SECTION 98 - E16-OFFICE OF STATE TREASURER

     98.1.     (TREAS: Nat’l. Forest Fund - Local Govt. Compliance)  In order to conform to federal requirements local governments receiving distributions of National Forest Fund revenues are required to report annually to the State Treasurer indicating compliance with authorized purposes.

     98.2.     (TREAS: STARS Approval)  Decisions relating to the Statewide Accounting and Reporting System (STARS) and the South Carolina Enterprise Information System (SCEIS) which involve the State Treasurer’s Banking Operations and other functions of the State Treasurer’s Office shall require the approval of the State Treasurer.

     98.3.     (TREAS: Investments)  The State Treasurer may pool funds from accounts for investment purposes and may invest all monies in the same types of investments as set forth in Section 11-9-660.

     98.4.     (TREAS: Management Fees)  The State Treasurer is authorized to charge a fee for the operating and management costs associated with the Local Government Investment Pool, the Deferred Compensation Program, the Tuition Prepayment Program, and the College Investment Program and is further authorized to retain and expend the fees to provide these services.  The fees assessed may not exceed the cost of the provision of such services.

     98.5.     (TREAS: Investment Management Fees)  Unless otherwise prohibited by law, the State Treasurer may charge a fee for the operating and management costs associated with the investment management and support operations of various state funds and programs, and further, may retain and expend the fees to provide these services.  The fees assessed may not exceed the actual cost of the provision of these services or the earnings on these investments.

     98.6.     (TREAS: Debt Management Cost Allocation)  Unless otherwise prohibited by law, the State Treasurer may charge actual costs associated with the administration and management of the indebtedness of the State, its agencies and institutions, and further, may retain and expend any amounts so allocated to provide these services.  Costs associated with the original issuance of bonds and other indebtedness must be assessed on an hourly basis, must be taken from the costs of issuance of any bond issue or other indebtedness, and must not exceed the actual cost of providing these services.  Ongoing costs of administration and maintenance must be assessed against expenses of debt service, and must not exceed the actual costs of providing these services.

     98.7.     (TREAS: Withheld Accommodations Tax Revenues)  Before noncompliant expenditures and penalties withheld pursuant to Sections 6-4-35(B)(1)(a) and (b) are reallocated, the Tourism Expenditure Review Committee must certify to the Office of State Treasurer that the time period for an appeal of the committee’s action to the Administrative Law Court has expired or that the action of the committee has been upheld or overturned by the Administrative Law Court.  Noncompliant expenditures and penalties withheld must be reallocated annually after August first.  Allocations withheld must be reallocated proportionately based on the most recent completed fiscal year’s total statewide collections of the accommodations tax revenue according to the Office of State Treasurer records.  Each annual reallocation of withheld funds to non-offending counties and municipalities must be calculated separately then combined if necessary.  Each reallocation to a county or municipality calculated less than a dollar must be transferred to the General Fund of the State.

     98.8.     (TREAS: Tuition Prepayment Program)  The South Carolina Tuition Prepayment Program shall not accept any new enrollment in the current fiscal year.  The annual increase in tuition for the purposes of the Tuition Prepayment Program, for an institution cannot exceed seven percent per year from the 2006-07 level.  To the extent that actual tuition for an institution exceeds an annual growth of seven percent per year since Fiscal Year2006-07, colleges and universities must grant a waiver of the difference to the designated beneficiary and shall not pass along this difference to any student.

     98.9.     (TREAS: Penalties for Non-reporting)  If a municipality fails to submit the audited financial statements required under Section 14‑1‑208 of the 1976 Code to the State Treasurer within thirteen months of the end of their fiscal year, the State Treasurer must withhold all state payments to that municipality until the required audited financial statement is received.

     If the State Treasurer receives an audit report from either a county or municipality that contains a significant finding related to court fine reports or remittances to the Office of State Treasurer, the requirements of Proviso 117.51 shall be followed if an amount due is specified, otherwise the State Treasurer shall withhold twenty-five percent of all state payments to the county or municipality until the estimated deficiency has been satisfied.

     If a county or municipality is more than ninety days delinquent in remitting a monthly court fines report, the State Treasurer shall withhold twenty-five percent of state funding for that county or municipality until all monthly reports are current.

     After ninety days, any funds held by the Office of State Treasurer will be made available to the State Auditor to conduct an audit of the entity for the purpose of determining an amount due to the Office of State Treasurer, if any.

     98.10.   (TREAS: Signature Authorization)  The State Treasurer is hereby authorized to designate certain employees to sign payments for the current fiscal year in accordance with Section 11-5-140 of the 1976 Code to meet the ordinary expenses of the State.  This provision shall in no way relieve the State Treasurer of responsibility.

     98.11.   (TREAS: Unclaimed Property)  The State Treasurer may not expend funds to retain a third party, private sector auditor, or auditing firms to fulfill his duties pursuant to the South Carolina Uniform Unclaimed Property Act on a contingency basis or any basis other than an hourly basis, with the exception that the State Treasurer may join other state(s) in multi-state contingent fee auditors’ examinations, not to include companies whose parent company is headquartered or incorporated in South Carolina, when there is a reason to believe that those companies being audited are holding funds belonging to South Carolina citizens.  The Office of State Treasurer shall retain $200,000 from the Unclaimed Property Program for the sole purpose of employing internal compliance auditors to enforce the Unclaimed Property Act.

