Reading of the Penny Tax Ordinance
First Reading: Ordinance number 0526, an ordinance to levy and re-impose a 1% sales and use tax subject to a referendum in Saluda County pursuant to the Capital Project Sales Tax Act, South Carolina Code Annotated Section 4-10-300 et seq., to define the specific purpose and designate the projects for which the proceeds of the tax may be used, to provide the maximum time for the reimposition and collection of the tax and the maximum amount of net proceeds to be raised by the tax, to provide for a countywide referendum and to prescribe the contents of the ballot question in the referendum, to provide conditions precedent to the reimposition of the tax and conditions or restrictions on the use of the tax revenue, to establish the priority in which the net proceeds of the tax are to be expended for the purposes and projects stated, to provide for the conduct of the referendum by the Saluda County Board of Voter Registration and Elections, to provide for the payment of the tax, to provide for the issuance of bonds in one or more series, tax-exempt or taxable, in an amount not to exceed the aggregate of $18 million, authorizing the county administrator to prescribe the form and details of the bonds, providing for the payment of the bonds and pledge of revenues related to the bonds, providing otherwise for the disposition of the proceeds of the bonds, providing for borrowing in anticipation of the issuance of the bonds, providing for the disposition of property related to the bonds, and other related matters.
Ricky Bailey Gives Committee Report
Good evening, everyone. Good evening. I’d like to thank you for allowing me to come to speak before council tonight and for the citizens that are in attendance and for the ones that are viewing us online.
To start off with, it was an honor and a pleasure to serve our county and to serve on this committee. When I speak tonight as chairman of this committee, I will represent the following Capital Project Sales Tax Committee members. For the county, we had myself, Kathy Russian, Dale Whittle, and Brandy Cromley as an alternate. For the town, Andy Turner, Richard Logan, and Lee Uts as the alternate. And for the Ridge Spring Ward area, we had Miss Margaret Nickerson.
We all worked very hard on this. We took it serious. Our very first meeting was January the 27th and our last one was April the 22nd. Projects were presented. We discussed them. We evaluated them. We took a field trip. That was very crucial. We were kind of at a standstill until we took that field trip on some things. The field trip went to the various project sites. We were able to evaluate the current conditions of some of the facilities that we are looking to replace or improve.
To start off with, the committee decided to focus on three major areas. Those areas were our children and our senior citizens. We wanted to look at infrastructure, meaning our first responders. And then we looked at growth. Then we went back and determined what projects would fit, which ones we could complete with the money that we were projected to come in. We were money conscious in our decision-making and we actually came in under budget. We figured we better save some money in case we run into some unforeseen expenses.
I want to add that this tax is not a new tax, but it’s a continuance of the existing one that we have. This is a fair tax to every taxpayer in Saluda County. And not only the Saluda County citizens pay this, but anybody who stops and buys a soft drink, gets gas, anything, they are helping fund that.
Now I’ll move into the projects that we picked. I’ll give you a little description of why we picked these and we’ll go from there.
First on our list was the county recreation gym. We picked this first because it’s going to be a joint project between the town, the county, and the YMCA. This project has the capability of benefiting most of the citizens in our county from our youth to our senior citizens. They offer summer camps. They offer health intervention programs for our seniors and then the people in between.
Next on our list was the fire departments. We picked the fire department at Duncan and the fire substation at Fruit Hill. For the folks that don’t have fire service, their insurance is pretty high with ISO rating. I think in our county we’re at a five, but those folks out there it’s probably a nine or a ten because of the service that they have. By providing these two projects in these two areas, it will definitely decrease their insurance liability because it will come down. At the same time, it has the potential throughout the whole county because it will lower us from a five maybe down to a four. It has the potential. So this project could benefit everybody in the county as well.
What is ISO?
ISO is a score insurance companies use to judge how good our fire protection is. The better our ISO score (lower number), the less most people have to pay for their home insurance, so new fire stations and equipment can actually save families money on their insurance bills as well as protect lives and property.
