BLUFFTON, S.C. () — Officials in Beaufort County have gained insights into the reasons behind the failure of the 2024 penny sales tax. They are now strategizing for the next attempt, aiming to garner support from voters to approve additional tax funding for the numerous necessary projects within the county.
Beaufort County council held a special workshop meeting today to talk about the next step and the next referendum to be put in front of voters.
The initiative to levy a penny sales tax, intended to finance improvements for several roads, highways, bridges, and various recreational and government facilities, has been unsuccessful in the last two election cycles.
“We were tasked to reach out to various counties, find out lessons learned, best practices, come back with some recommendations so we don’t repeat mistakes of others or repeat some mistakes that we may have made in the past,” explained Hank Amundson, the administrator for Beaufort County.
Jasper County passed their referendum in the last election. Hardeeville town manager Josh Gruber encouraged the council to use the data from their last election cycle to see which districts voted yes and which voted no.
“If you can identify what were the aspects that those communities found troubling and either modify or remove, those went forward, you’re giving yourself just an even better shot at success when you do come back around again,” said Gruber.
Amundson agreed. He encouraged the council to break down each project by municipality to see which ones are the most important to citizens living in the areas, giving everyone more of a reason to vote for the additional tax.
Amundson emphasized, “It’s not going to say resurfacing for X amount of dollars. It’ll say resurfacing of this road, that road, this road specifically where that happens. And that is what if passed, a commission would go out, if the county decided to do such a thing, into the communities and say, what are your or what are the biggest needs?”
The county agreed that a penny commission would be a good route to take.
They will be working to build a committee to help define what projects they want included in the new referendum. Citizens will be on the committee or deeply involved in the process.
The planned timeline to have that committee selected is by August of this year. The new referendum is planned to be in front of voters in 2026.
