Article 1 General Provisions Affecting Governor
Article 3 Installation of Governor; Vacancy in Office
Article 5 Appointment and Removal of Officers
Article 7 Maintenance of Peace and Order
Article 9 Lieutenant Governor
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Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 1 > Chapter 3 - Governor and Lieutenant Governor

  • Abstract of judgment: In a federal criminal proceeding, A certification from a U.S. District Court clerk that a judgment of restitution was entered against the defendant owing to the victim. If the defendant inherits, owns, or sells real property or holdings, these assets can then be attached at the state and local levels as well.
  • Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
  • Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
  • Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
  • Affordable housing: means housing affordable to families whose incomes do not exceed eighty percent of the median income for the service area or areas within the jurisdiction of the governmental entity. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
  • Appraisal: A determination of property value.
  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
  • Assessment: means an assessment voluntarily agreed upon by a majority of the owners of real property within an improvement district and representing at least sixty-six percent of the assessed value of all real property within the improvement district. See South Carolina Code 4-35-30
  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
  • authorities: shall mean the county board of commissioners or other board or body to which is delegated the administrative duties of the particular county; and

    (2) The term "authorized purpose" shall mean any purpose for which the particular county might, under the applicable constitutional provisions, issue bonds or levy taxes. See South Carolina Code 4-15-20
  • Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
  • Beach preservation fee: means a fee imposed on the gross proceeds derived from the rental or charges for accommodations furnished to transients for consideration within the jurisdiction of the governing body which are subject to the tax imposed pursuant to § 12-36-920(A). See South Carolina Code 6-1-620
  • Bequest: Property gifted by will.
  • Bonds: shall include notes, bonds, refunding bonds, and other obligations authorized to be issued by this chapter. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
  • Business license: means a license issued to a taxpayer by a county or municipality for the privilege of doing business in that county or municipality. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
  • Capital improvements: means improvements with a useful life of five years or more, by new construction or other action, which increase or increased the service capacity of a public facility. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Capital improvements plan: means a plan that identifies capital improvements for which development impact fees may be used as a funding source. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Chambers: A judge's office.
  • Charitable organization: means an organization that is determined by the Internal Revenue Service to be exempt from federal income taxes under 26 U. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
  • Charitable purpose: means a benevolent, philanthropic, patriotic, or eleemosynary purpose that does not result in personal gain to a sponsor, organizer, officer, director, trustee, or person with ultimate control of a charitable organization. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
  • Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
  • Committee membership: Legislators are assigned to specific committees by their party. Seniority, regional balance, and political philosophy are the most prominent factors in the committee assignment process.
  • Concurrent resolution: A legislative measure, designated "S. Con. Res." and numbered consecutively upon introduction, generally employed to address the sentiments of both chambers, to deal with issues or matters affecting both houses, such as a concurrent budget resolution, or to create a temporary joint committee. Concurrent resolutions are not submitted to the President/Governor and thus do not have the force of law.
  • Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • Demand reduction: means providing available National Guard personnel, equipment, support, and coordination to federal, state, local, and civic organizations and agencies for the purposes of the prevention of drug abuse and the reduction in the demand for illegal drugs. See South Carolina Code 1-3-490
  • Department: means the South Carolina Department of Revenue. See South Carolina Code 4-12-10
  • Developer: means an individual or corporation, partnership, or other entity undertaking development. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Development: means construction or installation of a new building or structure, or a change in use of a building or structure, any of which creates additional demand and need for public facilities. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Development approval: means a document from a governmental entity which authorizes the commencement of a development. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Development permit: means a permit issued for construction on or development of land when no subsequent building permit issued pursuant to Chapter 9 of Title 6 is required. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Devise: To gift property by will.
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Drug interdiction and counterdrug activities: means the use of National Guard personnel, while not in federal service, in law enforcement support activities that are intended to reduce the supply or use of illegal drugs in the United States. See South Carolina Code 1-3-490
  • Employee: includes an individual who contracts with an agency for personal services. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. Source: OCC
  • Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
  • Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
  • Fee payor: means the individual or legal entity that pays or is required to pay a development impact fee. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
  • Financing Agreement: shall mean any agreement, including without limitation an agreement whereby a county or incorporated municipality shall lease or sell a project to an industry, made by and between the governing board and any one or more industries by which the industry or industries agree to pay to (and to secure if so required) the county or the incorporated municipality, as the case may be, or to any assignee thereof, the sums required to meet the payment of the principal, interest and redemption premium, if any, on any bonds. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. Source: OCC
  • Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • Governing Board: shall mean any one of the governing bodies of the several counties and incorporated municipalities of the State as now or hereafter constituted; and in the event that any project shall be located in more than one county, the term "governing board" shall also relate to the governing bodies of the several counties wherein such project shall be located. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
  • Governing body: means the governing body of a county. See South Carolina Code 4-35-30
  • Governing body: means the governing body of a qualified coastal municipality. See South Carolina Code 6-1-620
  • Governmental entity: means a county, as provided in Chapter 9 of Title 4, and a municipality, as defined in § 5-1-20. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
  • Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
  • Gross income: means the gross receipts or gross revenue of a business, received or accrued, for one calendar or fiscal year collected or to be collected from business done within a taxing jurisdiction. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
  • impact fee: means a payment of money imposed as a condition of development approval to pay a proportionate share of the cost of system improvements needed to serve the people utilizing the improvements. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Impeachment: (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.
  • Improvement district: means an area within the county designated by the governing body pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and within which an improvement plan is to be accomplished. See South Carolina Code 4-35-30
  • Improvement plan: means the overall plan by which the governing body proposes to effect improvements within an improvement district to preserve property values, prevent deterioration, and preserve the tax base. See South Carolina Code 4-35-30
  • Improvements: means recreational facilities, pedestrian facilities, sidewalks, storm drains, or water course facilities or improvements, the relocation, construction, widening, and paving of roads and streets, any building or other facilities for public use, any public works eligible for financing pursuant to § 6-21-50, and may include the acquisition of necessary easements and land and all things incidental to the provision of the above. See South Carolina Code 4-35-30
  • Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
  • Industry: shall mean any person, firm or corporation engaged in any one or more of the enterprises identified in item (3) of this section or any person, firm or corporation providing facilities constituting a project to be used by any one or more of the enterprises identified in item (3) of this section. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
  • Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
  • Joint meeting: An occasion, often ceremonial, when the House and Senate each adopt a unanimous consent agreement
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Land use assumptions: means a description of the service area and projections of land uses, densities, intensities, and population in the service area over at least a ten-year period. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Lease agreement: means an agreement between the county and the sponsor leasing the property at the project from the county to the sponsor. See South Carolina Code 4-12-10
  • Level of service: means a measure of the relationship between service capacity and service demand for public facilities. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  • Local accommodations tax: means a tax on the gross proceeds derived from the rental or charges for accommodations furnished to transients as provided in § 12-36-920(A) and which is imposed on every person engaged or continuing within the jurisdiction of the imposing local governmental body in the business of furnishing accommodations to transients for consideration. See South Carolina Code 6-1-510
  • Local governing body: means the governing body of a county or municipality. See South Carolina Code 6-1-510
  • Local planning commission: means the entity created pursuant to Article 1, Chapter 29 of Title 6. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Mutual assistance and support agreement: means an agreement between the National Guard of this State and one or more law enforcement agencies or between the National Guard of this State and the National Guard of one or more other states, consistent with the purposes of this compact. See South Carolina Code 1-3-490
  • Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
  • Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Official: means the appointed, elected, or designated representative of an agency, institution, or organization authorized to conduct those activities for which support is requested. See South Carolina Code 1-3-490
  • Owner: means a person twenty-one years of age or older, or the proper legal representative for a person younger than twenty-one years of age, and a firm or corporation, who or which owns legal title to a present possessory interest in real estate equal to a life estate or greater (expressly excluding leaseholds, easements, equitable interests, inchoate rights, and future interest) and who owns, at the date of the petition or written consent, at least an undivided one-tenth interest in a single tract and whose name appears on the county tax records as an owner of real estate, and a duly organized group whose tax interest is at least equal to a one-tenth interest in a single tract. See South Carolina Code 4-35-30
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • Party state: means a state that has lawfully enacted this compact. See South Carolina Code 1-3-490
  • Person: means :

