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This summer, I reported on efforts by a group of leaders in Greenville County, South Carolina to keep a billion dollar tax hike off of the November ballot.
Unfortunately, these efforts failed…
This proposed levy – which would raise taxes on everything except gas, groceries and prescription medication – would take effect in May 2025 and run through April 2033, if approved. The 800-word proposal would appropriate $474 million to an estimated 1,445 road improvement or repaving projects, $216 million for fifty-odd intersection improvements, $313 million for thirty “safety and congestion relief” projects and $43 million for bridge and road-related drainage projects.
Supporters say Greenville’s roads are in bad shape and need the upgrade. Opponents say the county would be essentially imposing “double taxation” on residents in an effort to compensate for “the state’s disproportionate use of our taxpayer money in counties (other) than our own.”
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According to a news release (.pdf) from these leaders earlier this year, Greenville County receives only 15 percent of the funds it contributes to the state’s gas tax – which itself has been hiked by a whopping 71 percent over the last six years.
Has the statewide gas tax hike “fixed our roads?” No.
Have similar local option tax hikes in other counties “fixed our roads?” Hell no.
Greenville County Republican Party (GCRP) leaders issued a release on Friday (October 11, 2024) claiming county voters were “being misled by the upcoming vote for more taxes, and should vote a resounding NO.”
“Greenville County voters already pay for road repairs,” the group noted.
According to the party statement (.pdf), the tax hike was placed on the ballot by “several councilmen who were since voted out of office in the June Republican primary.”
It argues the project should be voted down because it says 30 percent of the repaving projects are cul-de-sacs, 31 percent are state roads and there is no guarantee of any reimbursement from the state for any of the projects.
As part of their efforts, GCRP has launched a website urging county voters to oppose the levy.
Here is a link…
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One of the Palmetto State’s most populated, prosperous counties, Greenville does not currently impose a local option sales tax. That makes its 6 percent rate the lowest sales tax in South Carolina (along with Oconee and Georgetown counties). By contrast, Berkeley, Charleston and Horry counties feature the highest sales tax rates in the state at 9 percent.
On average, sales tax in South Carolina clocks in at 7.5 percent according to the latest data from the Tax Foundation. That’s the eighteenth highest sales tax rate in the nation – and it impacts a population which is already paying the highest income tax rate in the southeast.
Greenville County voters soundly defeated the last proposed sales tax increase, with 65.77 percent of them voting “no” on a special referendum put to them in 2014.
Will they reject the latest tax hike attempt? Perhaps more importantly, will they succeed in getting their lawmakers to do a better job of ensuring their state tax dollars go toward addressing their own infrastructure needs?
We shall see…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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4 comments
Anyone who gives them permission to raise your taxes is an idiot. Remember a few years ago when the Legislature jacked up our taxes, ostensibly “for road repairs and improvements”? Still, pot holes plague certain areas and roads. Did that money go into the pockets of Hugh Leatherman and/or his relatives and cronies?
As some of us predicted, it did not go into road improvements.
Letting politicians have more tax money is like giving cocaine to an addict. They never have enough.
They had the money for roads but the county administrator used it for his pet projects and not what it was intended for. First thing is he needs to go, if council extends him another contract they need to be voted out. They built a new county office building with so many cost overruns that it depleted money intended for other projects including roads. They gave sweetheart deals to developers with no return for the taxpayers. The new county office building is a joke. It is not functional at all and was totally unnecessary. They could learn from Spartanburg ,Spartanburg county spent money on a new courthouse and upgrades to other essential services and kept the old converted shopping center they refurbished for county functions and Spartanburg city built anew state of the art Police Department. The city of Greenville is about the same with their bike lanes, road narrowing and bending over for developers. The city of Greenville brought an old building at well above appraised value and crammed the police department , fire department and other services into it. Meanwhile they are annexing half of the county and not adding any police officers or fire protection. Now that they have squandered taxes on their pet projects they need a sales tax to fund core functions. People really need to wake up
Let’s make it clear, it is not a Penny Tax, it’s a 1% tax increase. For example, If you spend $100 on an item, 1% would be one additional dollar.