The Dillon County Council passed a resolution recently asking that the General Assembly increased the allocation to the local government fund. The purpose would be to provide property taxpayers with the relief they have been promised and to allow the county government the ability to provide the state and local government services required under state law, the resolution says.
The State Aid to Subdivisions Act requires that the state appropriate 4.5 percent of the general fund revenues of the most recently completed fiscal year to the Local Government Fund.
In Fiscal Years 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2014-15, the General Assembly suspended the provision and failed to fund the Local Government Fund at the statutorily mandated formula.
For Fiscal Year 2014-15, the General Assembly funded the Local Government Fund at $187.6 million in recurring dollars and $25 million in non-recurring money. This amount represents $75 million in Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) relief to county taxpayers.
In 1999, the General Assembly passed §12-37-2735, the Personal Property Tax Relief Fund, to provide an additional $20 million allocation to counties for property tax relief. Since Fiscal Year 2001-02, the General Assembly has suspended the provisions of §12-37-2735 in the budget and failed to fund the Personal Property Tax Relief Fund at the statutorily mandated level.
State-shared revenue assists in the burden placed on property taxpayers to fund both state and local services.
Despite refusing to increase monies to the Local Government Fund, the General Assembly persists in statutorily requiring counties to assume the State’s administrative and financial responsibilities, the resolution states. It also says that the State further punishes county taxpayers by withholding additional revenue for a county’s failure to assume the state’s obligations.
The resolution states that this shift of responsibility creates a sham, giving the appearance of “clean hands” at the state level of government while forcing local governments to raise taxes. It also says that in addition to surreptitiously dismantling statutory property tax relief granted to their property taxpayers, the General Assembly has further restricted county government’s ability to generate revenue, thereby preventing the counties from being able to pay for legitimate functions of county government and from mitigating the expected shortfalls resulting from the State’s refusal to meet its statutory obligations.
The resolution states that despite the fact that the state general fund saw a 20.3 percent increase from FY 2010 to 2013, the General Assembly refuses to provide even a negligible increase in property tax relief, much less fund in accordance with state statutes and that this tax policy is unsustainable without substantial tax increases and service reductions.
A failure to fund the Local Government Fund requires taxpayers to pay twice for the same services they were receiving prior to the reduction in the Local Government Fund, the resolution states.
The resolution says that Dillon County urges the General Assembly to reestablish accountability by restoring state funding of state agencies and desist in the current policy which uses slight of hand by forcing counties to levy property taxes to fund these agencies. They urge the General Assembly to increase the allocation to the Local Government Fund to both provide property taxpayers with the relief they have been promised and allow county government the ability to provide the state and local government services required under state law.
It is signed by all Dillon County Council members. (Source: Local Government Fund Resolution)
