Beaufort County voters approved a penny sales tax in 2018. Where’s that money going?
More than two years after Beaufort County voters approved a one-cent sales tax to improve infrastructure in the growing county, some of the projects are fully funded and shovel-ready, while others are years away.
The penny sales tax, approved in 2018, was intended to raise $120 million for transportation projects across the county, including: $80 million to help overhaul the bridges leading to Hilton Head Island, $30 million for a corridor project on Lady’s Island, and $10 million to improve county sidewalks and paths. The tax will be in place until 2022 — or until $120 million is collected.
Though almost 58% of voters approved the sales tax, the vote nearly split the county in half. The majority of residents living in wealthy southern Beaufort County voted for the tax, while most voters in the northern part of the county opposed it. A similar sales tax failed in 2016 due to an overly broad projects list, strong anti-tax sentiment, and the presence of a separate school district sales tax on the ballot.
Now, as the money the tax has raised continues to trickle in and the county prepares to break ground on an intersection widening project on Lady’s Island, county officials must decide which projects to work on first.
The S.C. Department of Revenue began collecting the tax in May 2019 and, since then, the county has raised over $73 million, according to a financial report from the state treasurer’s office. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, the county has collected well above the $30 million per year it initially anticipated from the tax, assistant county administrator Jared Fralix said Thursday.
“Our sales tax program is doing better than expected,” he said. “People are at home and buying stuff, fixing up things. We’re still a hotspot for travel. There’s been a lot of traffic towards our region. You would think we’d be down, but we’re not.”
Still, there are “more projects than we have money,” Fralix said. Not every project will be funded by the referendum alone, he said.
A total of 24 projects are included in the program. Fralix said his staff is trying to work on the “low-hanging fruit,” or simpler projects, first, starting with a new right-turn lane on Sams Point Road at Sea Island Parkway — one of the busiest intersections in Beaufort County. Then the county will shift focus to the pathway projects on Bluffton Parkway and Ribaut Road, Fralix said.
“Our goal is to keep having a project hit the streets incrementally,” he said. “It takes a little while for those projects to get lifted off the ground. We’re two years into the program, and we’re just now getting shovels in the dirt.”
The county has asked residents to weigh in on the projects through a series of virtual public meetings. Residents can submit comments about the Lady’s Island improvements on the penny sales tax website through Feb. 14.
U.S. 278 Project
The U.S. 278 project — a $300 million overhaul of Hilton Head Island’s single entry and exit point — is the largest infrastructure project in the island’s history.
Though the project is fully funded through the penny sales tax, SCDOT funds and the State Infrastructure Bank, it’s still in the planning stages.
Over the past year, the controversial project has been plagued by complaints that it would displace historic Gullah neighborhoods and concerns that elected officials were making plans for it behind the scenes.
As the community waits for SCDOT to announce its final plan for the new corridor in March, Hilton Head leaders have asked a staff member to create a land plan for the Stoney community, which will be displaced by the project.
Lady’s Island Corridor
▪ $761,000 new right-turn lane on Sams Point Road at Sea Island Parkway
▪ $4.4 million improvements to Sunset Boulevard and Miller Drive West
▪ Major $10.7 million improvements to U.S. 21 and S.C. 802
The county is expected to break ground on the Sam’s Point turn lane project on Sunday, Fralix said. The intersection, one of the busiest in the county, has long needed improvements, officials say. Residents from the numerous neighborhoods on the north end of the island pack the intersection at peak hours in the morning and afternoon.
The next project, the airport frontage road, is still in the design process, according to the county’s penny sales website.
Beaufort County plans to select two design consultants for the remaining seven projects. One contract will focus on the main corridor improvements and the Beaufort High School realignment. The other contract will center on the smaller connecting roads.
Pathways projects
The remaining $10 million collected from the penny sales tax will be allocated toward a series of sidewalk and pathway improvements throughout the county. Sidewalks and paths have been an issue for years as the number of new homes and businesses continues to grow. Residents complain about weeds, poor maintenance and the lack of adequate space for pedestrians.
Twenty-four projects were initially part of the 2018 referendum, and county council members subsequently chose 14 they considered “priority” pathways:
▪ Big Estate Road
▪ Bluffton Parkway
▪ Broad River Boulevard and Riley Road
▪ Broad River Drive
▪ Burnt Church Road
▪ Burton Hill Road
▪ Depot Road
▪ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
▪ Meridian Road
▪ Middle Road
▪ Ribaut Road to Parris Island Gateway
▪ Salem Road and Old Salem Road
▪ Shad Road and Ulmer Road
▪ Stuart Point Road
All 14 projects are still in the design phase, and the county is seeking public input on which projects to do first. An initial poll found that the majority of county residents considered the pathway projects on Bluffton Parkway and on Ribaut Road to be the most important.
