Our View: When best laid plans come together after all

Have you ever attended a meeting that starts off rather normally and then turns into a WTH moment with the utterance of just a few words by one of the speakers?

Well, that’s what happened back in September 2019 during the Greenwood S.C. Chamber of Commerce’s annual state of the city and county gathering.

Steve Brown, who was chairperson of Greenwood County Council at the time, shared with the audience that the county’s Capital Project Sales Tax might come up short of the projected dollars taxpayers thought would be collected when they voted in favor of the penny sales tax to fund 27 projects throughout the county. In fact, Brown said the coffers could come up short by as much as $20 million, which would spell the demise of a handful of projects toward the end of the to-do list.

That was big news, bigger news than some wanted to hear and certainly bigger than some wanted to see plastered across the front page of this newspaper. That was 2019. Fast-forward through the years since then and the dire straits shortfall is not so dire after all. In subsequent quarterly reports, the county has seen substantial gains in the collection rate, something of an economic miracle, really, when growth in the collections also occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not too many weeks ago, Steffanie Dorn, county treasurer, shared in her report to council that the CPST funds were at about 97% of the predicted total the ballot initiative put before voters in November 2016. And this week, Josh Skinner, CPST coordinator, gave cause for an even greater sigh of relief when he and Dorn confidently told council nearly 100% should be collected by 2025. That, he said, will be enough to fund the full list of 27 projects approved by voters.

As reported earlier this week from County Council’s meeting, December, January and February saw a record collection rate, with more than $3 million pouring into the county’s coffers via the penny tax.

Accurately predicting to the penny what total a penny tax will bring over an eight-year period is just that, a prediction. Yes, it is and should be based on solid projections, but many economic factors can quickly change people’s spending habits and, thus, how much is collected.

Perhaps the $20 million shortfall message went out too soon from the county to the stakeholders, with stakeholders being not only the project beneficiaries, but also the taxpayers and voters. Perhaps the shortfall amount was a bit overblown.

Or perhaps the initial numbers were good, then along came a storm cloud that gave cause for concern that the collection rate was a bit ambitious and truly was headed for the dreaded $20 million iceberg. But in this case, the county lucked out after all. It steered clear of the iceberg and appears to be headed to a successful finish.

That means all 27 projects will also head to a successful finish. Many of those projects have already been completed or are nearing completion.

Those old enough to remember the TV show “The A-Team” will find the pet phrase used by George Peppard’s character, “Hannibal” Smith, wholly appropriate now: “I love it when a plan comes together.”

No doubt county officials feel that way right about now.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:May 7, 2022

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-when-best-laid-plans-come-together-after-all/article_17a7ab46-4fc4-505d-8efa-18bb6067a31e.html