Sales tax income could mean lower property tax
COLUMBIA — Better than expected sales tax collections means South Carolina homeowners will likely get an even bigger break on their property taxes.
Starting this fall, homeowners will no longer pay property taxes to operate schools, a charge that makes up 50 percent to 60 percent of the average tax bill.
Instead, additional sales tax will pay the roughly $500 million needed for school operating budgets. Those savings won't appear until next year.
The state's top economist, Bill Gillespie, said South Carolina will collect more sales tax revenue than needed to pay the school taxes.
By law, the additional money will take about 20 percent off county and city property taxes.
"That is great news. (But) we're not out of the woods if the economy were to peak out on us," said state Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, a skeptical supporter of the property tax relief plan.
The extra sales tax revenue also means the sales tax increase should be able to pay for school operating costs for the next few years.
School districts and local governments that opposed the tax swap worried the growing cost of education and services might lead to future budget cuts because the law now caps their ability to approve tax increases. School taxes have recently been increasing faster than sales tax revenues.
But Martin said the sales tax surplus should give lawmakers a few years to see how their property tax relief plan works and make adjustments, Martin said.
Proponents of the tax swap, such as Emerson Read of NoHomeTax.org, said they will be back in Columbia next year to try to get all home taxes eliminated for senior citizens and the disabled as well as tax cuts on other properties such as rental property, second homes or businesses.
"The taxes are still too high in many cases," said Read of Charleston.
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exorcist_pencocky (anonymous) says...
Oh Mr. Read, you do reanalyze that your proposal will end up taking more money from those who can't afford to pay and give it to the wealthy who can afford to pay.
Redistribution of wealth in reverse, Robin Hood becomes the Sheriff, stealing from the poor and giving to the rich.
September 4, 2007 at 8:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jsteph10 (anonymous) says...
Why should my hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and perseverence be penalized by higher taxes just because I can "afford" it?
And someone help me out, does property tax relief take affect for the year 07 or 08?
September 4, 2007 at 9:20 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hawneena (anonymous) says...
jsteph10, when this was first proposed my understanding was it would be in '08 before we see the reduction on our tax bills.
September 4, 2007 at 9:28 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Very_Concerned_Citizen (anonymous) says...
Oh my!!!! Property Tax relief can it be true? Those words have never been used in a sentence together here in Charleston County, what is the world coming too?
Wait a minute!!!!! Now that I am over my shock and amazement lets talk seriously.
Did I hear correct that there will be Property Tax relief for South Carolina Homeowners starting in the Fall of 2007 but we will not see it until the Fall 2008?
Does this relief only apply to SC Homeowners or will it also apply to owners of other items that are taxed as property in SC? I remember a vote on a 1/2 cent sales tax passing finally but I thought that was for the CARTA bus system and the bridge. I guess I should pay more attention when I vote yes or no on these tax issues. By they way, I wonder how CARTA is doing with all their new found wealth?
If I understand the measure correctly, they have seperated the School portion of the Homeowner Property Tax Bill away from the rest of our taxed liabilty items which hopefully will reduce the Homeowners tax bill by 50 to 60 percent and the School systems budget is now being supported by the Retail Sales tax money.
I am all for tax and homeowners insurance relief since the majority of South Carolians citizens who use the public systems don't pay their fair share of taxes to support our State.
We have so many people in public housing, apartments and trailer parks who live there with reduced rental rates or no rental rates at all that have many many kids in our school systems that don't pay a penny toward the support of the schools since they do not own a home, this is not fair to us property owners.
Does any of the property tax collected for items like boats, cars or 2nd homes go toward the School system?
I want everyone to pay their fair share especially us that have kids that are of school age not just because we own homes, that's not fair.
The Property tax law always seemed kinda strange to me in that people who don't have kids of school age or no kids at all have to pay taxes just because they are homeowners and the low income public housing crowd who have many many kids don't pay much or none at all to support the school system, that is not fair one bit.
If the retail sales tax increase has helped so much that they were able to use it to pay for the school system, then perhaps they might increase it again another 1/2 cent to eliminate all property and Government taxes in SC that the citizens have to pay.
The increase in the retail sales tax should firstly target the tourist crowd and out of state interest within our borders.
Lets get their money first then State big business should be next and then whatever is left in need of tax dollars to operate can be distributed from the other number of fees collected from State, County and Local Governments.
Very_Concerned_Citizen
September 4, 2007 at 5:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
majorjohnson (anonymous) says...
Renters do pay property tax when they pay their rent. It's built in. People who say that renters don't pay the property taxes have a poor grasp of economics. Further, renters actually pay more than owners now, since rental and business properties are excluded from the tax rollback.
Pencocky is another economic ignoramus. Apparently not taking someones money is the same as taking it from one person to give to another. An obvious socialist with no concept of reality.
September 6, 2007 at 9:30 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
str (anonymous) says...
I think this is great. Now why can't Washington do something like this with income tax? They take entirely too much out of our paychecks and Congressmen are spending it on whatever whim just to get votes in their state or district.
September 7, 2007 at 9:05 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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