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South Carolina Home Rule -- When Allowed 10/9/05 Added sections on "Written Law Supporting" and "Contrary Court Experience" (also, this page was strictly an internal reference earlier)
Click the section you want to read in the table below.
Local Governments and Home Rule in South Carolina A Citizen's Guide by Holley Hewitt Ulbrich, Ada Louise SteirerJune 2004 Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs Clemson University Funded by the R.C. Edwards Endowment and the Office of the President
"In 1973, after voters agreed, the General Assembly ratified Article 8, the Home Rule Amendment to the 1895 constitution, which expanded home rule for local governments.
◗ The authority for local government is summarized in Article 8, section 17,which provides that “all laws concerning local government shall be liberally construed in their favor. Powers, duties, and responsibilities granted local government subdivisions by this constitution and by law shall include those fairly implied and not prohibited by this Constitution.”
◗ The General Assembly passed the Home Rule Act in 1975. It took effect on July 1, 1976. The act made much more dramatic changes in the powers of counties than of municipalities. For the first time, the act also made intergovernmental cooperation possible, because municipal and county governments now had similar powers.
◗ Since 1976 the General Assembly has regularly enacted bills that expanded,reduced or redefined the powers of local government. In recent years, local governments have resisted legislative efforts to limit their powers.
S. C. Code of Laws:
Title 6, Chapter 31 "South Carolina Local
Government Development Agreement Act."
of the South Carolina Code of Laws specifically
allows "on and off-site infrastructure and other improvements" to
be included in development agreements.
S. C. Constitution
SOUTH CAROLINA CONSTITUTION "ARTICLE VIII. LOCAL GOVERNMENT . . . SECTION 17. Construction of Constitution and laws. The provisions of this Constitution and all laws concerning local government shall be liberally construed in their favor. Powers, duties, and responsibilities granted local government subdivisions by this Constitution and by law shall include those fairly implied and not prohibited by this Constitution. " As a practicality from court experience, Horry County Council attorneys tell us that we have home rule only to the extent that the S.C. legislature explicitly allows it. A salient example: Horry County can not impose impact fees on new developments to offset the additional taxes necessary to build the public school facilities required by the additional students the development will add to the school system, because the impact fee statute does not explicitly name public schools as public facilities upon which impact fees can be imposed.
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