EDITORIAL: Charleston and Dorchester County voters should support sales tax
By Bill Settlemyer
Executive Publisher
Once again, Charleston County voters will get a shot at raising funds to meet the county’s need for road improvements, mass transit and green space.
As usual, we’re in a big muddle, with the election just ahead. Not long ago members of our legislative delegation asked the state attorney general’s office for an opinion on the validity of the half-cent sales tax ballot question. Given the uncertainty raised by the opinion with regard to the form of the question, it will be helpful if the South Carolina Supreme Court responds quickly to rule on the validity of the language.
I took the time to read through and grade the applicable state statute and the attorney general’s opinion, as well as the ballot question itself. Here are the results.
A “D-minus” to the state legislature for drafting and passing a confusing piece of legislation.
A “C-minus” to the attorney general’s office for an opinion slightly less confusing than the legislation itself. To be fair, a short one-sentence opinion (“Your guess is as good as ours.”) might have been almost as helpful given the practical problems raised by the statutory language.
A “D-minus” to local legislators for not providing advice and assistance to County Council or raising their concerns much earlier in the process to insure that the ballot question was in conformance with the statute.
And, perhaps surprisingly, an “A-minus” to County Council for coming about as close as humanly possible to conforming to the language of the statute while presenting the ballot question in a way that’s really clear and straightforward. There’s little question about what the voters will be deciding if they vote “yes” to approve the referendum, and that may be the saving grace before the Supreme Court or any other court asked to weigh a challenge to the ballot question.
Dorchester County keeps it simple
In Dorchester County, the task of those responsible for drafting a question asking voters to approve an additional one-cent tax was easier. The question asks approval for 22 separate road projects listed for information in the question. There is no request for mass transit or green space (“greenbelt”) funding on the ballot and no uncertainty as to the number or scope of road projects.
In both counties, voters will need to also vote “yes” for the issuance of bonds that will be paid off by the proceeds of the tax. This is a pretty standard requirement, but sometimes confusing to voters, so supporters of the sales tax measure hope voters will pay close attention and understand that the taxing and bonding provisions are both required to accomplish the referendum’s objectives.
Big county, big needs
In Charleston County, the proposed half-cent sales tax will raise about 10 times as much revenue as the one-cent tax in Dorchester County. Charleston County is by far the most populous and most urban part of the region. There are tremendous needs that must be addressed. We need a functioning mass transit system. We need road improvements to alleviate gridlock. We need to preserve green space, and every day that passes without action on this front reduces the available land to be preserved for the enjoyment of our citizens and the maintenance of our quality of life.
As a result, the Charleston County ballot question, while quite clear, is more generic and requires a degree of trust on the part of voters that their elected leaders on County Council will make good decisions on the allocation of sales tax revenue to various projects. Some steps have already been taken to provide for community input on future decisions, and I am among those who think that’s the best way to address the trust issue.
Gridlock doesn’t vote…
In discussions with supporters of the Dorchester County initiative, the observation was made that traffic jams caused by inadequate road systems don’t seem to be preventing people from moving to our region in droves. Conservationists often bring up the argument that building roads simply accelerates growth and leads to more traffic.
To a degree they are right, but the alternative of not improving our road system is lost productivity and frustration for area residents. The best answer to that argument is to make good choices that put more money toward fixing bottlenecks than toward roads that facilitate urban sprawl into undeveloped rural areas far from our urban centers.
We should also remember that most of us work for a living. Whether we own a business or just work for one, steady economic growth in the region increases job security. Remember that stagnation and economic decline have caused untold pain in hundreds of Midwestern “Rust Belt” communities, so if you want to stop growth in our region, all I can say is, “Be careful what you wish for.”
A poll commissioned by the Greater Summerville/Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce showed nearly 60% of the county’s voters were willing to support the extra penny in sales tax to improve congested roads, so the odds for approval of the tax appear strong.
In Charleston County, we still seem to be caught between the rock of political gridlock and the hard place of growing traffic congestion as the county rapidly becomes more urbanized.
We need to pass the half-cent tax. I’m voting for it unless the Supreme Court issues a ruling that knocks it off the ballot. I’ll let the lawyers and the courts sort things out afterward. If the tax passes and we get lucky, we’ll have this behind us and we can get on with the business of making vital improvements to our transportation infrastructure and preserving more of our vanishing green space before it’s too late.
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