By Jessica Johnson
Contributing Writer

Among the many decisions to be made in the voting booth Nov. 7 is whether to allow Charleston County to issue $300 million worth of bonds to more quickly complete a series of road projects and make greenbelt purchases.

The funds to pay off the bonds would be raised with the previously approved half-cent sales tax.

“It’s my understanding that some people think if the county borrows more money that taxes will go up. Of course, the sales tax voted in two years ago is paying for this bond,” said Keith Bustraan, Charleston County’s chief deputy administrator.

There are two questions on the ballot, both of which require a majority vote to pass.

The first asks voters whether they would allow the county to issue $205 million in general obligation bonds, payable from the half-cent sales tax approved in 2004, to fund the construction of highways and other transportation related-projects. The other asks voters whether they would allow the county to issue $95 million in general obligation bonds payable from the half-cent sales tax to fund greenbelt projects.

Members of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, proponents of the measure, said the bonding authority would allow the county to move ahead on projects sooner rather than later, reducing the cost of project inflation.

Expanding a road such as Johnnie Dodds Boulevard in Mount Pleasant would cost $110 million with a 2014 completion date if it was funded through the bond referendum. If the county waited to undertake the project until after the sale tax money had been collected, the project could cost as much as $240 million and wouldn’t see completion until 2030, according to literature produced by the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce.

In hindsight it should all have been bonded when the half-cent sales tax was passed in 2004, said Ron Jones, of Clawson & Staubes LLC, who serves as campaign chairman for the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce.

“The costs of the projects have gone up since the passage,” Jones said.

Since the 2004 vote, the Transportation Advisory Board identified a number of transportation-related projects on which to spend the expected $1.3 billion in tax revenues and hopes to fully fund all projects.

The best way to do that is to allow the county to bond for the projects now, Jones said.

The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission has lost land parcels on its wanted list to developers because it had to wait for sales tax revenues to come in, Jones said.

“The bonds are needed for the green-space projects as well,” he said.

If the referendum passes, according to Jones, it would ensure the road and greenbelt projects could be completed sooner and at less cost to the county.

One man, though, sees a “yes” vote as condoning spending which wasn’t voted upon in 2004.

“I’m not against having a tax and I’m not against public transportation,” said Isle of Palms resident William H. Mitchell.

Mitchell, a retired civil engineer, admits he is no attorney, but says the original sales tax and the current referendum don’t match up.

According to Mitchell, funding park purchases, CARTA operating costs, on-the-job training for road projects and bond administration costs fall outside the scope of spending noted on the sales tax ballot question of 2004.

When voters originally approved the transportation tax, Mitchell said, the full amount of $1.3 billion to be raised in 25 years was listed as capital cost, so money should not be contributed toward the operation of CARTA nor administrative costs estimated at $46.6 million.

Funds to CARTA were listed on the November 2004 referendum. Since most of CARTA’s costs are operating costs and not capital costs, some of the $234 million given to CARTA over the next 25 years will go toward its operation. And nothing in the code specifically prohibits spending sales tax on mass-transit operating costs, Bustraan said. The administrative costs of $46.6 million are not prohibited either.

“That is 5 percent of the cost of the program. It’s not unreasonable. I don’t know how else we would get (the roads) built if we didn’t have people to manage the program,” Bustraan said.

Mitchell also said the county missed its opportunity to ask to bond for the funds and should have made that request in November 2004.

The county did ask residents to approve $113 million in general obligation bonds in November 2004. Of that, $77 million went to roadways and $36 million went to greenbelts. If voters approve the measure, Bustraan said the county would have about $12 million a year to allocate to additional road projects and still fulfill all other bond project commitments, including paying bond debt.

The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce is more worried about people thinking they would pay increased taxes and being confused by the ballot question, and less about any possible legal challenges.

Mitchell is afraid that people just don’t care.

“I think people are not interested ... in anything,” Mitchell said.

SUBSCRIBE | REPRINTS | CONTACT US

Phone: 843-849-3100    Fax: 843-849-3122