Beaufort County Council appropriates about $11 million in excess 2018 transportation sales-tax to reprioritized projects

Beaufort County Council voted unanimously Oct. 27 to appropriate roughly $11 million in excess collections from the county—s 2018 transportation sales tax to projects that the council reprioritized this summer.

County staffer Jared Veil told the council the original 2018 program was sized at about $120 million but the county ultimately collected approximately $145 million to $146 million. "So this is the balance, dollars 11,000,000 to be appropriated on the projects that were identified and prioritized in the resolution from July," Veil said.

Veil said the appropriation is intended to match appropriations to the priorities set by a council resolution earlier in the year, after a 2024 sales-tax referendum failed and some projects needed reevaluation. "We had some projects that needed to be reevaluated because we didn't have enough funding to cover those," he said.

Council members asked for the packet details and several members said the background material provided in the meeting packet had been reviewed. The ordinance to appropriate the excess funds was called to a vote and adopted unanimously.

The ordinance implements the funding shift through the county—s normal appropriation process; Veil said $15 million of the overcollection had been previously allocated and the current ordinance covers the remaining balance identified by staff. The council did not attach additional conditions in the meeting; staff indicated line-item and project lists are in the council packet.

Next steps: the ordinance took final action at the meeting and funds will be distributed to projects per the prioritized list and county procurement processes.