Charleston County leaders are taking a new approach to capturing a half-cent sales tax to fund Lowcountry transportation projects after a resounding defeat of a tax referendum in 2024.
County leaders have launched a new public input process with the Transportation Sales Tax Special Committee (TSTC) to try to initiate a transparent, community-driven effort to fund transportation projects across the county.
“We heard the people,” Charleston County Council Chairman Kylon Middleton said in an interview. “We decided to take a step back and see, based on that overwhelming ‘No,’ what we have not communicated to the people.”
The 2024 referendum was rejected by every precinct on James and Johns islands, where about half of the funds from the referendum (about $2.3 billion) would have gone to an extension of Interstate 526, including more than $600 million to pay interest costs on a tax-backed loan worth $1.8 billion.
The vote effectively killed the I-526 project entirely.
“Done and dusted,” Middleton said. “Now, projects we never would have thought of are on the table because we don’t have one single project sucking up all the funds.”
Middleton said the TSTC has not yet decided if it will push for another tax referendum but that it is still in the information-gathering phase. He said the committee, which includes all members of county council, has not outlined any priorities yet other than general improvement of traffic flow throughout the county.
The fresh start already has previous opponents of the 2024 referendum hopeful for the future.
“What would be most important as we look ahead to 2026 is giving the public the opportunity to weigh in and express their priorities and let council know what matters to them,” said Anna Kimelblatt, the Coastal Conservation League’s communities and transportation program director. “We want the county to think more holistically, not just about road infrastructure.”
Kimelblatt pointed to more rural communities that were left out to dry in 2024 by the county’s rigid focus on I-526. The concern was echoed by Middleton.
“Awendaw, Ravenel, areas that were never really in question now have become suburbs and have these nodes that require mitigation,” he said. “There are obvious projects that prayerfully will end up on our list, and then some not-so obvious projects that may come up later.
“All of these projects will have to have some intersectionality,” he added. “We should be able to leverage these dollars and money to help us maximize opportunities.”
Some still concerned
Despite putting a new foot forward, the previous referendum proposal left a bad taste in some community members’ mouths. Charleston County resident Fred Palm, for example, has been a vocal opponent of the county’s road projects, speaking out at council meetings and writing to council members several times in the last year.
“It is so focused on roads,” he said. “But the question is, what do people really need? Yeah, they need roads, but there’s a lot of other stuff the county should deal with.
“They need to respond to the people in some way, and I just don’t believe that they’re going to do it well. I believe that they can, but I don’t sense that they’re going to be doing it that way.”
Middleton said one of the greatest failures of county council last year was its inability to convince the public that it can be trusted to do good work, a problem that he said members are still working to overcome.
“We do infrastructure projects well,” he said. “But when I look at the things we have accomplished, we have not sufficiently communicated that to the public. A lot of people end up attributing our road projects to the state.”
Charleston County Council this year hired a team of consultants to push that awareness forward. That campaign, Middleton said, was met with mixed reviews.
“I think this level of community engagement, is going to help us learn more from our citizens,” he said. “We are trying to take every opportunity we can to hear from them.”
How you can have a say County leaders launched an online survey recently for those who can’t
make it to planned town halls and listening sessions. You can have input on country transportation priorities at: charlestontransportation.com. The deadline for input is Dec. 1, 2025.
“We are trying,” Middleton said. “We want to hear all voices. If you can’t reach out directly, fill out that form. All of that data will be compiled. There are people who still don’t trust what we’re able to do. But just give us the opportunity.”
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