heard a bill and amendment options that would let municipalities without an operating millage impose one that could generate up to one-third of prior-year general fund expenses; stakeholders debated timing, referendum requirements and protections for towns that previously repealed millage.
A South Carolina Senate Finance subcommittee on Oct. 12 heard testimony on a bill to clarify that municipalities with no operating millage may adopt an operating millage that would be limited to raising no more than one-third of the municipality’s previous fiscal year general fund expenses.
The bill, described by staffer Grant Gibson as “a bill dealing for cities that have no millage rates,” would let a city that had no operating millage on Jan. 1, 2025 — or a city incorporated after that date — impose an operating millage capped at funding one-third of prior-year general fund expenses. Gibson said the measure also would allow a municipality that previously repealed its millage to reimpose the former rate “plus the cumulus amount of the increase that would have been allowed since” the repeal, using the CPI and population adjustments.
The measure aims to resolve legal uncertainty that has kept some towns from imposing property taxes even though municipal leaders say they need the revenue. Erica Wright of the Municipal Association of South…
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