Spartanburg voters to decide penny sales tax, other municipal races. What you need to know.

Spartanburg County voters go to the polls Tuesday to decide the outcome of a proposed 1-cent sales tax for road projects and one contested race for Spartanburg City Council.

There are also 29 school board seats to be filled and 42 candidates running in Spartanburg County's seven school districts.

Polls will open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at 112 locations throughout the city and county.

Voters are asked to check their registration at SCVotes.gov to make sure they are voting at the correct location.

This year, there are 14 new precincts created by splitting existing large precincts. Also, 10 new polling locations have been assigned to existing precincts, mainly in the city of Spartanburg.

Low voter turnout so far during early voting

The early voting period ended Friday, Nov. 3.

This is an off-year election, with no statewide or national races on the ballot. Still, there is the penny sales tax referendum and several school board and municipal races to be decided.

Through Thursday, Nov. 2, there were 2,701 out of 196,090 registered voters in Spartanburg County who cast early ballots, according to Elections Director John L. Baucom. That equals about 1.5% turnout so far heading into Tuesday.

"This is a bit less than I expected based on the percentage of the November 2022 election turnout that came from early voting when one-third of our voters voted early," Baucom said. " Based on current early voting turnout, I expect our total election turnout to fall within the usual 10-15% range for these local elections."

Penny sales tax referendum to be decided

Voters will decide whether to approve a six-year penny sales tax to raise $478 million to address an estimated $500 million backlog of road repairs.

Spartanburg County Council on Aug. 8 approved a referendum to ask voters to continue a six-year, 1-cent sales to fix 577 roads, bridges and intersections. A list of projects to be funded can be found here.

The total sales tax would remain 7 cents through 2030, taking effect next April when the current six-year penny tax for the new courthouse and other projects expires.

OneSpartanburg, Inc., has endorsed the penny tax for roads and publicized a website called Vote Yes Spartanburg.

The chamber has held several meetings countywide to promote a yes vote on Tuesday.

At a news conference Oct. 30, Dr. Brian Thurston, chair of the Department of Surgery and director of the Level 1 Trauma Center at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, said Spartanburg County leads the state with 68 traffic-related deaths to date.

"Not included in those numbers are bicyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians struck by cars," he said. "I'm here to encourage all our citizens to vote yes in the Nov. 7 initiative to make our roadways safer."

OneSpartanburg, Inc. President and CEO Allen Smith has said the alternative to a penny sales tax is a property tax increase, which would be less popular with county residents.

Recently, Clemson University tourism researcher Bob Brookover said $478 million in revenue over six years from a penny tax would generate an economic impact of more than $573 million.

Further, he said more than one-third of the revenues — $163 million to $168 million — would be paid for by out-of-county visitors, he said.

"One of the numbers that can't be quantified is the number of lives that will be saved," Smith said. "There's a small group of people out there that are encouraging people to vote no. They have no plan, no solution. They have no way to make our roads safer."

At a Spartanburg County GOP executive committee meeting Sept. 21, nearly a third of the representatives from the county's 112 precincts voted to oppose the referendum.

Mike Brady of Boiling Springs is among those who said he will vote no on Tuesday.

He said the county has had plenty of money over the years to address road issues, but has chosen to spend it elsewhere.

"They're using OneSpartanburg to campaign because they can't," he said of County Council. "They've promised that this tax will fix this road and that road, and it never happens."

Larry Bateman of Spartanburg said even with the county receiving some $20 million a year from the state gas tax revenues, there never seems to be enough money in the county budget for roads.

"It doesn't look like the roads are being paved," he said. "We want not patched roads, we want paved roads," he said.

Littlejohn faces opponents in City Council re-election bid

Incumbent Spartanburg City Councilwoman Ruth Littlejohn will face two opponents in her re-election bid for the District 3 seat. To see who is running in municipal races countywide, go here.

Mike Fowler and Brian Cohen filed to oppose Littlejohn, a retired realtor who won a special election in 2018 to replace Rosalyn Henderson-Myers, who was elected to the S.C. State House District 31 seat. Littlejohn was re-elected in 2019 and has served in the City Council seat for five years.

Fowler is a community leader and no stranger to politics. Henderson-Myers defeated Fowler in a special election to replace former state Rep. Harold Mitchell in September 2017. In 2020, Fowler ran for District 1 County Council and lost to Monier Abusaft.

Cohen is a political newcomer. He is a member of the city's Board of Zoning Appeals and the South Converse Neighborhood Association.

For City Council District 1, incumbent Meghan Smith faces no opposition, and for City Council District 2, incumbent Rob Rain is also unopposed.

In the race for Commissioner of Public Works, City of Spartanburg, Fowler has also filed to run against incumbent John D. Montgomery.

Several school board races to be decided

Four seats are up in each of Spartanburg County's seven school districts except in District 2, which has five. District 2 has one extra seat representing the Cherokee County part of the district.

In District 5, the 5-2 seat will be appointed by the district's Board of Trustees because the only candidate did not receive enough voters on her petition.

See who's running here.

Bob Montgomery covers Spartanburg County politics and growth & development. Reach him via email at bob.montgomery@shj.com.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Spartanburg voters to decide penny sales tax and other municipal races.