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Capital project sales tax referendum defeated in Anderson County
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ANDERSON COUNTY — Anderson County voters said Tuesday that they do not want a new sales tax.
Voters defeated the Anderson County Capital Projects Sales Tax referendum.
With 71 of 89 precincts reporting, the referendum was failing 32,349 to 21,757, according to unofficial totals.
The seven-year, 1-cent sales tax initiative will fund 124 projects all over the county totaling $145 million.
Proposed in 2007, the sales tax was developed using suggestions from the community about what projects were most important to residents. After six months of meetings, a list of nearly $800 million in projects was identified. The list was then narrowed to a itemization of projects most needed by the communities.
The projects ranged from the East-West Connector to a new public safety building in Pendleton to water lines projects in the Starr-Iva area.
Regarding the vote result Tuesday, Holt Hopkins, Anderson County Director of Transportation, said, “We go back to our normal way of doing things.”
Even places that stood to gain from sales tax referendum voted against the measure. In places such as Starr and Iva, where passage of the proposal would have meant much needed water line expansions, the measure failed 61 percent against to 39 percent in favor in Starr, and 65 percent against to 35 percent in favor in Iva.
“I actually think this is an exclamation mark behind the results of the election in June,” said Dan Harvell, president of the Original Anderson County Taxpayer’s Association. “I’m not surprised at the result.”
Harvell said the next issue for the county council in January will be to find money to fix and repair roads in Anderson.
“It will take lots of tax dollars to catch up,” Harvell said. “It will be the new council’s job to figure out how the new taxes will be spent. The maintenance work will have to be done.”
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Just another indicator of how backward the county actually is and why we are losing jobs, a progressive middle class, educated citizens and economic status when compared to virtually every other county in the state. Does everyone enjoy being a laughing-stock? Thank God we are at least adjacent to Greenville County.
This was truly a no-brainer, with up to forty percent of the funding coming from out-of-county sources. A real opportunity to improve the county and its infrastructure squandered. As a native, my embarrassment continues.
A truly ridiculous county council, an evidently under-educated electorate, out-of-touch politicians and a right-wing extremist radio station spreading hate and stupidity - why would anyone want to live and work here and why would any reasonable relocating employer give us a second look? Our misfortune is well-deserved.
Netdoc37 you are so right. I live in Wilson's district, and I've been embarrassed every time she, or her viewpoint wins here. Apparently, the voters feel that taxes are worse than safe roads. Yet, every weekend, some poor kid wraps himself around a tree because he ran off the road, and "over corrected". Of course, he probably wasn't wearing a seatbelt, but, that's his God given right - so, don't even go there.
So, now we have a county council that doesn't have the guts to raise property taxes for needed improvements, and who actively campaign against a sales tax increase that would have paid for the necessary improvements that they don't have the political guts to vote for.
And yet, these Wilson farmers will easily sell their farmland to the first developer who winks at them, and expect the rest of us to pay for the infrastructure costs such developments incur.
If that is all you think this defeat was about, you need to move. Maybe you will be happier somewhere else. It's not that people in this County don't understand we need infrastructure and alot of other things, we're a whole lot smarter than you manipulators give us credit for. No, this election was a referendum on the status quo. We just don't want to achieve those things with a leadership that works behind closed doors, keeps the workings of our county finances secret, thumbs it's nose at our elected leaders, orchestrates this elaborate effort to lure our hard earned dollars from a tax that will enrich a few at the expense of many, no, no, this was about a whole lot more. The fact that you don't get it must mean you were on the losing team. Don't mock us for our choices mister...
The people have spoken! Take heed or take leave.
There are many reasons the sales tax went down in flames. First, we in Anderson County pay a higher per-person property tax than in neighboring Greenville County by far, and what do we get? Second, our County budget has grown over 400 percent in just over a decade, while the spending on roads and bridges remained flat. So when I read a post that states: “So, now we have a county council that doesn't have the guts to raise property taxes for needed improvements, and who actively campaign against a sales tax increase that would have paid for the necessary improvements that they don't have the political guts to vote for” I have to ask this question: How much more should taxes go up?
Then the figure of 40% of this sales tax will be paid by “out-of-county sources,” I have to ask who these sources are? Twenty years ago you saw many Stephens, Hart, and Franklin county Georgia tags on cars parked at many of our shopping venues in Anderson County. With increased retail facilities in Northeast Georgia, that number has dropped. Perhaps a decade ago that figure would be possible, I’m not sure if that figure holds today.
