Beaufort County Council weighs process, timeline and project list for proposed capital-project "penny" sales tax

Beaufort County Council met to discuss how the county would develop a potential capital-project sales tax (an up-to-eight-year, one-cent sales tax commonly called a "capital penny") and how to sequence project solicitation, a citizen commission and public education ahead of any ballot question.

The discussion focused on process more than on final decisions: staff and an outside consultant described a proposed timeline to form a six-member commission by August, to solicit and score projects from municipalities and the county from September through February, and to present a final, itemized ballot question for council review in May. Consultant Hank said the intent was to “foster discussion,” and warned the county must define projects with granularity so a ballot lists specific roads and sites rather than generic buckets of work.

Why it matters: a capital-project sales tax requires a clearly defined list of projects on…