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Richland County (Columbia) residents recently approved this. Do you support it? Why or why not? For me personally, I would have to wait for the list of proposed improvement projects to get created and released before I decide. Here are a few details from the Greenville News:
Geenville County voters could decide in a referendum whether to adopt a 1 percent sales tax to pay for road improvements or other projects if County Council agrees to put the question on the ballot during a general election.
Under state law, the money could be used only for certain pre-determined projects, and the tax would expire automatically at a set time unless voters agreed to continue it.
Kirven said the federal and state governments have cut back on road funding, and the state highway commission is now requiring local entities to use 25 percent of their road funding for maintenance.
“We’ve got a lot of bottlenecks in Greenville County,” Kirven said. “We’ve got a lot of safety issues here, and we need to find out what they are, what the citizens think they are, and let’s get some estimates on them and see what it takes to fix them.”
Under state law, he said, a special citizens committee decides with public input which projects to fund and county officials can’t change the list once it’s drawn up.
Greenville, South Carolina’s most populous county, is one of six counties that have never used any of various options under state law for adding 1 percent to the state’s 6 percent sales tax, according to the state Department of Revenue.
It's going to be needed, and paid for somehow. It's kind of a "Pay me now or pay me later" scenario. I'd be for it but like g-man, I'd want to see a list of proposed projects first. Don't want to throw that $$ down a toilet!
I would be in favor only if the approved projects made sense, the time of taxation was limited, and the money could not be diverted to anything other than the pre-approved projects.
I too would like to see the list of projects, but in general would be in favor of it. A lot of the county roads in our area are in desperate need of improvement and/or repaving.
In November, Georgetown County rejected a similar proposal, 55%/45%. It was an interesting public debate. Although our county council has a Republican majority, the local Republican party came out strongly against it, led by a large tea-party faction ("Read my lips, no new taxes!" syndrome). The list of projects, closely resembling my 5 year-old grandson's Christmas list, did not help the cause. It ranged from road improvement, to new parks, to harbor dredging, to library expansion. It looked as if County Council developed the list by including anything they thought might garner a vote.
Greenville County, like 45 other counties, has roads that need improvements. I will agree a list of roads and intersections that need improvements needs to be disclosed. Second, I would see if funds can be shifted from nonnecessary use towards road improvements. Third, let the voters of Greenville County vote on the referendum given the State of South Carolina will be unable to fully fund the costs.
The roads are terrible...make that almost every road.
Bike lanes, curbs or some, right turning lanes, medians for left turning on busy 2 lane roads, tree/bush filled islands for those medians, etc, etc, etc.
PS: the state needs to raise the tax on gas for road improvements. IE: new overpasses for Laurens/Pleasentburg, for Church, and Academy.
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