Ninety Six sorting out confusion over CPST funding
Passions flared Monday night after a misunderstanding about how capital project sales tax funds would be used left some at the Ninety Six Town Council meeting upset.
When the town first applied to have its park considered for funding under the 2016 capital project sales tax referendum, the application specifically proposed funding be used on a new park at the old Ninety Six Mill site. Through the CPST committee application review process, a committee decided the money would be better used if applied to the town’s existing park, Mayor Mike Rowe said.
When the referendum hit the ballot in November 2016, its language reflected that the money raised would be allocated to the town park — a detail Ninety Six Parks Committee head JoAnn Eichelberger and others were not aware of.
“The initial application was for the Ninety Six mill park,” she said to council at Monday’s meeting. “This was never, ever to be the town park.”
Ward 3 Councilman Wayne Gibert explained the process by which the application was reviewed, and the current recommendation was made by the CPST committee in June 2016, and said since the tax referendum passed by popular vote, the funds must be allocated as they were written on the ballot.
“By law, that funding has to go to it as it was listed,” he said.
After going into a closed-door session, the council came back and voted unanimously to table discussions on a resolution to formally decide what to do about the CPST funds. Rowe said the tabling is just to give them time to work out the legal language of the resolution
The funds from the CPST would amount to about $450,000 for Ninety Six’s town park, Rowe said. While that would be about a quarter of the cost of building the proposed mill site park, that money would go a long way toward upgrading the town’s existing park.
Since the CPST funds must be used the way the referendum laid out, Rowe said if the choice is between receiving $450,000 or not getting the money, they’ll take the money no matter where it’s going.
“At the end of the day, it’s still money going toward bettering the town,” he said. “And we’re not abandoning the idea of the mill site park. We’ll just have to work to find different funding for that.”
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Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Jul 16, 2019
By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com