(Bloomberg) -- Environmentalists have sued Charleston County, South Carolina, saying that a November referendum to raise $5.4 billion in sales-tax revenue for transportation projects violates state law.
The county’s referendum, which seeks voter approval to impose a 0.5% tax increase over 25 years for transportation projects — including a controversial highway extension — improperly lumped distinct projects into one, rather than seeking a vote on each proposal, the complaint said.
“The Council is fully aware of the all-or-nothing choice it is posing to voters,” said the complaint, filed by two Charleston residents and the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. “It drafted the ballot intentionally to force such a Hobson’s Choice.”
Chloe Field, a spokesperson for Charleston County, declined to comment citing pending litigation.
About $1.8 billion of the money that would be raised by sales tax would fund the extension of Interstate-526, called the “Mark Clark Expressway,” to increase capacity to and from James Island and Johns Island. The estimated cost of the Mark Clark extension has grown to $2.4 billion from between $725 million and $752 million in 2019, according to the complaint.
Environmentalists say the project would increase congestion, exacerbate flooding and contribute to Charleston’s “rampant” development.
Money raised by the sales tax, which would back a $1 billion general obligation bond issue, would also be used to preserve open space, fund public transportation, bicycle and pedestrian projects, as well as road and bridge improvements.
But plaintiffs say the referendum’s enabling ordinance violates state law by failing to list the estimated capital costs of each project or provide votes with separate questions for separate purposes.
“By combining several projects into a single vote and forcing voters who may support one project to vote the same way on another project listed in the same ballot question impairs Plaintiffs’ right to vote, is clearly unfair to voters, and is not conductive to free and untrammeled expression of public sentiment.”
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