City completes capital sales tax commission with appointments
Three more people have been added to the commission charged with finalizing a list of capital projects to be funded by a possible 1-percent sales tax.
Greenwood City Council approved adding to the commission city of Greenwood residents Nicholas Beasley and Anne Gunby during a special-called meeting Monday.
Beasley is the rector at Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Greenwood, and Gunby is a real estate agent at A-Z Realty.
The two represent the city’s appointments for the capital projects sales tax commission, which was created by Greenwood County Council last month.
The county appointed three members to the six-person commission at the time with the city required to appoint two based on population of municipalities in the county.
Under state law, the two city selections choose the final member of the commission as the remaining municipalities do not have enough residents to each warrant their own representative. However, the final selection must represent the remaining municipalities — Hodges, Ninety Six, Troy and Ware Shoals.
City Manager Charlie Barrineau said the anticipated appointment by Beasley and Gunby is Angela Evans of Ninety Six, who will join County Council’s appointees — Ruth LaForge, Steve Coleman and David Tompkins — on the commission.
Evans is payroll coordinator at Wesley Commons, LaForge is the retired community development director with Upper Savannah Council of Governments, Coleman is Project Genesis director at Piedmont Technical College, and David Tompkins is senior vice president and Greenwood market executive at Countybank.
“We tried our best to really think of six people that really reflect our community,” Barrineau said.
Barrineau said there was a lot of discussion and finding diversity was a goal by including different ages, races and genders.
County Manager Toby Chappell said at the time of the county’s selection that credibility, expertise and diversity were important factors in selecting a commission.
The commission will be charged with vetting potential capital projects that could be funded by the tax, also known as a penny tax.
Voters must approve the tax at a referendum before it is implemented. The referendum must include a list of projects, which will be formed by the commission. The referendum is expected to appear on the 2016 ballot.
Barrineau said the commission will use a committee model borrowed from Sumter County and includes five committees that will review projects for public safety, quality of life, parks and recreation, economic development and infrastructure.
The committees will select projects that the five committee chairs will review as a whole before making recommendations to the commission.
While the smaller municipalities are not represented at the levels of the county and the city of Greenwood, the committees will serve as opportunities for others to get involved, Barrineau said.
“The key to remember is there are 25-plus more people that will be involved in this process,” Barrineau said.
Greenwood County Council also previously approved requesting the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce to handle all the marketing for the project, including setting up meetings and projects requests, since the county is not allowed to spend money influencing an election.
The county successfully passed a capital sales tax in 2006, which took effect in fiscal year 2008, and eventually raised about $43 million in less than six years. Each year ranged from about $8 million to about $8.6 million. A capital sales tax can be implemented for up to eight years and seven years if reimposed.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Dec 7, 2015
By COLIN RIDDLE criddle@indexjournal.com
