On the morning of the June 14 primary election, as Lexington County voters determined what candidates will be on the November ballot, the Lexington Chamber’s Business Over Breakfast meeting heard about another item likely to be up for a vote this fall.

While a new penny sales tax for county road improvements continues through the legal process toward likely inclusion on the ballot, Lexington County Administrator Lynn Sturkie and Kyle Clampitt, a consultant with Alliance Engineering who advised the Capital Project Sales Tax Commission in creating the resolution for the tax and a prioritized list of more than 120 projects, spoke about the process of creating the ballot question and next steps.

County Council passed first reading of the penny tax resolution earlier this month. It will be voted on two more times — at a special-called council meeting and public forum on July 12 and on July 26, the third and final reading. If it passes all three readings, county residents will vote on it in November.

Sturkie said the county must inform the state Election Commission by Aug. 1 if the tax resolution will be on the ballot.

A website with all the details on the tax, including the list of projects, will be offered to the public in late-June or early-July, Clampitt said.

Speaking first, Sturkie emphasized the reasons the county opted for a penny tax.

He estimated 25-40% of the projected $536 million the tax would generate across eight years would be paid by non-county residents that pass through.

“We don't want to just pass that burden on to the citizens of the county so that's why we focused on the Capital Project Sales Tax,” Sturkie said.

He further spoke about the growth Lexington County  experienced during the previous decade, which has led to more traffic on local roads.

Citing the U.S. Censuses in 2010 and 2020, Sturkie reported that the county population grew by more than 32,000 between those years. 

“We have nine council districts,” he said. “Each of those council districts are right at 32,000 people so ... we grew by another council district.”

According to vehicle tax rolls, that growth in population was met by an increase of 50,000 vehicles registered in Lexington County, Sturkie said.

“We're about the only county within the Midlands area that does not have a penny to support the roads,” he told the crowd.

County Council Member Darrell Hudson was in attendance and stood up to deliver some impromptu remarks about the penny tax. He said that enacting the tax is the only way to get matching money from the state, which will likely be needed to cover the overages when some of the projects inevitably exceed their approved budget.

“You can get frustrated and you can bang your head against the wall, which I did for four years,” he said. “Then you realize, ain't a damn thing you can do about it. You play ball their way or you don't get it done. Now we can make it mushy-mushy, slushy-slushy. These are the facts. And I believe in the facts.”

Clampitt said the commission assembled the list and settled on a ballot question for the tax that slots the projects into four categories: roadway improvements, intersection improvements, paving dirt roads and bridge projects.

$800 million worth of roadway projects and capital projects were submitted and evaluated by the commission, Sturkie said.

Clampitt explained that the commission ranked these projects, putting an emphasis on a statistical evaluation of the percentage of people in the surrounding communities who use the roadways slated for improvement.

County Council initially rejected an initial version of the project list, which members complained included walkway and drainage projects with no clear connections to local roadways. At council’s request, the commission chose to remove all projects that weren’t paving-related, with council unanimously approving the reduced list earlier this month.

If approved by voters in the fall, the tax would take effect in May 2023, with the county to begin receiving funds by the following October. Municipalities would not be able to apply for reimbursement on approved projects until that time, Clampitt said.

Sturkie clarified that the tax could be renewed after eight years, but it would require another approval from county voters.

Clampitt said that the amount stipulated for each project on the list submitted by the commission would, if given final approval by council and enacted by the voters, be the maximum funding each project could receive from the penny tax. The county or sponsoring municipality would have to pay for any overages or find other funding — Clampitt suggested grants as a potential source.

Clampitt and Sturkie explained that the county can inform people about the tax, but it cannot advocate for it, which makes getting the word out difficult. They said this makes it important for local businesses to take a role in educating the community.

After Clampitt and Sturkie made their presentation and answered audience questions, Angelle LaBorde, the Lexington Chamber’s president and CEO, addressed the crowd, explaining that the  Chamber has been following developments regarding the potential tax and is evaluating whether it will support it.

She then offered what she emphasized were some personal comments about the penny tax.

“If not now, I'd ask you, when? When would you like to fix our roads?” LaBorde said. “Because if it's not this time, we're kicking the can down the road, and if you don't think expenses are increasing, guess again, they are. So I'd ask you to talk to your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers. Anybody who's gonna go into the voter ballot box in November needs to understand why this is critically important. It is a game changer for this community.”