Horry County is mailing out reassessment notices this week and only about a quarter of the county’s 250,000 properties will get one. That’s because notices are sent only for those properties that have increased in value by more than $1,000 since the 2009 reassessment. It’ll be the first reassessment in the county’s history where there is a decrease in the total market value of all properties, $39.8 billion this year compared to $40.3 billion after the last reassessment. About 65,266 properties increased in value by more than $1,000 since 2009, 158,662 properties had market value decreases of $1,000 or more and the remaining 26,000 fell somewhere between increasing or decreasing by less than $1,000.

The total valuation speaks first to the county’s property tax rate in the eyes of property owners, but it also speaks to the state of the area’s economy. And to some, it can signal where it might go in the future. The total valuation is down, but not as low as it would have been if the reassessment was done in 2011, the low point of the area’s real estate market.

In 2007, said Rob Salvino, an economist at Coastal Carolina University, the median single-family home price was $220,000, the high point of the area’s real estate prices. Four years later it had dropped to $180,000 and has rebounded to more than $190,000 today.

Read the full story by clicking the link below.

http://www.scnow.com/news/state/article_ffc92232-4967-11e4-83e5-0017a43b2370.html

Taxes are going up across Florence County, and the increase is linked to fire service. You’ll see that increase next month when you get your property tax notice. The county council approved the increase in a six to three vote. “The millage for fire service in Florence County the unincorporated areas of Florence County are now officially 27.5 mills on the tax notices with no bond millage for this year,” Florence County Chairman James Schofield said. That’s an additional $28 per 100,000 house. “We just had a public hearing this morning about the seven mill increase and there was no one there,” Schofield said. Although no one came out in protest of the increase, three council members did not support it.

For the full story click the link below.

http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/26628915/fire-tax-goes-up-across-florence-county

The president of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce  says his group will push for a one-cent increase in the state gas tax over the next 10 years. Otis Rawl on Monday told a business group pushing to improve the state’s roads that he thinks South Carolina’s leaders have talked enough about poorly maintained roads and bridges and it is time for action.

Rawl told the South Carolina Alliance to Fix Our Roads that a poll of Republican voters shows a majority would support the gas tax increase if it was carefully presented. He said that any increase likely needs the backing of the next governor.

Neither major party candidate for governor has backed a gas tax increase.

Advocates on both sides are ramping up campaign efforts to win votes as the date draws near for residents to decide on a controversial 1% sales tax increase referendum.

Greenville County Council voted 8-3 in June to include the tax referendum on the November ballot. If approved, the sales tax increase would fund a $650 million list of infrastructure improvement projects, including road resurfacing and bridge-, intersection- and pedestrian-related projects designed to alleviate congestion, account for population growth and improve the safety of the county’s infrastructure grid.

“This is going to cost taxpayers at least $65 million a year by the revenue projections of the county. That’s going to take $65 million out of the economy. It’s going to hurt small businesses,” said Americans for Prosperity South Carolina  State Director Dave Schwartz at a rally on Tuesday. “Our strategy is going to be making sure we go out and educate Greenville Countians and what this tax is going to mean for them.”

On the other side, Citizens for a Better Greenville has argued that poor county infrastructure directly affects businesses, causing them to be less efficient and possibly causing them to relocate elsewhere. The group says infrastructure also affects residents’ quality of life.

Read the full story from gsabusiness.com below.

http://www.gsabusiness.com/news/52407-advocates-on-both-sides-take-tax-fight-to-the-streets?rss=0

Our children, our community, and our economy will benefit from updating our school facilities. Everyone in Aiken County shares the vision of our schools providing a quality education that prepares our children to become good citizens, to become self-reliant and to be prepared for employment in the 21st century economy. This is what our parents’ generation provided us, and we understand that it is right for us to do the same for the generations that follow us. In November, we will be given the opportunity to take an important step in meeting that obligation by voting for the 1 percent sales tax proposal to fund critically needed improvements to our school facilities. Many of our facilities are old and functionally obsolete.

There are those who comment that buildings do not educate students. While that is undeniably true, it is also true that school facilities are an important element in the delivery of a quality education. We know that buildings have long, useful lives. However, eventually every building must be replaced even while we take care to maintain and upgrade it along the way.

You can read the full story by clicking the link below.

http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20140902/AIK02/140909998/1018/AIK02/column-one-percent-tax-increase-benefits-local-community

Oconee County taxpayers will not see a tax increase this year despite lower-than-expected projected revenues. By a 4-1 vote Tuesday the Oconee County Council rejected any idea of adding an additional mill to the county tax rate to cover a projected shortfall to the School District of Oconee County of about $500,000. Council Chairman Joel Thrift cast the dissenting vote.

