Your tax bill: Horry County re-doing road fee after SC Supreme Court ruling
Your tax bill this year will look a little different, thanks to an effort by Horry County Council to adjust how it pays for road repairs and local public buses.
Rather than seeing a single $50 “road fee” charge on your bill, you’ll see two charges. First, a $43.50 “road fee” will pay for upgrading and repairing roads around the county, and second, a $6.50 “vehicle registration fee” will pay for Coast RTA bus operations.
A recent ruling from the South Carolina Supreme Court is prompting the change.
In the court’s Burns vs. Greenville County opinion last summer, justices ruled that the county’s road fee was an illegal tax, in part because the residents paying the fee weren’t receiving a substantial benefit compared to visitors who didn’t pay the fee.
Horry County Attorney Arrigo Carotti said the court’s ruling put new pressures on the county to better define its taxes and fees. Counties across the state “had to go back to the drawing board” as a result of the ruling, Carotti said.
“This ordinance is in response to that opinion and it satisfies the new standard,” Carotti said.
Horry County’s road fee is protected in part by a 1992 state Supreme Court ruling that explicitly allowed road fees, but county leaders said they have to split up the fee to comply with the court’s 2021 ruling in the Burns case.
Origins of fee vs. tax debate
In the Burns case, state Rep. Mike Burns (R-Taylors) alleged that Greenville County’s road fee was illegal because it didn’t provide payers a benefit “distinct” from visitors, or those who didn’t pay the fee. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Burns in June 2021.
By splitting the road fee into two separate funds, Horry County is able to comply with the court’s ruling, Carotti said. That’s due, in part, to research showing that residents who pay a road fee benefit by receiving lower auto insurance rates, which factors in the road quality where a person lives. Insurance premiums, too, can be lower if local roads are in good shape, the county’s ordinance states.
Splitting its funding for Coast RTA into a separate fund allows the county to continue its contributions to the public transit system without the road fee threatening it. State law explicitly allows counties to charge a vehicle registration fee to pay for public transit.
After the Burns ruling, Horry County faced a similar lawsuit over its road fee. The county, in response to the suit, put its road fee money in escrow. Carotti said Tuesday that the changes, if they’re passed, will allow the county to spend that money.
State lawmakers are also currently working on legislation — co-sponsored by state Sen. Greg Hembree (R-Little River) — to make road fees explicitly legal statewide.
If that legislation becomes law this year, Carotti said, it “will provide more cover than we would need.” Horry County would still be able to charge its road fee, he noted.
The changes to the road fees will appear on next year’s tax bills, which are typically mailed out in October.
A public hearing will be held on the new fee structure before it shows up on tax bills.
