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County schedules 'State of the Penny' briefing for June; staff says bonding decision likely this fall
Summary
Richland County staff set a State of the Penny update for June (next Thursday) at 6 p.m. in council chambers, with presentations from county transportation, TPAC, SCDOT and The Comet; staff said the county will discuss whether future projects will be bonded or paid-as-you-go and indicated a bonding decision is likely in the fall.
Richland County staff told the Transportation Ad Hoc Committee that the annual "State of the Penny" update is scheduled for June (next Thursday) at 6 p.m. in county council chambers and will include presentations from the Transportation Penny Advisory Committee (TPAC), Richland County Transportation staff, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) and The Comet.
"The date for the State of the Penny for this year is currently set for June, which is next Thursday. It will be in council chambers at 6:00 p.m.," said Mr. Brown, Richland County staff, during the meeting.
Brown said the session will review current projects and completion statuses, and will explain options for how the county might proceed with capital funding going forward. He said the forum will outline staffing and collection-process issues the county must address and that topics will return to TPAC and the committee for iterative discussion before final decisions are made by county council.
Staff emphasized that while the penny tax was approved to continue, the county has not yet decided whether to bond future revenues or proceed on a pay-as-you-go basis. "If you only do pay as you go, then you won't necessarily be able to kick off a bunch of projects because you won't have the money there," Brown said. He added that the county asked voters for the ability to bond and that determining whether to use bonding depends on when and how many projects the council wants to start.
When asked whether a decision on bonding would come this year, Brown said, "I would certainly — I would say it would be a fall decision." He and staff suggested committee members can expect planning discussions through June and July, and that conversations will continue via TPAC and the transportation ad hoc committee before any council vote.
The State of the Penny briefing was described as expected to last no more than 90 minutes and as part of an iterative planning process; it is an informational item and no committee vote was recorded on funding strategy at this meeting.
