Sales tax
Trickle of projects turns to flood as deadline nears
Local government offices echoed this week with the sound of crunching numbers as staff worked to complete submissions for a share of Georgetown County’s proposed capital projects sales tax ahead of the April 1 deadline.
“I hate to miss this opportunity to at least put it down for consideration,” said Ray Funnye, the county’s director of Public Services. “We’re working on the numbers right now.”
Those include the cost of multipurpose paths in the Parkersville community at Pawleys Island and two groins on the beach at Garden City.
As of mid-week, there were 11 proposals in hand that accounted for about $67 million in projects, said Walt Ackerman, the county director of Administrative Services, who is working with the Capital Project Sales Tax Commission.
The six-member panel was created last year to review proposals, rank them and prepare a referendum question to present to voters in November. The ballot question must be approved by County Council, which isn’t allowed to amend the ballot under state law.
The 1-cent tax is estimated to generate $10 million a year in revenue and can be imposed for up to eight years. A capital projects tax in place from 2015 to 2019 was passed to fund $28.5 million worth of projects. The tax raised $41 million. The extra revenue and money from a port dredging project that was scrapped, was allocated by County Council for other projects.
Since then, the state law was changed to require that the referendum ballot contain a list of contingency projects that will be funded if projects higher up on the list fall through or if there is additional revenue.
“We need to know how big to make the contingency list,” Ackerman said.
Georgetown County Water and Sewer District has submitted seven of 10 proposed projects, estimated at a total of $55.1 million. None included grant funding, which Ackerman said is likely to be available from the federal government for projects in low-income communities.
Grants could help stretch the list of projects funded with the sales tax, he said.
“I’m pretty impressed with all the projects. I think this is exactly what we need,” Ackerman said.
In addition to the utility projects, the county Department of Emergency Services is seeking $10 million for an emergency operations center and $4 million to replace the Midway Fire and Rescue station at DeBordieu.
The operations center is a project that addresses a countywide need for improving health and safety, said Brandon Ellis, the Emergency Services director. That means it is likely to score well on the matrix developed by the sales tax commission.
“We felt like we did a pretty good job of hitting the matrix,” Ellis said.
He has three other projects to submit before the deadline: a training facility and a fire station that will be located along with the emergency operations center on property outside Georgetown where a new jail will be built; and an expanded fire station to serve the county airport.
The county had already outgrown the current emergency operations center when it first opened on Highmarket Street in 2011, Ellis said.
“Everything I do now is spread out,” he said.
Among the projects Funnye was wrapping up were multipurpose paths on Petigru Drive, Martin Luther King Road and Parkersville Road. The first two are part of the county’s bike path master plan. The third was requested by Parkersville residents who told the sales tax commission the project has been promised to them for years.
The two groins proposed for Garden City were recommended in an update of the county’s beachfront management plan. The plan has not been adopted, but Funnye said he wanted to put it in the pipeline for funding.
He also plans to request funds for dredging creeks and channels in Murrells Inlet for which the county is now seeking federal and state permits.
Public Services will also seek funding for a bike path along Choppee Road from the regional recreation center to Highway 701, where the Plantersville Scenic Byway begins.
There will also be a request to replace the 30-year-old materials recovery facility at the county landfill and to complete the paving of Brick Chimney Road from Highway 521 to Highway 701 to complete a bypass route around Georgetown.
Funnye also said he has $10 million in road improvement projects from the state Department of Transportation that he will submit to the commission.
Beth Goodale, the county director of Parks and Recreation, was also finishing up a list of projects. “We really need to re-do Wachesaw Park,” she said.
She already has a state grant to help with the project and Council Member Clint Elliott asked Goodale to seek sales tax funding.
At the request of Council Member Stella Mercado, Goodale will also seek funds for outdoor basketball and pickleball courts at the Waccamaw Regional Recreation Center.
“We already have so much pickleball inside,” she said, where it also shares floor space with basketball.
Council Member Raymond Newton asked for a picnic facility for a ballpark in Pleasant Hill.
There are also requests expected from the city of Georgetown and the towns of Andrews and Pawleys Island.
The city’s initial submission included 12 projects, but Ackerman pointed out they would be considered as one project unless they were broken apart. The city is amending the request, he said.
The commission will meet today at 5:30 p.m. at the Waccamaw Library to start reviewing projects. It is due to turn in the ballot question to County Council in early May.
