§ 4-9-55 — Enactment of general laws affecting counties' expenditures and revenue raising; conditions; exceptions.

(A) A county may not be bound by any general law requiring it to spend funds or to take an action requiring the expenditure of funds unless the General Assembly has determined that the law fulfills a state interest and the law requiring the expenditure is approved by two-thirds of the members voting in each house of the General Assembly provided a simple majority of the members voting in each house is required if one of the following applies: (1) funds have been appropriated that have been estimated by the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office at the time of enactment to be sufficient to fund the expenditures; (2) the General Assembly authorizes or has authorized a county to enact a funding source not available for the county on July 1, 1993, that can be used to generate the amount of funds estimated to be sufficient to fund the expenditure by a simple majority vote of the governing body of the county; (3) the expenditure is required to comply with a law that applies to all persons similarly situated, including the state and local governments; (4) the law is either required to comply with a federal requirement or required for eligibility for a federal entitlement. (B) Except upon approval of each house of the General Assembly by two-thirds of the members voting in each house, the General Assembly may not enact, amend, or repeal any general law if the anticipated effect of doing so would be to reduce the authority that counties have to raise revenues in the aggregate, as the authority exists on July 1, 1993. (C) The provisions of this section do not apply to: (1) laws enacted to require funding of pension benefits existing on the effective date of this section; (2) laws relating to the judicial department; (3) criminal laws; (4) election laws; (5) the Department of Education; (6) laws reauthorizing but not expanding then-existing statutory authority; (7) laws having a fiscal impact of less than ten cents per capita on a statewide basis; laws creating, modifying, or repealing noncriminal infractions. (D) The duties, requirements, and obligations imposed by general laws in effect on July 1, 1993, are not suspended by the provisions of this section. (E) A provision of, or amendment to, an appropriation bill that contains a permanent or temporary provision of law must be adopted by a separate vote of the General Assembly in the manner provided in subsections (A) through (D) of this section. Provided, however, that once a provision or amendment to an appropriation bill is adopted, the vote to adopt or reject an appropriation bill on second reading, third reading, or adoption of the conference committee or free conference committee report is not subject to the provisions of subsections (A) through (D) of this section.

Legislative History

HISTORY: 1993 Act No. 157, SECTION 1, eff June 15, 1993; 1997 Act No. 138, SECTION 1, eff July 1, 1997. Validity For the validity of (A) and (B) of this section, see Pinckney v. Peeler, 862 S.E.2d 906 (S.C. 2021). Effect of Amendment The 1997 amendment, in the introductory paragraph of subsection (A), substituted "A county may not" for "No county may"; in subsection (C), deleted former item (5), renumbered former item (6) as item (5), deleted former item (7), and renumbered former items (8) and (9) as items (6) and (7); and added subsection (E).