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Blog for Citizen Journalists.It's Just A Penny
The new tax proposed by the County Council is being called a penny tax. It's not a penny. It is a 1% sales tax added to the 6% sales tax already enforced by the state. So, let's talk about how much it is projected to raise; an estimated $486,000,000 over a six year period. At the average cost of $332,000 per mile to re-pave a road, the county could pay for 1464 miles with this sum. The county has about 1730 miles of roads. Thus, they could completely re-pave about 85% of our roads. The county only wants to spend $300,000,000 of the amount raised on road paving. Once again, at $332,000 per mile, that would be 903 miles of roads. Of course, if you factor in 4 lane roads the amount would have to be adjusted. Now let's talk about the Paving Plan. The first two projects to be repaved are State routes 29 and 290. Yes, you read that right; STATE routes 29 and 290. Did you know we already pay an extra 12 cents per gallon through fuel tax on top of the original 17 cents per gallon for the maintenance of our STATE roads? Some might be inclined to ask "how often am I getting taxed to not fix the same road?" Let's get back to the Plan. The State of South Carolina is less than 25% on schedule to pave our state roads. Read that another way and there is a delay in 75% of our paving projects. If you want an example of this take Route 357, scheduled to be completed the third quarter of 2022, but now postponed to the 3rd quarter of 2023. In other words, it's in the works but still not started. Promise big then under-deliver. They blame being late on a lack of material and crews. I would like to know how the county will suddenly find material and crews to man an additional 903 miles of roadwork. What happens to the money if it sits around waiting to be put to its promised use? Let's talk about that. They are currently sitting on an excess of at least $25,000,000. They could also use up to $10,000,000 dollars in Covid relief money. How much of the current 1% tax which is set to expire in April is left over from the capitol project? Remember the $30,000,000 bond for "roads" passed in 2022? What ever came of that? How about the $25.00 per license plate fee that lasted 15 years and raised about $105,000,000? Those numbers total $170,000,000 in funds that could pave 512 miles of roads! Does the quality of our roads reflect that amount of money? Do your research. One thing is certain, our county council has proven irresponsible when it comes to fixing our roads. Don't give them a "penny" until the plan makes fiscal sense! Lou Nespeca - Spartanburg Resident 
Restrictions on use of COVID-19 Relief Funds through the CARES Act:
Recognizing these imperatives, the SLFRF program provides vital resources for state, local, and Tribal governments to respond to the pandemic and its economic effects and to replace revenue lost due to the public health emergency, preventing cuts to government services. Specifically, the ARPA provides that SLFRF funds 11 may be used: (a) To respond to the public health emergency or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality; (b) To respond to workers performing essential work during the COVID–19 public health emergency by providing premium pay to eligible workers; (c) For the provision of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue due to the COVID–19 public health emergency relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year prior to the emergency; and (d) To make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure. First, under the revenue loss eligible use category, recipients have broad latitude to use funds for government services up to their amount of revenue loss due to the pandemic. A potential use of funds that does not fit within the other three eligible use categories may be permissible as a government service, which recipients can fund up to their amount of revenue loss. For example, transportation infrastructure projects are generally ineligible as a response to the public health and negative economic impacts of the pandemic; however, a recipient could fund these projects as a government service up to its amount of revenue loss, provided that other restrictions on use do not apply. See sections Revenue Loss and Restrictions on Use for further information. • Revenue Loss: The final rule offers a standard allowance for revenue loss of up to $10 million, not to exceed a recipient’s SLFRF award amount, allowing recipients to select between a standard amount of revenue loss or complete a full revenue loss calculation. Recipients that select the standard allowance may use that amount for government services. www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2022-01-27/pdf/2022-00292.pdf Download, print, and distribute this flyer to raise awareness before the Nov 7th election!Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesNo Archives |
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