Greenville County voters will see a penny sales tax measure on election ballots

A penny sales tax will be on the ballot for voters in Greenville County this November.

Councilmembers voted during a special meeting to send the measure to the ballot box for voters to decide.

The ballot question , which will be featured alongside residents’ picks for president, congress, statehouse, and local government, will read: “Must a special one percent sales and use tax be imposed in Greenville County for not more than 8 years to raise the amounts specified for the following purposes?”

The ballot question will also include the projects planned for road improvements, intersection improvements, roadway safety, congestion relief, and bridge and road-related drainage.

At the end of the ballot question, voters will be instructed to vote “yes” if they are in favor of the sales tax or “no” if they are not.

The measure passed 8-4 on Aug. 6, with councilmembers Benton Blount, Steve Shaw, Stan Tzouvelekas and Rick Bradley voting no. While Greenville County Council typically only has one meeting scheduled for August, council members faced a mid-August deadline to approve the one percent sales tax referendum to get it on the ballot. Councilmembers approved the measure but voters have the last say on whether or not it will be implemented.

If passed, the county’s sales tax would increase to 7% from the current 6% state sales tax. Greenville County is one of three counties in the state without a local sales tax. It would add a 1% tax to retail purchases in the county but excludes items such as gas and groceries.

If implemented, it is expected to raise more than $1 billion for road projects and would be effective from May 1, 2025 to April 30, 2033. The proceeds would be placed in a separate county account so as not to combine with other county funds.

The council would also establish an oversight committee comprised of six members appointed by the council to oversee projects and funds.

The vote came after a six-person Greenville County Capital Project Sales Tax Commission developed a list of more than 1,400 road projects, along with 31 roadway safety and congestion relief and road-related drainage projects it will fund. Last December, the council approved a resolution initiating a countywide inventory to assess all non-interstate roads and bridges maintained by the county, the state, and the five cities within the county.

Greenville County began pursuing the sales tax to address the deteriorating roads, most of which are in fair or poor condition , according to the county.

In September, assistant county administrator for community development and planning Tee Coker and assistant county administrator for engineering and public works Hesha Gamble, presented to the council the condition of the roads, saying that they were deteriorating and expected to only worsen.

More: ‘Decades of underinvestment’: Greenville County roads deteriorating. There's no easy fix.

“We’re dealing with not just years, but decades, of underinvestment,” Coker said.

The county owns 1,800 miles of roads, more than any other county in the state. However, only 28 to 32 can be paved each year.

Greenville County spends about $78 million per year, which includes different methods of funding such as the state’s Department of Transportation contributing $27 million and the County Transportation Committee fund from state gas taxes supplying $4 million.

The county commits $12 million from its annual budget for roads, spending the least compared to other counties. Charleston County, for example, commits a little over $100 million from its budget for roads.

Per capita, Greenville County spends less than $50 on roads each year. To compare, Spartanburg spends about $75 per capita with Charleston spending a little more than $350 per capita.

The state was ranked last for traffic fatalities per vehicle miles traveled in 2022, according to TRIP, a nonprofit researching transportation issues. In 2023, the South Carolina Department of Public Safety found Greenville County was second to Spartanburg County in experiencing a “higher number of traffic fatalities.”

Councilmembers disagree on how to fund road projects

All council members agreed the county’s roads are in a dire situation. However, not every council member agreed the penny sales tax was the correct solution.

“The truth is that this really is double taxation. We are paying the state to pave something that they have already been paid to pave,” Blount said last month arguing that since the state has a tax on gasoline meant to generate funds for roads, the county should not implement another tax.

Some council members also did not like that the list of roads includes some state roads.

Other council members said that since the county council members would not be implementing the tax with their vote and would only be sending it to residents for them to decide, the referendum should reach taxpayers.

“As bad as the roads are all right now, every Greenville County resident should have a say in this,” Chris Harrison, an outgoing Republican councilmember who voted for the measure, said.

The county released a list of roads to be paved, decied by the commission. Projects include:

• $473,919,000 for road improvement, repaving, and reconstruction projects
• $216,100,000 for 51 intersection improvement projects
• $313,200,000 for 31 roadway safety and congestion relief projects
• $43,613,000 for 37 bridge and road-related drainage projects.

Savannah Moss covers politics for the Greenville News. Reach her at smoss@gannett.com or follow her on X @Savmoss.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Greenville County voters will see a penny sales tax measure on election ballots