Butch Kirven: Greenville has ability to fix its roads

On Nov. 4 Greenville County citizens will have a unique opportunity to decide whether to add a temporary 1-cent on the dollar sales tax to fix Greenville County’s roads. There is no dispute that our road system is in bad shape. Many road surfaces are worn-out and major streets and intersections are dysfunctional.

Since the 2000 Census, Greenville County’s population has grown by nearly 100,000, to about 480,000 today. Road funding from the state level has not kept pace resulting in a statewide road maintenance deficit that would require $1.5 billion per year over 20-years to catch-up. At current state funding levels, it would take over 80 years to bring roads up from poor to good condition.

Despite a lot of talk, little action has come out of Columbia. One idea is increasing the state’s gas tax which has been 16.7-cents per gallon since 1987. But even a 5-cent increase (over five years) would yield little compared to the magnitude of the road deficit. In fact, current gas tax revenue has been declining almost 4 percent per year according to actual collections.

Some people believe the State Infrastructure Bank has “plenty of money” to fix the roads. But, the SIB has already obligated its money to pay for interstate highway projects and current bond obligations.

If voters approve Greenville County’s penny sales tax, the revenue could only be used for projects listed in the ordinance approved by County Council. By law, despite what you may hear, County Council cannot spend any of the sales tax revenue on anything except the listed projects.

Some say the revenue would be sent to Columbia and then get “lost.” Yes, the sales tax would be collected by the S.C. Department of Revenue because DOR already has the capability to collect sales taxes — counties do not.

By law, DOR must account for the sales tax road money collected in Greenville County and deposit it into a separate account with the State Treasurer, who would transfer those funds quarterly to the Greenville County Treasurer, where it would be held in a separate Special Revenue Fund to be used exclusively to pay for the road projects as they are competitively bid and completed according the annual budget for these funds. This will ensure transparency and accountability.

The estimated cost of the projects listed in the ordinance is $673,193,630 ($673.2 million). Comparatively, gross sales in Greenville County amount to about $14.5 billion per year. In 2012, the latest year for which figures are available, DOR documented $6.04 billion in net taxable sales in Greenville County. Based on that, the penny sales tax would initially yield about $65 million per year.

The revenue would be expected to increase over the 8-year life of the sales tax. By law, this temporary penny sales tax would expire in 8-years, or sooner, if the $673 million in estimated project costs is reached.

The project list includes resurfacing 1,209 miles of public roads and construction of 75-road projects addressing safety and chronic congestion in Greenville County. These two categories account for $597.8 million of the total estimated cost of projects listed. Repairing or replacing 23 deficient bridges would cost $27.8 million, and adding 100 pedestrian related projects, designed to better connect neighborhoods and improve access to schools, etc., would cost $47.6 million. Work would begin soon after the revenue starts coming in after May 1, 2015, if voters approve the referendum.

Most people would like to see our roads fixed, but they are naturally concerned about the cost to them and their family. Even if the state eventually decides to do something to fix our roads, it will cost a lot of money. No one knows how long that would take or how much it would cost taxpayers.

With this referendum, citizens know exactly when work would start, what would be done, and how much it would cost. On a $10 purchase, the extra penny for roads cost a dime; on a $50 purchase, it would be 50 cents, and on a $100 purchase, it would be a dollar. A sizable percentage of the sales tax would be paid by visitors from outside Greenville County, which is only fair since everyone uses our roads.

This temporary sales tax seems like a reasonable price to pay, over the next 8 years, to fix our roads for safety, less time stuck in traffic, economic vitality, and quality of life in Greenville County.

Butch Kirven represents District 27 on Greenville County Council, and in January 2013 he was elected chairman of the Greenville-Pickens Area Transportation Study (GPATS) Policy Committee. He can be reached at BKirven@greenvillecounty.org.