Dick Wilkerson: Roads referendum helps Greenville County
On Election Day, each of us in Greenville County will have an history-making opportunity to vote on a critical issue in our community: improving our decaying roads and infrastructure. Both supporters and opposition have weighed in on the proposal to increase our sales tax by one penny on each dollar spent to pay for the repairs and improvements.
But let’s start with some facts about roads that everyone can agree on.
The roads in Greenville are in very bad shape. We have bridges close to collapsing. We have growing traffic problems. We have roads in disrepair that lead to fatal accidents because they lack shoulders or have paving and road bed decay.
While I believe that the vast majority of us would like to see the South Carolina General Assembly and executive branch act on this crisis, we have seen that they are unable to agree on any action to lead us responsibly. Even if they could, there are road and bridge maintenance issues and traffic problems that are our responsibility to solve locally.
And that is why we have the opportunity to decide the future of our infrastructure on Nov. 4. We can decide whether or not to increase sales taxes by one penny on a dollar to help fund more than 1,200 miles of road repaving, 75 road and intersection widening projects, 23 bridges rehabilitations, more than 100 sidewalk paving projects and more.
Voting yes means these projects will happen. Voting yes means the money for the projects is raised in Greenville and stays in Greenville. Voting yes means our children and grandchildren will have the infrastructure to create an even better Greenville County in the future.
Voting no means that our roads and bridges will decay further and be even more expensive to repair in the future. Voting no will mean that we will wait for relief from the state and the federal government which have shown no ability to act. Our state government has an annual budget of roughly $7 billion for roads. It will cost an estimated $42 billion for the state to get all roads up to minimum standards.
Voting no means that we better be ready for a long wait. And while waiting for the state may mean that people keep a few extra dollars in their pocket today, we will be paying a far higher cost in the future.
On Nov. 4, I will be voting yes and here are five reasons why:
1. I respect people who say that our state government should be acting on the road issue. But the state Legislature and executive branch have failed to act and prospects are not good for action any time soon.
2. Roads that need repairs today will be much more expensive to repair tomorrow as simple needs for resurfacing become much more serious damage to road beds.
3. Maintaining our roads and infrastructure is very important in attracting new companies, new jobs and prosperity to Greenville County. Businesses look at infrastructure as a key factor in making their decisions on where to locate and where to grow. Better infrastructure will bring them to Greenville.
4. I am positive that the money generated will be used only for the identified, approved projects and in eight years the tax will automatically expire unless voters renew it. The projects on the list were vetted by Greenville citizens after a series of well-attended public forums. The community let Greenville County Council know these projects were wanted.
5. We can learn from the success in York County. Their Pennies for Progress campaign was passed in 1997 by a little over 50 percent of the vote. In 2003, 73 percent of the people voted again to keep the sales tax in order to build more roads. In 2011, the tax was extended again for seven more years by 82 percent of the vote. This underscores that the plan works! They saw that their money was used wisely and where citizens felt it was important.
Greenville is a wonderful community. Companies and their employees move here from all over the United States and the world, but failing to address our infrastructure problems will inevitably put our success at risk. We have an opportunity to make sure Greenville remains a world-class community by making sure our roads keep up with the growth. Let’s vote yes not only for ourselves, but also for a better future for our children.
Dick Wilkerson is the retired chairman and president of Michelin North America, the past chairman of the South Carolina State Chamber of Commerce, and the current chairman of the Greenville Area Development Corporation.