Letter: Offer voters ‘line-item veto’ on sales tax plans

A vote to approve (or not) a proposed 1 percent sales tax to fund a list of major projects may be on the November ballot in Beaufort County.

Some of those projects include money to start work on an arts center on Hilton Head Island, a parking garage for Beaufort, U.S. 278 and bridge improvements, a culinary school for the Technical College of the Lowcountry, new and resurfaced roads for Port Royal and money to continue work on Bluffton’s Oyster Factory Park.

Taken together, the projects selected by a commission for recommendation to Beaufort County Council are to total $120 million. Voters could be faced with some serious soul searching come November.

And then there may be a Beaufort County School District plan to ask for another 1 percent sales tax increase to raise $282 million over 10 years. Looks like a combined total of more than $400 million.

Here is a suggestion that I think could make it easier for voters to express their approval or disapproval of the projects.

Instead of a one vote to approve or disapprove a bundled list of projects, I suggest that the commission offer voters a real-time opportunity to vote “yes” or “no” on each one of the projects. In that way, taxpayers can let the commissioners know which of these projects they believe to be worthy and which are not. Call it a line-item veto that will give voters direct input on projects they don’t like and are not willing to pay for.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 6:29 PM with the headline "Letter: Offer voters ‘line-item veto’ on sales tax plans."