     98.12.   (TREAS: Identity Theft Reimbursement Fund)  (A)  There is established in the State Treasury the Department of Revenue Identity Theft Reimbursement Fund which must be maintained separately from the general fund of the State and all other funds.  The proceeds of the fund must be utilized to reimburse eligible expenses incurred by an eligible person.  The obligation to reimburse claims pursuant to this section does not arise until monies are credited to the fund, and only to the extent that monies are credited to the fund.  Any monies remaining in the fund at the end of the fiscal year shallbe retained, carried forward, and expended for the same purpose.

     (B)    A person seeking reimbursement from the fund must file with the Treasurer a claim on a form prescribed by him and verified by the claimant.  The Treasurer shall consider each claim within ninety days after it is filed and give written notice to the claimant if the claim is denied in whole or in part.  If a claim is allowed, the Treasurer shall reimburse the eligible person in an amount equal to his eligible expenses subject to availability of monies in the fund.  The decision by the Treasurer regarding a claim is a final agency decision that may be appealed to the Administrative Law Court pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act naming the Treasurer as the defendant.  The action must be brought within ninety days after the Treasurer’s decision or within one hundred eighty days after the filing of the claim if he has failed to act on it.

     (C)    The State Treasurer shall set forth policies and make the necessary determinations to implement the provisions of this section, including the disbursal of proceeds of the fund.

     (D)   For the purposes of this provision:

              (1)    ‘Eligible person’ shall mean a person whose personally identifiable information was obtained by a third party from a compromised computer system maintained by a state agency, board, committee, or commission.

              (2)    ‘Eligible expenses’ shall mean financial losses incurred by an eligible person directly related to the misappropriation of the eligible person’s personally identifiable information that was obtained by a third party from a compromised computer system maintained by a state agency, board, committee, or commission.  Expenses for services provided by private entities to assist eligible persons with financial losses are not eligible expenses to the extent such services are offered through the State or a state-supported program free of charge.

              (3)    ‘Financial losses’ shall mean actual losses, including, but not limited to, lost wages, costs incurred by an eligible person related to correcting his credit history or credit rating, or costs or judgments related to any criminal, civil, or administrative proceeding brought against the eligible person resulting from the misappropriation of the victim’s personally identifiable information not recovered from any other source.  Costs associated with the purchase of identity theft protection and identity theft resolution services are not financial losses.

              (4)    ‘Identity theft protection’ means identity fraud and protection products and services that attempt to proactively detect, notify, or prevent unauthorized access or misuse of a person’s identifying information or financial information to fraudulently obtain resources, credit, government documents or benefits, phone or other utility services, bank or savings accounts, loans, or other benefits in the person’s name.

              (5)    ‘Identity theft resolution services’ means products and services that attempt to mitigate the effects of identity fraud after personally identifiable information has been fraudulently obtained by a third party, including, but not limited to, identity theft insurance and other identity theft resolution services that are designed to resolve actual and potential identity theft and related matters.

              (6)    ‘Person’ shall mean an individual, corporation, firm, association, joint venture, partnership, limited liability corporation, or any other business entity.

              (7)    ‘Personally identifiable information’ means information that can be used to uniquely identify, contact, or locate a single person or can be used with other sources to uniquely identify a single individual, including, but not limited to, social security numbers, debit card numbers, and credit card numbers.

     98.13.   (TREAS: Municipality Accommodations Tax Withholdings)  If the State Treasurer is withholding accommodations tax revenue distributions to a municipality due to an expenditure the Tourism Expenditure Review Committee determined to be in noncompliance, then the municipality may refund an amount equivalent to the amount determined to be in noncompliance to the municipality’s accommodations tax fund from the municipality’s general fund.  If the municipality certifies to the Tourism Expenditure Review Committee that the amount has been refunded, the State Treasurer shall refund the withheld funds to the municipality’s general fund.  The expenditure of funds refunded to the municipality’s accommodations tax fund and any subsequent expenditures are subject to review by the Tourism Expenditure Review Committee.  Prior to notification to the State Treasurer of noncompliance by a municipality, the Tourism Expenditure Review Committee must notify the municipality if an expenditure is found to be in noncompliance.  If the committee informs the municipality of an expenditure determined to be in noncompliance and the municipality does not refund the noncompliant amount, the committee shall certify the noncompliance to the State Treasurer.  If the committee determines an expenditure of any refunded amount to be in noncompliance, the municipality may not refund an equivalent amount in order to avoid future withholdings.

     98.14.   (TREAS: Early Literacy Partnership) The State Treasurer's Office is directed to transfer all the funds from Subfund 4019 Governor's Teaching School Loan Program to Save the Children for the statewide partnership with local public schools to serve children ages 3 - 12 in areas of persistent rural poverty through early childhood literacy development.  Services, directly or indirectly, are intended to support each school’s efforts in supporting pre-kindergarten and kindergarten readiness, accelerating the literacy achievement of children currently reading below grade level and in increasing reading proficiency of struggling readers to ensure all children have the literacy skills they need to succeed.  Measured success of the partnerships must be provided to the General Assembly no later than June thirtieth of the current fiscal year.  Funds transferred to Save the Children may be carried forward.