    (a) an individual, labor union and organization, joint apprenticeship committee, partnership, association, corporation, legal representative, mutual company, joint-stock company, trust, unincorporated organization, trustee, trustee in bankruptcy, receiver, or other legal or commercial entity located in part or in whole in the State or doing business in the State;

    (b) the State and any agency or local subdivision of an agency; or

    (c) a political subdivision. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
  • Positive majority: means a vote for adoption by the majority of the members of the entire governing body, whether present or not. See South Carolina Code 6-1-510
  • Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
  • Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
  • Project: means land, buildings, and other improvements on the land including water, sewage treatment and disposal facilities, air pollution control facilities, and all other machinery, apparatus, equipment, office facilities, and furnishings which are considered necessary, suitable, or useful by a sponsor. See South Carolina Code 4-12-10
  • Project: means any land and any buildings and other improvements on the land including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, water, sewage treatment and disposal facilities, air pollution control facilities, and all other machinery, apparatus, equipment, office facilities, and furnishings which are considered necessary, suitable, or useful by the following investors or any combination of them:

    (a) any enterprise for the manufacturing, processing, or assembling of any agricultural or manufactured products;

    (b) any commercial enterprise engaged in storing, warehousing, distributing, transporting, or selling products of agriculture, mining, or industry, or engaged in providing laundry services to hospitals, to convalescent homes, or to medical treatment facilities of any type, public or private, within or outside of the issuing county or incorporated municipality and within or outside of the State;

    (c) any enterprise for research in connection with any of the foregoing or for the purpose of developing new products or new processes or improving existing products or processes;

