After failed penny tax vote, Beaufort County seeks reset with resident-led group
Two years after a failed transportation tax vote, Beaufort County is turning to a group of residents to help shape a new penny-tax proposal before putting it back on the ballot this fall.
Voters will once again be asked to approve a one-cent sales tax to fund local road improvements. The vote was rejected in 2024; residents were concerned that only 10% of projects funded by a previous sales tax were finished at the time, according to previous reporting from The Island Packet.
A 15-member resident committee representing all 11 districts and county municipalities will propose the project list, funding amount and tax timeline before it is discussed, read and approved by the Beaufort County Council. Bringing in residents is the county’s way of rebuilding trust with the community after the 2024 rejection.
Some familiar faces will serve on the committee, including former elected officials, and some members have served on similar committees, while others are new to the process. Their backgrounds span civil engineering, architecture, law and hands-on experience with city and state transportation agencies.
- District 1: Joseph Kline
- District 2: Paul Trask
- District 3: Anthony Jones
- District 4: Elizabeth Sanders
- District 5: Jerry Reeves
- District 6: Craig Forrest
- District 7: Bill Rickett
- District 8: Joy Coe
- District 9: Matt Harden
- District 10: Charles Perry
- District 11: Jennifer Ericksen
- City of Beaufort: Grady Woods
- Town of Port Royal: Gary Freeman
- Town of Bluffton: Lisa Sulka
- Town of Hilton Head: Glenn Stanford
The committee is part of the county’s effort to re-establish trust with the community after Beaufort County residents decisively rejected the proposed sales tax in 2024. If it had been approved, the tax would have collected funds for 10 years or raise $950 million for local transportation projects — whichever came first.
Leading up to the vote, the public expressed frustration over the pace of projects funded by former sales taxes and an overall lack of government transparency. Only 10% of the projects had been completed, The Island Packet reported at the time.
Since 1998, Beaufort County voters have approved three transportation tax referendums generating more than $300 million for local projects.
Local funding is essential since funding priorities from the South Carolina Department of Transportation do not necessarily align with our county’s needs, Assistant County Administrator Jared Fralix said during the committee’s first meeting on Feb. 4. At the same time, having local funding can secure more state-level funding needed to complete projects.
Most recently in Beaufort County, voters in 2018 approved a tax that would collect $120 million over four years.
Three main projects were intended to be funded at least in part by funds collected by the 2018 penny tax:
- $80 million would go toward the U.S. 278 corridor project.
- $30 million would go toward a series of Lady’s Island corridor traffic improvement projects.
- $10 million would go toward a series of multi-use pathway projects countywide.
Despite collecting nearly $27 million more than anticipated, the county has adjusted the projects, and they remain for the most part incomplete.
For example, instead of building 24 new pedestrian pathways, the county will now prioritize building out nine. Only two of those pathways are currently under construction, and the rest should be done by the end of 2028, Fralix told the committee.
County officials said the original project list largely failed because of post-pandemic inflation, rising construction costs and the defeat of the most recent referendum. Still, they said, big projects take time, and no project is simple.
“Does that mean that we didn’t do what we said we are going to do with the sales tax and the money? No. All that means is big infrastructure, complicated projects take a very long time to deliver,” Fralix told the committee.
So far, the committee has met twice. The group has until April to pass along their recommendations to the Beaufort County Council before the measure can be approved for the ballot.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to state there were nine pathways re-prioritized instead of seven.
This story was originally published February 18, 2026 at 3:14 PM.
