School board plans to ask voters for eight-year sales tax

The Charleston County School Board will ask voters this fall to pass an eight-year, one-cent sales tax that would generate at least $500 million for needed construction projects.

The list of projects that would be covered with that money includes at least 13 new school buildings, two whole school renovations and athletic complexes for three areas of the county. The big question now is whether voters will get behind the eight-year tax.

Board member Chris Fraser initially asked the board to put a five-year, one-cent sales tax on voters’ ballots that would’ve produced a minimum of $300 million, but the board shot it down in a 4-3 vote. Board Chairwoman Ruth Jordan and members Elizabeth Kandrac, Arthur Ravenel Jr. and Ray Toler voted against the five-year plan.

A number of groups, including representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Realtors and the hospitality industry, wrote letters of support for a five-year tax versus an eight-year tax, and Fraser said he thought the five-year tax had a better chance of getting voters’ support.

Board member Arthur Ravenel Jr., perhaps the board’s most fiscally conservative member, proposed the eight-year plan, saying the five-year plan simply wouldn’t produce enough money to cover the district’s capital projects.

“It just seems very foolish to me to go through all the agony of running an election that’s involved with a referendum for an insufficient amount of money to take care of the needs,” he said.

The board passed the motion 5-2, with board members Kandrac and Fraser voting against it. Board members Chris Collins and Gregg Meyers were not at the board’s workshop Thursday.

Read more in Friday’s editions of The Post and Courier.