County auditor Ken Nix told the council that because of lower-than-expected tax assessments for Duke Energy he was recommending a 1-mill increase, to 216 mills from last year’s 215 mills, to fund the budgets of both the county and the school district.

For the full story click the link below.

http://www.independentmail.com/news/oconee-council-rejects-tax-increase_71404016

With the gubernatorial election just a few short months away, we’re looking at each candidate’s plans to fix the state’s the traffic infrastructure.

Gov. Nikki Haley has remained tight-lipped about her plan, even saying she would wait until after the election to reveal how she wants to work with lawmakers on the issue.

But Haley has been clear about one thing: any plan that includes an increase on the gasoline tax, which is one of the lowest in the country and hasn’t been raised since 1989, would be dead on arrival. Instead, she wants to find an option that does not include raising revenues.

Sen. Vincent Sheheen, meanwhile, has released a plan ahead of the election. His plan would not increase the gas tax, either. Sheheen’s plan would instead force the General Assembly to advocate 5 percent of the state’s revenue toward the state’s roads.

“The gas tax is a declining source of revenue as cars become more fuel efficient,” Sheheen has said. “Increasing the gas tax is not going to solve our transportation funding crisis. To succeed, the state must diversify funding and weave together sources to responsibly invest over the long-term. Because of historic under investment in our roads we need to create an additional dedicated funding source and issue bonds to jump start needed investments.”

Read the full story here http://www.wistv.com/story/26405100/what-can-be-done-about-fixing-south-carolinas-aging-roads

In a recent poll conducted this summer for Charleston’s Post and Courier.  The poll questioned everybody, not just the 5 percent of voters who voted in the Democratic primary or the 11 percent of voters who voted in the Republican primary. 

South Carolina House members are returned to Columbia on Wednesday August 27 to take up two of Gov. Nikki Haley’s vetoes, one with a direct impact for the Grand Strand. One bill being considered is intended to help South Carolina’s public libraries keep out disruptive people. The other is a local bill allowing a tax hike for firefighting in coastal Murrell’s Inlet and Garden City.

A spokesman for House Speaker Bobby Harrell said on Friday that the House will hold a special, one-day session on Wednesday to decide whether to override vetoes left over from the session that ended in June.

Both of the bills being considered are Senate bills. The Senate voted overwhelmingly to override Haley’s opposition, but those votes occurred in the last days of an extended legislative session, after the House already had gone home. An override requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

Governor Haley vetoed the bill that would have increased taxes for the Murrells Inlet/Garden City Fire District, saying that it would set a precedent of allowing a district to increase taxes without voter approval.

But Haley said the bill would set a dangerous precedent. “I am not opposed to the needs of a fire district, however I don’t believe in backdoor approaches to raising taxes. Taxpayers have the right to know,” she said on her Facebook page. The bill would increase property taxes by $25, on average, if passed. Hitchcock lives, owns a business, and pays taxes in Murrells Inlet and said he doesn’t want to pay more taxes, but sometimes there’s a clear need for it.

And on Wednesday August 27th the House voted 75-36 to override Haley’s veto. The law allows a misdemeanor trespassing charge against people who return to a library before their written warning to stay away expires.

Read the full story at http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/politics/2014/08/28/sc-house-overrides-haley-veto-library-disrupters/14722897/

S.C. taxes for manufacturers are some of the highest in the country, and it’s hurting the economy, said Greenville Area Development Corp. Chairman and former Michelin CEO Dick Wilkerson at a GSA Business Power Breakfast event today.

“It doesn’t affect our ability to attract large companies, because most counties are willing to work on a fee in lieu, but for small companies in manufacturing and development, it’s a penalizing environment,” said Wilkerson. “If there’s one thing I’d ask you to do is talk to your representatives about changing Act 388, both for economic development and education for our children.”

Passed in 2006, Act 388 was aimed at giving homeowners a break in annual property taxes by shifting the funding of schools from residential property tax revenues to sales taxes. Commercial and industrial property was not given the break, however, and opponents of the act have said the move effectively shifted extra burden of funding schools to manufacturers and commercial property owners.

“We have the lowest homeowner tax rates in the nation, but all of us end up paying because of the difficulty of developing small manufacturing,” said Wilkerson. “Education gets punished too because now it’s my sales tax, which is dynamically based on economic activity, and when there’s a downturn in economic activity, our schools suffer.”

For the complete story visit gsabusiness.com