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Beaufort County committee backs 10‑year, $950 million transportation sales tax plan and forwards recommendation to Council
Summary
After hours of debate about term length, funding buckets and municipal oversight, the Public Facilities & Safety Committee recommended a 10‑year transportation sales‑and‑use tax referendum totaling $950 million and forwarded that package to Beaufort County Council, excluding one Bluffton municipal item labeled "5 b."
Beaufort County’s Public Facilities & Safety Committee voted on June 4 to recommend a 10‑year, $950 million transportation sales‑and‑use tax referendum to County Council, after debating program length, which projects to prioritize and whether municipal projects should be included. The committee also adopted an amendment excluding municipal item "5 b" (Bluffton) from the recommendation.
The meeting centered on staff presentations of four program options — 15, 12, 10 and 8 years — and how shortening the term trims the number or value of projects. Jared Fraley, the county staff presenter, told members the packages reflect tradeoffs across buckets such as greenbelt, mass transit (including Palmetto Breeze, ferry and Hilton Head Airport), safety, dirt‑road paving, resurfacing, pathways, resiliency/evacuation projects and specific large corridors including US‑278 and the Triangle project. Fraley said state discussions with the State Infrastructure Bank and DOT identified about a $190 million shortfall on US‑278 that the county may need to fill if…
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