Greenville County road tax commission considers draft ballot question

With 1,473 roads, bridges and related infrastructure projects identified, the Greenville County Capital Projects Sales Tax Commission got its first look at what the potential ballot question might look like during the commission’s May 13 meeting.

State law requires the commission to identify the purposes for which a local capital projects penny sales tax would be used and define those purposes in a ballot question that could go before voters in November’s election.

An unwieldy ballot

As staff explained to the commission, the sheer volume of projects proposed would make itemizing them all on the ballot impractical and unnecessarily burdensome to voters on election day.

Instead, staff recommended organizing the ballot question into six purposes or categories of project with a representative list of each project type for voters to consider.

As assistant county attorney Kimberly Wunder explained, state law requires the ballot question to define the purposes for which a capital projects penny sales tax would be spent, but the ballot does not not necessarily have to include all the projects included in those purposes.

In cases where the tax is being used to fund a handful of projects – such as the measure Spartanburg County adopted in 2017 to fund several new public buildings – listing all of the proposed projects on the ballot is feasible.

But in situations where the tax would fund hundreds of individual projects like roads and bridges, listing them all on the ballot would make that ballot exceptionally long and time consuming for voters to assess in the voting booth.

The solution worked out in other counties and being recommended for the commission to consider involves putting a representative list on the ballot, Wunder said.

A manageable ballot

To ensure the proposed tax revenue would only be spent on identified projects, the complete list would be attached as an exhibit to the resolution adopted by the commission and forwarded to County Council.

County council would then have to pass an ordinance directing the county election board to organize the ballot question for a November referendum. That ordinance would include the commission’s resolution and the attached complete project list.

As explained in previous county council and commission meetings, county council can only approve or reject the commission’s resolution, not amend it.

The net effect is even though voters likely won’t see all the projects itemized on the ballot, the complete list will be part of the law imposing the tax if voters approve the referendum.

To give voters a manageable ballot question to consider, staff recommended breaking the measure down into the following six purposes and proposed funding for those purposes:

1,401 road repaving and reconstruction projects — $459.4 million
42 intersection improvement projects — $167.3 million
30 roadway safety and congestion relief projects — $287.8 million
Bridge and road-related drainage projects — $83.1 million
Pavement preservation projects — $39.8 million
Road safety and improvement projects (e.g. rumble strips, signage, guardrails etc.) — $39.9 million

The projects included in each of these purposes are prioritized in four tiers, with the highest priority Tier I projects totaling $231 million involving 316 road resurfacing projects, 13 intersection improvements, four safety and congestion relief projects and 12 bridge and road-related drainage projects.

Updates on the commission’s work and a complete list of proposed projects can be found at greenvillecountyroads.com.

South Carolina Highway 14 in Greer during paving on April 8. Photo by John Olson

Project priorities

About 1,500 roads, bridges and related infrastructure projects are being considered for a potential capital projects penny sales tax referendum. The projects are prioritized in the following tiers: