COASTAL OBSERVER

A local sales tax approved by Horry County voters this month to raise $6.35 billion for transportation projects is expected to free up funds for road projects in Georgetown County.

“There are some opportunities for Georgetown County,” said Mark Hoeweler, executive director of the Grand Strand Area Transportation Study. The intergovernmental body allocates federal money to state projects in the region.

Horry County’s Rural Improvement and Development Effort, better known as RIDE, was initially supported by a hospitality tax. 

A 1-cent local option sales tax that passed in 2006 funded $425 million in projects over seven years. A second tax was approved in 2016 and ran for eight years. 

This year, voters were presented with RIDE 4, a slate of projects over 25 years that includes a new road across the Intracoastal Waterway and a provision to match half the cost of the proposed Interstate 73 within Horry County. The link across the waterway, formerly known as the Southern Evacuation Lifeline, has proponents on Waccamaw Neck who see it as a way to divert through traffic from Highway 17.

But RIDE 4 will also fund projects submitted by Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach for funding from GSATS over the next 10 years. The GSATS policy committee approved the plan in June.

“Between now and 2033, there’s about $35 million worth of work that we could schedule in the not-too-distant future. Those projects are funded through other means,” Hoeweler said.

There are $53.4 million in road improvements on the Waccamaw Neck that were identified in a study of the Highway 17 corridor that Georgetown County adopted in 2021. When GSATS solicited projects for its 10-year plan, Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle each asked for more than $30 million. Georgetown County asked for $3.3 million for two projects.

The GSATS policy committee is due to adopt a new timetable for submissions to the 10-year plan when it meets next month.

“We’ll set up a reasonable timetable for people to get their applications in; give them a heads-up that new money is available,” Hoeweler said.

State Rep. Lee Hewitt, who chairs the GSATS policy committee, sees RIDE 4 as a benefit to Georgetown County in a couple of ways.

“Even if it just builds a road across the waterway to avoid that Horry County  traffic having to evacuate through Georgetown County it’s a win for Georgetown County,” he said. “If it just takes 10 percent of through traffic off the road, it’s a win for Georgetown County.”

He isn’t as certain about more money being available for Georgetown County projects.

“I would be shocked if Horry County just said we’re going to let Georgetown County have all this money,” Hewitt said.

But he agreed Georgetown County needs to get more projects on the 10-year plan.

“17 and 707 is a huge problem,” Hewitt said, referring to the highway intersection in Murrells Inlet. “17 and 707 would take more money than Horry’s given up.”

Georgetown County voters narrowly approved a capital projects sales tax this month. The 1-cent tax will run for eight years and fund 22 priority projects estimated to cost $74 million. Any additional revenue will go toward a list of 19 contingency projects. Only one road is on the priority project list.

The sales tax, which goes into effect May 1, will raise $1 million to relocate electric lines on Black River Road in Georgetown as part of a $6.5 million widening project in front of Georgetown Memorial Hospital.

The Black River Road project prompted a group to lobby against the capital projects tax under the banner of United Georgetonians because it requires cutting a dozen oak trees along the right of way.

The widening was added to the GSATS project list at the request of the city.

Hoeweler said that he isn’t sure of the fate of that project, which will be carried out by the state Department of Transportation, even with the passage of the sales tax.

“They’re going to want to take the temperature with regard to the city,” he said. “That’s judging by past performance. They would take a cautious approach.”

The GSATS policy committee could take the project off its list at the request of the city, Hewitt said.

“There was some talk about it before it was put on the capital project sales tax,” he said.

The state has already spent $450,000 on the project. The balance is scheduled to be spent in the fiscal year that begins next July.

While that project sparked opposition to the sales tax, some residents said during a series of meetings held to explain the capital projects tax and the local option sales tax that was also on the ballot that they didn’t think the proposal did enough for roads.

State Sen. Stephen Goldfinch had urged Georgetown County officials to consider a transportation tax like RIDE 4. If the capital projects tax goes well, he hopes the county will come back to the voters with a plan for a transportation tax.

“I think first and foremost the county has to gain some goodwill with the voters,” he said.

The local option sales tax, which would create a credit for property taxes, failed by 50 votes after a recount last week. Goldfinch and Hewitt were both puzzled by the result since the voters appeared to reject a break on their property taxes.

“My constituency, I believe, would have voted no to CPST and yes to LOST,” Goldfinch said, using the acronyms for the taxes. “I can’t imagine why you would vote otherwise.”

His Senate district only includes the Waccamaw Neck, which had six of the 22 priority projects.

Goldfinch hopes that Georgetown County will see RIDE 4 as a model.

“We’re looking at a mega-project just about every quarter mile in Horry County,” he said. “It will pay for every single road project they ever imagined.”

A similar tax in Georgetown County would raise less money, but Goldfinch said “there are multiple projects Georgetown County has wanted to do for years.”

The Highway 17 corridor study proposed a $3.3 million improvement at Bypass 17 and Highway 707. It would eliminate some left turns by building a partial cloverleaf.

Goldfinch, who chaired the GSATS policy committee at the time, rejected the idea. What’s needed is an overpass.

“That is the only project that will work,” he said.

It would also cost about $150 million.

For the western part of the county, he suggested a transportation tax could fund a four-lane link to Interstate 95, which has been a goal of Georgetown County for decades. It’s never gotten past the county line at Andrews.

“A mega-project on the east side and the west side,” Goldfinch said. “You focus on a couple of key projects that impact people’s lives.”

And those are projects that GSATS can’t afford even if it doesn’t have to fund projects in Horry County.

A transportation tax would make sense if the projects were bigger than what GSATS could afford, Hoeweler said.

He noted one concern he heard in Horry County was the 25-year life of the tax. RIDE 4 passed with 57 percent of the vote, the lowest margin of any of the local option road taxes.

But the ballot question calls for a tax for up to 25 years or until it raises $6.35 billion, whichever comes first.

“Usually they’re on the conservative side with their estimation,” Hoeweler said. “I think that’s going to be met sooner rather than later.”