Council adjusts transportation-sales-tax allocations, moves amended pie chart to 30-day public comment after 6–3 vote
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Summary
After extensive debate over greenbelt, transit and peninsula seawall priorities, Charleston County Council amended the staff recommendation to 16% Greenbelt, 20% transit and 4% bike/ped and reallocated $75 million from the Seawall/Battery line, passing the motion 6–3 on roll call to send the revised allocation for 30 days of public comment.
Charleston County Council on Feb. 6 amended the staff recommendation for a proposed transportation sales tax and voted (6–3) to send the revised allocation to a 30-day public comment period.
Chair Honeycutt opened discussion and proposed changes to the staff pie chart; council members debated competing priorities — preserving rural and coastal land through Greenbelt programs versus boosting public transit and infrastructure investments on the peninsula. The central trade-off during the meeting was whether to reallocate money from a peninsula seawall/battery extension line to expand transit funding countywide.
After back-and-forth amendments and detailed fiscal and geographic concerns from several members, the council approved an amendment that sets the pie at 16% for Greenbelt, 20% for transit, 4% for bike/ped and removes $75,000,000 from the Seawall/Battery project (leaving $225,000,000 for a remaining peninsula battery extension allocation). Chair Honeycutt summarized the motion before a roll-call vote; the motion passed on roll call with six ayes and three nays.
Council arguments were sharply divided on equity and place: Councilman Darby argued Greenbelt funding tends to benefit landowners and urged greater investment in human services and transit, noting the dollar totals behind the percentages; Councilmember Pryor and others urged flipping more to transit to better serve residents who rely on buses, while members such as Grabowski and Sass defended a larger Greenbelt share to protect rural character and preserve the county’s legacy of conservation. Several members proposed point adjustments (for example, shifting 1% from bike/ped and small cuts from other categories) as compromises to reach the votes needed to move the ordinance into public comment.
The committee’s action does not finalize the referendum language or the project list; the amendment sends the pie-chart allocations and the adjusted seawall funding treatment to a 30-day public comment period and directs staff to provide follow-up details about which projects would be covered by the adjusted funds prior to final readings.
