Beaufort Co. voters: This $50 million request could join sales-tax hike on your ballot

This November, Beaufort County voters will be asked whether they're willing to pay an extra penny in sales tax to fund $120 million in road projects.

Now they could also be asked to support borrowing $50 million for land preservation in the county. That effort, if successful, will mean property taxes will go up.

In order to pay off the bonds, the tax bill on a $250,000 owner-occupied home would go up an estimated $18. About $27 would be added to the bill of a $250,000 second home.

Voters have supported land preservation in the past, but the current request is an issue of timing. Whether the question makes the ballot hinges in part on whether county officials feel the land measure will jeopardize the chances for the road money.

"I'm going to have to become convinced that this is not going to have a negative impact on the transportation referendum," said Beaufort County Council chairman Paul Sommerville, whose district includes Lady's Island, during a council meeting Monday.

Of the $120 million expected to be generated by a sales tax measure, $80 million would go toward widening and replacing bridges to Hilton Head Island. Another $30 million would go to road improvements on Lady's Island in northern Beaufort County.

The timing of the penny tax referendum is important if the county is to take advantage of money state transportation officials have already allocated for the Hilton Head bridge replacement, interim county administrator Josh Gruber said. Necessary state and federal money for the projects require local matching funds, he noted.

Beaufort County Rural and Critical Lands Program is asking for the $50 million to continue its efforts to buy and protect land from future development and to maintain property already owned through the program.

Adding the $50 million bond referendum to the ballot passed first reading by Beaufort County Council in a 5-4 vote on Monday and will have two more readings in May before it can be approved.

Council also approved Monday spending $140,000 for a consultant to educate the public on the penny sales tax for road projects. A selection committee awarded the contract to Columbia public relations firm NP Strategy over a $55,500 offer from Williams Group PR in Beaufort.

The consultant's fee is a "drop in the bucket" compared to the money the referendum would raise, Gruber said.

The county has asked the firm to determine whether the penny sales tax can still be successful with another question on the ballot, Gruber said. Polling by the Trust for Public Land in March found Beaufort County voters would again support a measure to continue funding land preservation., even if another question was also on the ballot.

Councilman Mike Covert asked to delay the first reading until more information is known from the consultant. Fellow council member Jerry Stewart said the lands program has enough money to get through another two years and the additional measure is too much of a risk.

Council had previously decided not to move forward with a referendum to change the county's form of government, for fear of jeopardizing money for the road projects,

"I think we keep it clean," Stewart said. "We keep one item on the ballot; we educate the citizens on it, and we move on."

Barbara Holmes, a Beaufort County Open Land Trust staff member who administers the county land program, said the additional money would allow officials to plan for long term deals requiring matching federal dollars and to act quickly when property becomes available. The Rural and Critical Lands Program will eventually no longer be needed, she said, but is not to that point.

"We have some really significant property that could be available to us soon, but we are going to lose them if we don't have the funds," Holmes told council members Monday.

Council members Alice Howard and Brian Flewelling said voters are sharp enough to support two ballot measures.

"If there's three, that's a whole other game," Howard said.

Voters have supported the Rural and Critical Lands program in the past, approving four measures to raise more than $135 million.

The current request comes on the heels of a failed $76 million Beaufort County schools referendum Saturday. If school board members decide to move forward with another referendum effort, the November ballot could become more crowded.

Beaufort County school board meets for a work session on Friday and Saturday. A "post-referendum" discussion will be on the schedule, Moss said last week.

This story was originally published April 25, 2018 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Beaufort Co. voters: This $50 million request could join sales-tax hike on your ballot."