    (d) any enterprise engaged in commercial business including, but not limited to, wholesale, retail, or other mercantile establishments; residential and mixed use developments of two thousand five hundred acres or more; office buildings; computer centers; tourism, sports, and recreational facilities; convention and trade show facilities; and public lodging and restaurant facilities if the primary purpose is to provide service in connection with another facility qualifying under this subitem; and

    (e) any enlargement, improvement, or expansion of any existing facility in subitems (a), (b), (c), and (d) of this item. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
  • Project: means a particular development on an identified parcel of land. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Proportionate share: means that portion of the cost of system improvements determined pursuant to § 6-1-990 which reasonably relates to the service demands and needs of the project. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Public debt: Cumulative amounts borrowed by the Treasury Department or the Federal Financing Bank from the public or from another fund or account. The public debt does not include agency debt (amounts borrowed by other agencies of the Federal Government). The total public debt is subject to a statutory limit.
  • Public facilities: means :

    (a) water supply production, treatment, laboratory, engineering, administration, storage, and transmission facilities;

    (b) wastewater collection, treatment, laboratory, engineering, administration, and disposal facilities;

    (c) solid waste and recycling collection, treatment, and disposal facilities;

    (d) roads, streets, and bridges including, but not limited to, rights-of-way and traffic signals;

    (e) storm water transmission, retention, detention, treatment, and disposal facilities and flood control facilities;

    (f) public safety facilities, including law enforcement, fire, emergency medical and rescue, and street lighting facilities;

    (g) capital equipment and vehicles, with an individual unit purchase price of not less than one hundred thousand dollars including, but not limited to, equipment and vehicles used in the delivery of public safety services, emergency preparedness services, collection and disposal of solid waste, and storm water management and control;

    (h) parks, libraries, and recreational facilities;

    (i) public education facilities for grades K-12 including, but not limited to, schools, offices, classrooms, parking areas, playgrounds, libraries, cafeterias, gymnasiums, health and music rooms, computer and science laboratories, and other facilities considered necessary for the proper public education of the state's children. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
  • Qualified coastal municipality: means a municipality bordering on the Atlantic Ocean that has a public beach within its corporate limits and which imposes a local accommodations tax pursuant to § 6-1-520 that does not exceed one and one-half percent pursuant to the limitations imposed pursuant to § 6-1-540. See South Carolina Code 6-1-620
  • Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
  • Requesting state: means the state whose governor requested assistance in the area of counterdrug activities. See South Carolina Code 1-3-490
  • Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
  • Responding state: means the state furnishing assistance, or requested to furnish assistance, in the area of counterdrug activities. See South Carolina Code 1-3-490
  • Security Agreement: shall mean any trust agreement, mortgage, security agreement or assignment by which any bond or bonds issued pursuant to this chapter may be secured. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
  • Service area: means , based on sound planning or engineering principles, or both, a defined geographic area in which specific public facilities provide service to development within the area defined. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
  • Service unit: means a standardized measure of consumption, use, generation, or discharge attributable to an individual unit of development calculated in accordance with generally accepted engineering or planning standards for a particular category of capital improvements. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
  • special purpose district: means any district created by an act of the General Assembly or pursuant to general law and which provides any local governmental service or function including, but not limited to, fire protection, sewerage treatment, water distribution, and recreation. See South Carolina Code 4-8-10
  • Sponsor: means one or more entities which sign the inducement agreement with the county and also includes a sponsor affiliate unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See South Carolina Code 4-12-10
  • Sponsor affiliate: means an entity that joins with or is an affiliate of a sponsor and that participates in the investment in, or financing of, a project. See South Carolina Code 4-12-10
  • State: means each of the several states of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or a territory or possession of the United States. See South Carolina Code 1-3-490
  • State officer: means any of the following:

    (a) the Governor;

    (b) the Lieutenant Governor;

    (c) the Secretary of State;

    (d) the State Comptroller General;

    (e) the State Treasurer;

    (f) the Attorney General;

    (g) the Superintendent of Education;

    (h) the Commissioner of Agriculture; or

    (i) the Adjutant General. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
  • Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
  • Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
  • Statutes at large: A chronological listing of the laws enacted each Congress. They are published in volumes numbered by Congress.
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
  • System improvement costs: means costs incurred for construction or reconstruction of system improvements, including design, acquisition, engineering, and other costs attributable to the improvements, and also including the costs of providing additional public facilities needed to serve new growth and development. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • System improvements: means capital improvements to public facilities which are designed to provide service to a service area. See South Carolina Code 6-1-920
  • Taxing jurisdiction: means a county or municipality levying a business license tax. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
  • Taxpayer: means an individual, firm, partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability corporation, corporation, trust, estate, association, or company. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
  • Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
  • Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
  • Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
  • True bill: Another word for indictment.
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
  • Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. Source: OCC
  • Workforce housing: means residential housing for rent or sale that is reasonably and appropriately priced for rent or sale to a person or family whose income falls within thirty percent and one hundred twenty percent of the median income for the local area, with adjustments for household size, according to the latest figures available from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). See South Carolina Code 6-1-510