Lancaster County has approximately 1,400 miles of publicly maintained roads (900 SCDOT, 500 county/other municipality miles)
Lancaster County, and the municipalities, are heavily dependent on the SC Department of Transportation (SCDOT) for road funding and scheduling of road improvements, as there is very little local funding nor property tax millage dedicated for road projects.
Over the past five years, the County has been able to improve over 94 miles of roads utilizing state and voter-approved capital projects sales tax funding for a combined total of $25 million.
The County Transportation Committee (CTC), in consultation with County Public Works staff and area municipalities, have identified over $400 million in transportation-related projects over the next 15-years. These 125+ projects include major widenings, such as adding one lane in each direction on Highway 521 for 7.5 miles in the Indian Land area, to installing roundabouts, improving intersections, and undertaking significant road resurfacing on roads in each of the four municipalities.
State law 4-37-10 allows counties to implement a Transportation Sales Tax, up to 1%, by referenda vote. The law stipulates that the sales tax can be imposed for not more than 25 years in the aggregate, but can be in smaller timeframes totaling the 25 years. The law also states that the tax shall expire when the timeframe is reached or the dollar amount to be raised has been generated, whichever is first.
The Ordinance would present the county voters with two questions on the general election ballot on November 5, 2024. The first question relates to imposing the sales tax and the second question authorizes the revenue from the sales tax to be used to support the issuance of general obligation debt to fund the transportation-related projects, similar to the following:
QUESTION 1
I approve a special sales and use tax in the amount of one percent to be imposed in Lancaster County for not more than fifteen (15) years, or until a total of $400,000,000 in resulting revenue has been collected, whichever occurs first. The sales tax proceeds will be used to finance the costs of highways, roads, streets, bridges, greenways, pedestrian and bike paths, sidewalk improvements and other transportation-related projects facilities, including but not limited to drainage facilities relating to the highways, roads, streets, bridges, greenways, pedestrian and bike paths, sidewalk improvements and other transportation-related projects. $________
YES _______
NO _______
Instructions to Voters:
All qualified electors desiring to vote in favor of levying the special sales and use tax shall vote “YES;” and
All qualified electors opposed to levying the special sales and use tax shall vote “NO.”
QUESTION 2
I approve the issuance of not exceeding $___________ of general obligation bonds of Lancaster County, payable from the special sales and use tax described in Question 1 above, maturing over a period not to exceed fifteen (15) years, to fund completion of projects described in Question 1 above.
YES _______
NO _______
Instructions to Voters:
All qualified electors desiring to vote in favor of the issuance of bonds for the stated purposes shall vote “YES;” and
All qualified electors opposed to the issuance of bonds for the stated purposes shall vote “NO.”
Without the sales tax funding, it could take 50 years to complete all the transportation projects identified on the County roads need list, and will be on the SCDOT timeframe.
A one-percent sales tax implemented on May 1, 2025 is projected to generate $419 million over the next 15 years.
This projection is financially conservative based on the transportation sales tax generating at least $15 million in the first year with a growth factor of 9% for the first 7 years and a 7% growth factor in the last eight years of the sales tax.
The projection is based on the trend history of the existing one-percent capital project sales tax, which generated $16.3 million in FY23 and has yielded a 9.2% average growth rate over the past 14 years.
If adopted, the Lancaster County Sales Tax would rise to 9% on all applicable goods and services and would make the county the fifth in the state to have a separate and dedicated transportation sales tax.