Greenville County Council moves penny sales tax to next step but not without controversy

A penny sales tax is a step closer to being on the November ballot after a Greenville County Council vote on Tuesday.

In a second reading, the council voted 8-4 to advance the referendum, which still needs one more reading before voters can decide whether to add a 1% sales tax to retail purchases in the county. The next vote is expected in August.

The vote comes after a six-person Greenville County Capital Project Sales Tax Commission produced a list of more than 1,400 road projects, along with 31 roadway safety and congestion relief and bridge and road-related drainage projects it will fund. Certain items, such as groceries and gas, would be excluded from the additional tax.

Although all council members agreed Greenville County roads needed help, the vote was not without controversy. Some council members oppose an additional tax and would rather allocate more money from the county budget toward roads.

Chris Harrison, an outgoing Republican council member who voted for the measure, said he had a hard time understanding what “the fear is to not put it on the ballot” and why someone would vote no to send it to the ballots.

“As bad as the roads are all right now, every Greenville County resident should have a say in this.

Prior to the council meeting, seven Republicans — four council members and three nominees to the council — held a press conference to “urge voters to reject the proposed 1% sales tax. The sitting council members Benton Blount, Steve Shaw, Stan Tzouvelekas, and Rick Bradley all voted against moving the sales tax to the next reading. Council nominees Frank Farmer, Curt McGahhey, and Garey Collins attended. Kelly Long, another GOP nominee, did not attend the press conference and is against the penny sales tax.

The opposition from the current and future council members — only Farmer faces a Democratic opponent in November — gives voters a first glimpse into how the council might operate when members are sworn in in January.

“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 during the conference.

Blount did not say which parts of the county's budget they would like to see reduced to be used for the roads, citing that they would work together to go through the budget and would also like to see a "thorough audit of the budget."

Why Greenville County pursued the penny sales tax

Greenville County is one of three counties in the state without a local sales tax. Though the county owns 1,800 miles of roads, the most of any other county in the state, only 28 to 32 roads can be paved yearly. The county also spends much less compared to other counties in the state. Greenville County commits $12 million from its annual budget to roads compared to Charleston County, which allocates a little over $100 million to roads.

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

Though the council votes on whether to put the referendum, voters have the final say in November. If the referendum passes, it will operate from May 1, 2025, through April 30, 2033, and is expected to raise more than $1 billion for road projects. That money would be placed into a separate county account to not combine with other county funds.

Last September, assistant county administrator for community development and planning Tee Coker and Hesha Gamble, assistant county administrator for engineering and public works, updated the council on the condition of the county's roads, saying the roads were deteriorating and expected to only worsen.

"Basically, we just haven’t kept up with the pace of investment and development throughout the county as a whole," Coker said during the September meeting. "We're dealing with not just years, but decades, of underinvestment."

The state of South Carolina ranked last for traffic fatalities per vehicle miles traveled in 2022, according to TRIP, a nonprofit researching transportation issues. And, 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."

Council members disagree on how to fund road paving

In a public hearing before the council debate, people on both sides spoke. Three mayors of municipalities within Greenville County spoke in favor of the penny sales tax referendum passing.

“But the fact of the matter is residents I hear from don't care who owns the road; they want it fixed. They're tired of being told I can't do anything about it,” said GP McLeer, mayor of Fountain Inn.

Stan McCune, who considers himself a “fiscal conservative” and was against previous tax increases, said that he would like to see the referendum reach the ballots to let the voters decide.

However, some residents were against the 1% sales tax reaching the ballots, with some saying they did not trust that the money raised for roads would only be used for roads. Others said that stopping rapid growth in the county and forcing developers to invest in infrastructure would be a better solution.

“Why are developers not investing more money on the roads because they are the ones building all these new homes and bringing in more time around with all these people to keep building and building them building all these homes over and over?” Greenville County resident Jill Hood said.

During the debate, Harrison, the outgoing council member, reminded citizens that the vote held on Tuesday was not imposing a tax.

“If this passes, this has to go on a path where every constituent gets to vote on it. Everybody in line to speak in favor and everyone who lined up to speak against. They all get a voice in this matter,” Harrison said.

Still, some council members echoed concerns that the taxes would not be used for roads but for other county projects, but Greenville County Council Chairman Dan Tripp said that by South Carolina law, the funds generated would have to be used for roads alone.

Other council members were concerned that within the project list, state roads were included and did not just focus on county roads.

“I said that I would agree to put my name to vote yes to put it on the ballot if the commission focused on road paving, which I don't feel like we did accurately. And if we were going to focus on county roads, which we didn't do,” Blount said.

The county released a list of roads to be paved, decided by the commission. More than 1,400 projects are on the list, including:

• $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.

If accepted by voters, the council would establish an oversight committee comprised of six members appointed by the council to oversee the projects and funds.

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