Spartanburg County takes first step toward extending penny sales tax for road fixes

Spartanburg County Council has taken the first step toward extending a penny sales tax to pay for long-needed road fixes.

Last week, County Council agreed to create a six-member commission to draft a referendum that would allow voters to decide whether to continue a penny tax when the current one expires.

Three of the members will be appointed by the county, one by the city, and two from incorporated municipalities in the county.

The commission will present the referendum question to the county for approval. Then the referendum question will be submitted to the County Election Commission for adoption by Aug. 15. After that, the referendum question would appear on the November ballot.

The number of years the tax would be in effect remains to be decided.

The current penny tax, overwhelmingly approved by referendum in 2017, increased the sales tax from 6 cents to 7 cents for six years, starting May 1, 2018, and expiring April 30, 2024.

The tax was forecast to raise nearly $225 million to pay for a new county courthouse, a city-county government complex, city police station and a new county Emergency Operations Center.

The new tax will simply be an extension of the current one, County Council Chairman Manning Lynch said.

"This is to ask the voters if they will let us put one on after this one ends," Lynch said. "We feel like it's important for Spartanburg County to have a more aggressive way to address our roads and infrastructure."

Lynch said the penny sales tax is less painful than a property tax because it is a user tax that generates an estimated 30% to 40% of its revenues from out-of-county spenders.

"We don't take any tax likely," Lynch said. "All money is taxpayers' money."

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The condition of narrow, winding and pothole-ridden roads in the county has long drawn criticism from residents.

Revenues from a penny tax – estimated at $40 million to $50 million a year – would pay for county-maintained road and bridge projects, not for state-maintained roads.

The county maintains more than 1,700 miles of roads and 150 bridges. An estimated 45% of the county roads and bridges are in poor condition, and the S.C. Department of Transportation estimates that 60% of the state's secondary roads in the county are also in poor condition.

For about 15 years, the $25 annual road fee was the primary source of funds to pay for county road projects. Three years ago, County Council abolished that fee because the state Supreme Court in June declared that Greenville County's 28-year-old road fee was illegal. It generated roughly $7 million a year.

To replace and add to road funding, two years ago County Council agreed to borrow $30 million in 2022 and another $30 million in 2024. The borrowing will cost taxpayers an average of $12 more a year in a debt service levy.

According to the S.C. Department of Revenue, the 1% local sales and use tax is used to fund specific capital projects such as roads, bridges, public facilities, recreation facilities, and water and sewer projects.

Besides Spartanburg, other counties that have enacted a 1% sales tax include York, Newberry, Orangeburg, Aiken, Florence, Allendale, Chester, Lancaster, Sumter, Bamberg, Lee, Marion, Colleton, Greenwood, Horry, McCormick, Williamsburg, Calhoun, Saluda, Edgefield and Laurens.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Spartanburg County plans to ask voters for penny sales tax for roads