CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – A South Carolina environmental group has filed a lawsuit against Charleston County regarding a transportation sales tax referendum question that was passed at a county council meeting last week.
The council members voted on this referendum for the third and final time with the vote being 6-2 in favor of the half-cent sales tax.
Residents would be taxed a half cent sales tax for 25 years or until $5.4 billion is reached to be used towards road projects and improvements in the county with the top priority project being the extension of the Mark Clark Expressway.
The complaint argues that the ordinance and referendum language is misleading to voters because it fails to disclose the estimated costs of each project. They claim that the 2024 sales tax referendum ballot doesn’t meet the requirements for transparency under South Carolina law.
The lawsuit also says that the sales tax question does not let voters choose to support funding for Greenbelt and mass transit without also voting to fund the Mark Clark Extension.
The executive director of the Coastal Conservation League Faith Rivers James says that the reason they filed this lawsuit is because the ballot question should be fair to voters.
“The challenge is the ballot doesn’t give us an informed choice and the ordinance fails to comport with the parameters of South Carolina law,” she says. “South Carolina law says that we’re supposed to have a clear indication of the projects, the costs, and the timeline for everything that we’re voting on in a transportation tax and this ordinance does not give us that information.”
This is the ballot question that is included in the ordinance that was approved at the last County Council meeting. (Charleston County)
This is the ballot question that is included in the ordinance that was approved at the last County Council meeting.
James says that it’s unfair that the county is not allowing voters to vote for Greenbelt and mass transit without also voting on the Mark Clark Extension.
“The ballot language, 526 extension, Mark Clark Extension, does not appear on the ballot anywhere and they are trying to force us into an all-or-nothing choice so that voters won’t be able to vote for mass transit and CARTA or Greenbelt without also voting for the Mark Clark,” she says.
James says there should have been a clear indication of what projects are going to be funded and how much they are going to cost.
“It gives us a group of projects and there is a website that says these are a list of things that could happen, but the challenge is they also tell us that there is not enough money to pay for those projects and there is not guarantee that those projects will be done because the Mark Clark Extension is the only priority project,” James says.
One James Island resident Derek Wade also believes that the referendum language is misleading. He also says that most of the money will be used on the Mark Clark extension and that he didn’t believe the other roadway projects would happen.
“The only priority project on that list is the Mark Clark and it’s going to eat up the vast majority of money that’s going to be collected over the next 25 years and so I don’t think you’re going to get the Greenbelt projects and the other road projects around the county,” Wade says.
Wade says that this referendum is similar to the previous Charleston County 2016 half-cent sales tax referendum where there were a bunch of projects listed and some still haven’t been completed.
“What they should’ve done is separate the referendum into two parts. One for the Mark Clark and one for everything else and then I think we would’ve found out that Mark Clark would not have gotten passed. Wouldn’t have passed if it was a separate referendum,” he says.
However, Johns Island resident Bradley Taggart says that he has been fighting for this Mark Clark Extension project for 14 years. He says that he wants people to know that this referendum is not an increase in taxes and will just be replacing a current tax.
He also says that there was a public comment process that took place across the county to ask people what they wanted to see on this transportation sales tax referendum and that the majority of people said the extension of I-526.
Taggart says he doesn’t see a problem with the ballot question and he thinks it’s been very clear to the public that I-526 was going to be the priority project and that the county has also posted what the other projects were going to be.
“The ballot question seemed very clear to me. It was x amount of money for Greenbelt projects and x amount of money for transportation projects such as this type, this type and this type. It was not confusing at all,” he says.
Taggart says that the controversy with I-526 has been going on for years.
“The Coastal Conservation League has been fighting 526 for years and I think they are very scared that the voters are going to pass this and they’re going to get it built and that’s going to give them a black eye,” Taggart says.
As far as funding for the projects, Taggart said that people don’t know exactly how much some of the road projects will cost.
“Well, we don’t know exactly how much a road project costs until it’s actually bid out. So, the prices can change a lot from year to year based on materials, labor and just what the contractors are willing to do it for,” Taggart says. “So there is a lot of variability there. We don’t know how much is truly going to go towards 526 versus other things.”
If you’re interested in looking through the ordinance which includes the ballot question, you can find it here.
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