It’s not talk radio or a lack of education that defeated this, after all, the entire “Good Cents” group was well funded with their own website (http://www.goodcentsanderson.com) and plenty of radio time and paid advertising. They were a well funded group. The other side had very little, and was grass-roots.
If you believe that a single 1000 watt AM radio station defeated this sales tax all by itself, you give that station far too much credit. The vast majority of the people in this county listen to radio stations based in Greenville/Spartanburg, and NOT Anderson.
I tend to believe that this sales tax was more for bailing out bad decisions made by our County Council over the past ten years. http://www.badcentsanderson.com
in response to netdoc37
I am well educated. I dare to contend I hold a higher degree than the vast majority of psuedo intellectuals who dismiss as ignorant the voters who voted down the sales tax increase.
The Anderson County electorate is not filled with ignorant bumpkins, but with people with both education and commonsense.
The projects listed on the sales tax project did not include projects that were sorely needed, but instead included pet projects of politicians.
The people, with their wisdom, not their backwardness, saw through the rouge and voted no.
Come back in two years with a list of truly needed projects and you might find the educated and informed voters ofAnderson County more receptive.
Continue to call them bumpkins for not giving you your fill of pork and you wil get the same results.
The problem is not the ignorance of the people of Anderson County to those of you wanting pet projects, but the wisdom of the people of Anderson County in seeing your narrow agenda.
AS SSHM would say, Check in less than three moves.
This was a vote FOR a lack of confidence in the current county council. We need many of those projects on the list. It's the council's job to prioritize current expenditures, and appropriate current budget dollars. If, along with dropping home values, our property taxes were reduced, there may have be more support for an increased sales tax. The county council just like the rest of us, is on a fixed income, during a sour economy. Let them show how they can perform in a challenging environment. The rest of us are required to.
Thank you voters, I have new confidence in our county voters. Anderson is a great place to live work and VOTE NO!!! Now, lets get new leadership to work...
If this tax would have been for infrastructure and infrastructure only, I may have voted in favor of it.
Don't be a sore loser.
Does anyone realize this money is going to come from somewhere? So instead of collecting from everyone who does business in this county, the burden will be placed upon those of us who own property and pay property tax.
This vote was truly the voice of the PEOPLE and not the politicians and the elite who want more frills in Anderson, but want the taxpayer to pay for them.
If the new county council wants to try this route for funding, they should appoint all NEW commissioners and none should work for or hold elective office for any muncipality, school district or the county or serve on any boards or commissions.
Then it should be limited to roads and bridges first with top priority going to an equal division around the county based on road conditions, traffic counts and road miles. The East-West Connector should be at the end of the list.
While some of the "out of county" people in the past came from Oconee, Pickens, Greenwood, Laurens Counties, etc., as well as Georgia, this is no longer the case. They now have their own places to shop and dine.
The People have spoken.
in response to ElCid
I do believe this was a vote of the PEOPLE. People who are tired of a county council who bickers and fights rather than addressing the needs of this county. But...they continue to be voted in, year after year. So, if you want change, make change happen. We cannot ignore the infastructure of our county until we get the perfect group of people in office.
The solution: mandate a 10% reduction in the county budget each year for the next 5 years. Pork and excesses will have to disappear, and the real cost of doing business will surface. It can be done, but not with a bunch of bellyaching liberals crying that the sky is falling. Either get on board, or move to Greenville(they REALLY have no problems there), or better yet, back to Yankeeville where most of you came from. We refuse to make Anderson like Trenton..
Love is a Battlefield
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I would have been more open to it if it was limited to two or three projects.
Then, after those were completed, we could take another vote to continue the increased taxes to do more.
But the way it was, 124 projects in 7 years, was an Obama-like exaggeration that could never be fulfilled.
The government rarely, if ever, completes one project on time and on budget. As it was proposed, 1.5 projects would have to be completed each month for seven years. Impossible.
I encourage the new council to rethink this project, as there are some worthy projects on the list, and come back with another option in two years.
Of course. It's all Joey's fault....
But, now I'm so happy the tax failed. I was a Walmart just now, and because we didn't pass that terrible tax, I saved like 60 cents! Yippee!
Zeldaz, it's sarcasm; get it?
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