South Carolina General Assembly
120th Session, 2013-2014

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S. 992

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill
Sponsors: Senator Malloy
Document Path: l:\council\bills\bh\26073dg14.docx

Introduced in the Senate on February 4, 2014
Currently residing in the Senate Committee on Education

Summary: School districts

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
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    2/4/2014  Senate  Introduced and read first time (Senate Journal-page 11)
    2/4/2014  Senate  Referred to Committee on Education 
                        (Senate Journal-page 11)

View the latest legislative information at the website

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

2/4/2014

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A BILL

TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING SECTION 59-17-180 SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT IF A SCHOOL DISTRICT HAS IN ITS UNASSIGNED FUND BALANCE MORE THAN TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT OF ITS OPERATING BUDGET, THEN THE COUNTY AUDITOR MUST GRANT EACH TAXPAYER PAYING SCHOOL OPERATING TAXES A NONREFUNDABLE SCHOOL PROPERTY TAX CREDIT EQUAL TO THE TAXPAYER'S PRO RATA SHARE OF THE EXCESS.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION    1.    Chapter 17, Title 59 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Section 59-17-180.    (A)    Upon closing the books on a fiscal year, if a school district has in its unassigned fund balance more than twenty-five percent of its operating budget, the school district must notify the appropriate county auditor of the amount in its unassigned fund balance in excess of twenty-five percent of its operating budget by September first. In preparing property tax notices that are due without penalty by the next January fifteenth, the county auditor must grant each taxpayer paying school operating taxes a nonrefundable school property tax credit. The amount of the credit must be granted on a pro rata basis based on the amount the taxpayer otherwise owes in school operating taxes when compared to the total amount owed in school operating taxes in the school district. The tax bill must show the credit separately from any other credit.

(B)    For purposes of this section:

(1)    'Operating budget' means the amounts dedicated for all school operations, except amounts dedicated to the repayment of debt, in the current fiscal year of the school district's budget.

(2)    'Unassigned fund balance' means all unreserved accounts which are not designated for any specific purpose."

SECTION    2.    This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor and first applies to the closing of Fiscal Year 2013-2014.

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This web page was last updated on February 7, 2014 at 10:19 AM