Next on our list was the Sheriff’s Department expansion. We kind of tossed this around, and like I said in the meeting, the Sheriff’s Department sometimes, and no offense to you guys, but from the outside looking in, it looks like these guys are the red-headed stepchild of the county, and they get treated that way sometimes. That’s my guy, the jail guard. Just kidding. Just kidding. But after our field trip, the field trip really did it justice. When we got out there, I noticed there was a portable building and Josh actually informed me that was the portable building that was at the high school. Well, I’m old and I went to school in that same building, and it needs to be replaced.
After that field trip, we were able to see firsthand the conditions that they were operating in:
In their evidence locker, they have really outgrown that, and he explained why this evidence has to be kept. They’ve got to keep it until somebody’s time is served. There’s no telling how long some of that stuff has been in there. We didn’t ask him that.
Also, the current 911 system, the computer system that we have, needs to be expanded, and if we do that, their squad room size gets cut down drastically. So if we want to continue our 911 services, we’ve got to have room. So we need that. The evidence room definitely needs to be expanded. The training and investigation rooms, which were the two offices that were in the portable buildings, they’re in bad shape. They really are. And not only that, it’s kind of an eyesore if you go out there and look at the nice jail being built and the other police department that we have. You’ve got to keep in mind, when that police department was built, it was built when there were eight or ten deputies on duty, and I think now we’ve got 27 full-time deputies. So they definitely have outgrown that. So we put them on there.
Fifth was the county recreation field at Webb Road. Lighting is an issue. Hats off to our rec director. He’s done a great job. A lot of stuff I’ve seen him take on himself. But he wants to put in a couple of multi-purpose fields and change the lighting because our youth league has grown so much, which is good.
The next one on our list, which was sixth, was the town fire department. After touring the fire department in town, that building is cramped. It’s tight, and they have to back these fire trucks in one in front of the other. I think every bay had two fire trucks in it. So what happens if you’ve got to get one out of the back? You’ve got to pull the one in front out, which I know strategically they probably place them so what normally happens goes out. But something else to consider with that building: if you order any new fire trucks, these fire trucks are getting bigger in size and those doors are awfully small. So we could see the need for that and that’s why we picked that as one of our projects.
Next on the list were our two EMS centers, one at the traffic circle and one at Ridge Spring. The reason why we picked these: the one at the circle was located next door to the trash facility that we have and pest control is definitely a problem. We don’t have that problem at Ridge Spring, but the rest of these are kind of the same problems that we have at both. Temperature control for the medicines: these ambulances are having to stay plugged up. I think the new one has got the capability of regulating the temperature inside the ambulance. The other ones don’t. So they physically have to take the medicine bags out, take them inside to keep them in climate control. If that temperature gets too hot or too cold, everything in that bag is useless. They have to replace with new. So we’re looking at that.
Then our services: they’re looking at expanding our services. We’ve got, I think, a few more EMS workers. Those facilities have bedrooms, I think, for two. Is that correct? Two. So we have bedrooms for two. If we want to expand and we’re growing, we want to expand that center. So we agreed that both of those need to be replaced.
Lastly, the sewer line expansion from the Holly Ferry Road to the traffic circle. If you look at the county right now, what’s growing is Lexington County and it is growing towards us and up 378 and Highway 1, which Highway 1 is going to Batesburg. But 378 is coming at us and it’s coming fast. If we want to attract businesses to come to this county, you’ve got to have water and sewer. I think there’s some speculation that there’s some stuff that might be going on in that general area, but they have to have water and sewer. So we felt like that was necessary to help us grow.
Chairman Moore:
Thank you very much, Mr. Bailey. You did an outstanding job. I want to thank you and your committee for the great work y’all have done. It’s outstanding. Thank you so much. A lot of time-consuming work. Thank you. Very thorough.
What Mr. Bailey didn’t say: we anticipate collections to be $18,977,000 in collections and $17,793,750 in total projects.
Now, there was some mention, I know every one of y’all heard as I was reading the title where I talked about funds authorized to be borrowed and bonds and all this other stuff. It’s important to understand that the money that would pay those bonds back is the Capital Project Sales Tax revenue. It’s not additional money or an additional burden on the citizens of Saluda County other than paying the sales tax.
