Editorials from across South Carolina: tax reform, flood anniversary, economic incentives

Complete tax reform

The primary feature of the 2006 law (Act 388) eliminated the property tax on homeowners to pay for school operating costs. It increased the sales tax to make up for the lost revenue. But it did much more. It limited reassessments on property. The assessed value on a property can only rise 15 percent every five years under the law. That is unless the house is sold. Then it is reassessed at market value.

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Scoppe: Could tax reform finally be for real?

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This eliminated the fairness of the tax. Reassessments are meant to keep up with the genuine value of a property so that all properties are taxed on their actual value. When lawmakers limited reassessments, the values on some houses never caught up to market value, while houses that changed hands were assessed properly.

That’s one of the reasons lawmakers are revisiting the law. People are complaining about vastly different assessments on nearly identical homes in the same neighborhood.

Act 388 also shifted the tax burden from homes to businesses and industries. And it undermined local control of city and county budgets. Lawmakers limited the ability of city and county councils to set their own tax rates.…

Lawmakers don’t need to just roll back Act 388. They need to take a full look at the state’s entire revenue system, wipe the slate clean of all the fixes and changes and create something that is stable, efficient and fair.

Flood anniversary

(T)he Midlands received more than 20 inches, leading to multiple dam failures, overloaded storm drains and the worst flooding many residents have ever experienced.

The storm triggered a federal disaster declaration for 35 South Carolina counties, including Orangeburg, Bamberg and Calhoun. Rebuilding continues a year later, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency reporting that its assistance to date totals more than $164 million.…

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If the rains came again today, how would Columbia cope?

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(I)t’s not hard to find people who contend FEMA did little or nothing to assist them. Some such complaints stem from the very nature of the role being played by the emergency agency. Amid crisis, no amount of assistance will seem to be enough. Nor will it arrive in time.

But the role of the agency was important a year ago and likely again will be again in South Carolina’s future.

Economic incentives

Navin Xavier, a Malaysian businessman who promised to redevelop a closed factory in job-hungry Marion …

is being held in custody by federal officials pending an arraignment on fraud charges. He faces charges in what federal officials describe as a $29 million Ponzi scheme.

Federal authorities allege that some of the money came from the taxpayers of South Carolina, was sent to banks in other countries and also supported the businessman’s lavish lifestyle.

As far as South Carolina is concerned, the question is whether the necessary due diligence was done. The payment of ($1.2 million in ) state funds was made by the S.C. Economic Coordinating Council, an arm of the Commerce Department.

So far, neither the governor’s office nor Commerce officials have been very forthcoming about the matter. In comments to our reporter, department spokeswoman Adrienne Fairwell declined to specify whether the agency is changing the way it vets prospective recipients of state incentive money, saying only that “the department is always looking for ways to improve its systems and processes.”

That’s not an adequate response. And the matter can’t be excused by the numerous economic development successes that the state has enjoyed, or the many instances where incentives have proven effective. Anytime there is state funding involved there has to be accountability.

This story was originally published October 3, 2016 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Editorials from across South Carolina: tax reform, flood anniversary, economic incentives."