(A) For purposes of this section:

(1) "Qualified property" means all real and tangible personal property owned, leased, licensed, or acquired by a qualified manufacturer during the consolidation period regardless of (a) when the property is placed into service in this State, and (b) whether the property has been previously subject to property taxes in this State.

(2) "Qualified manufacturer" means a manufacturing facility in this State which:

(a) employed at least seven hundred persons at the beginning of the consolidation period; and

(b) is located in a county which is designated at the beginning of the consolidation period as a less-developed county by the South Carolina Department of Revenue pursuant to Section 12-7-1220.

(3) "Qualified consolidation" means:

(a) a restructuring or transfer or series of transfers involving assets of a manufacturing facility in this State and a manufacturing facility which is located in a state other than this State, pursuant to which all or a portion of the assets of the manufacturing facility located in the other state are transferred to a manufacturing facility in this State;

(b) during the consolidation period, (i) the corporations which own or lease the manufacturing facility in the other state and the facility in this State are members of the same controlled group as defined under Internal Revenue Code Section 1563, or (ii) the same corporation owns or leases the facility in this State and the facility in the other state;

(c) at least one hundred new jobs are created at the facility in this State during the consolidation period; and

(d) during the consolidation period, at least ten million dollars of original cost, without regard to depreciation at the time of the transfer to the facility, of manufacturing and related property are added to the facility in this State, either from the manufacturing facility in the other state, or purchased or leased from a third party.

(4) "Payment in lieu of taxes" means one or more payments made to the county at the times and in the amounts as the county, and entity or entities which will initially make the payment in lieu of taxes, may agree, pursuant to a transfer of title to the property which is subject to such payments to the county, and a lease of the property by the county to the entity or entities which will initially make such payments.

(5) "Consolidation period" means the eighteen-month period beginning on the first date that assets are transferred to the facility in this State from the manufacturing facility in the other state. The South Carolina Economic Development Board shall certify in writing to the South Carolina Department of Revenue the specific date that the consolidation period begins.

(B) In the case of a financing agreement in the form of a lease or a lease purchase, the county and the investor may enter into an inducement agreement which provides for a payment in lieu of property taxes under this section for qualified property owned by, or leased or licensed to, one or more qualified manufacturers which complete a qualified consolidation between June 1, 1992, and December 31, 1993.

(C) Any interest in the assets which are subject to the payment in lieu of taxes, or the lease relating to the assets, may be freely transferred without restriction, except as the county, and the entity or entities which will make such payment, may otherwise agree. This agreement, and any inducement agreement, may be freely amended or replaced at any time.

(D) Distribution of the payment in lieu of taxes on the project must be made in the same manner and proportion that the millage levied for school and other purposes would be distributed if the property were taxable.

(E) The provisions of this section do not apply to any construction of Section 4-29-67, and to the extent that Sections 4-29-60, 4-29-67, or any other provision of Title 4 are inconsistent with this section, this section controls.

HISTORY: 1993 Act No. 123, Section 1, eff June 14, 1993.

Editor's Note

1993 Act No. 123, Section 7, effective June 14, 1993, provides as follows:

"SECTION 7. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor and applies prospectively to any project for which an inducement agreement was not entered into before the effective date of this act; provided, however, that projects with respect to which an inducement agreement, millage rate agreement, or both, have been entered into before the effective date of this act are entitled but not required to use the provisions of Section 4-29-67 of the 1976 Code, as amended by this act, and also one or more of the provisions of the following subsections of Section 4-29-67 of the 1976 Code as in existence before the amendments contained in this act: (B); (F)(1)(c); (F)(2); (G); and (I); and provided further that investors having a lease agreement which was entered into before the effective date of this act meeting the eighty-five million dollar minimum level of investment required under Section 4-29-67(C) within five years from the date the lease agreement was signed shall have seven years from the date the lease agreement was signed to complete the investment, unless a longer period is otherwise stipulated in the lease agreement. The last sentence of Section 4-29-67(I) of the 1976 Code, as amended by this act, is not applicable to any project with respect to which an inducement agreement was entered into or an inducement or similar resolution was adopted by the governing body of the county before the effective date of this act; provided, however, that if an inducement agreement has not been entered into before the effective date of this act, such an agreement must be entered into with respect to any such project within one year of the effective date of this act in order for pre-inducement agreement project expenditures to qualify for the fee provided in subsection (D)(2). Any lease which was entered into with a county prior to the effective date of this act, in order to preserve the eligibility of certain property for subsequent inclusion in a fee in lieu of taxes arrangement, and which lease provides for lease payments within two dollars of what the property taxes on the leased property would otherwise have been, shall not be considered a lease agreement of any kind for purposes of beginning the running of any time period provided under Section 4-29-67 of the 1976 Code, including, but not limited to, the five, seven, and twenty-year periods provided therein. For purposes of this SECTION 7, references to inducement or millage rate agreements shall be considered to exclude any amendments or replacements of such agreements."