There is one last opportunity to share your concerns about the Charleston County sales tax referendum before voting begins! Show up on Tuesday night to tell Council we’re paying attention and we don’t support a $5.4 billion dollar tax that prioritizes funding for destructive highway extensions rather than meaningful traffic solutions.
Two and a half months after Charleston County Council voted 6-2 to pass the special sales and use tax ordinance which would fund the Mark Clark/I-526 Extension, a joint public hearing is being held this coming Tuesday, October 15 between County Council and the Board of Voter Registration and Elections. This public hearing will be our last opportunity to let County Council know where Charleston residents stand before early voting begins next week, on Monday, October 21.
County Council needs to hear from you! Please attend and provide comments at the meeting to tell Council you’re concerned about the choices being made for our county. Arrive by 5:00 PM to sign up to give comments, and remember that your comments can only be 2 minutes long.
If you cannot make it, written comments may be emailed to public-comments@charlestoncounty.org by 12:00pm on Tuesday, October 15.
Charleston County Council and the Board of Voter Registration and Elections Joint Public Hearing
Tuesday, October 15 at 6:00pm
Lonnie Hamilton Public Services Building, Council Chambers, 2nd floor
4045 Bridge View Drive, Charleston SC
There are other ways to get involved, too. Share this with your friends and neighbors and join us at the meeting to help us pack the room. Let’s show Council we are in this together.
TALKING POINTS
Feel free to pull from this email for your comments, or visit Save Our Sea Islands for more information and talking points.
The I-526 Extension is the only priority project that would be funded by the 25-year half cent sales tax. The current estimated cost of this harmful 9.5-mile highway project is a whopping $2.3 billion dollars, far outpacing any county road project ever built.
It would destroy 38 acres of wetlands and 46 acres of James Island County Park, resulting in loss of open space and ecosystem services that provide protection from storms and flooding. Extending I-526 wouldn’t just result in more harm to our environment but also our communities by impacting 92 homes, businesses, and undeveloped land; replacing them with a massive highway that would plow through neighborhoods, increasing suburban sprawl on rural Johns Island.
County Council is asking voters to commit to another sales tax when only 1 out of 17 projects from the last 2016 transportation sales tax has been completed. And to make matters worse, the percent of funding allocated to the Greenbelt program–which helps fund conservation projects for land protection–has continued to be cut compared to previous sales taxes. We should be increasing our funding allocation for greenbelt, not reducing it.
This is a bad deal and there’s no way around it.