Hewitt, 082420 SCAGO, AGO 3263

• Case Date: August 24, 2020
• Court: South Carolina

The Honorable William L. “Lee" Hewitt, III AGO 3263 No. 3263 South Carolina Attorney General Opinion State of South Carolina Office of the Attorney General August 24, 2020          The Honorable William L. “Lee" Hewitt, III          Member          South Carolina House of Representatives          District No. 108          P.O. Box 928          Murrclls Inlet, SC 29576          Alan Wilson, Attorney General          Dear Representative Hewitt:          Attorney General Alan Wilson has referred your letter to the Opinions section. The request letter forwards one of your constituent's concerns about a county imposed stormwater management fee. The request letter separately asks the following:

After reading the previous opinions that your Opinions Section has published on local governing bodies enacting local fees, I still have questions about S.C. Code § 6-1-300 and related Code § 6-1-330. These code sections appear to allow local governing bodies to impose local fees, which would include storm water fees.

Generally, I want to know what obligations do local governing bodies take on, once they impose storm water fees, to account for the use of the revenues they collect as storm water fees?

Specifically, if these fee revenues are spent under a local government's storm water management plan, is that sufficient? Must the local government show how revenues collected from an individual payor benefit that payor? If so, what information would have to be included in such a showing?

If the local governing body has the obligation to make such an accounting, do you also see any obligation in these South Carolina Code sections, or any other related Code sections, for the local governing body to hold any part of these revenues in reserve accounts and disperse them for emergency, hurricane, any other unexpected or force majeure related damages or repairs?

If, under SC Code § 6-1-330, the Georgetown County Council —or any other local governing body for that matter—failed to hold a public referendum on a proposed storm water fee prior to enacting it, is that failure fatal to the legitimacy of their storm water fee?

         Law/Analysis          In order to address the questions raised in the request letter, this Opinion will first discuss the Stormwater Management Act, S.C. Code §§ 48-14-10 et seq., and its related regulations before addressing the extent to which S.C Code § 6-1-330 impacts the imposition and collection of stormwater management fees. The Act defines "Stormwater management" as:

(a) quantitative control, a system of vegetative or structural measures, or both, that control the increased volume and rate of stormwater runoff caused by manmade changes to the land;

(b) qualitative control, a system of vegetative, structural, or other measures that reduce or eliminate pollutants that might otherwise be carried by stormwater runoff.

S.C. Code Ann. § 48-14-20(11).1 The South Carolina Supreme Court explained in State ex rel. Condon v. City of Charleston. 334 S.C...