Should Horry County Council recommend the language, much needed roads could soon be coming to the county.
The Road Improvement Development Effort is headed to a pending Horry County Council vote to allow or not allow the referendum question on the 2024 Fall general election ballot.
The RIDE IV Sales Tax Advisory Committee completed its work Thursday April 20th and the recommendations will be presented to Horry County Council in May or June.
Said RIDE IV Committee Member, David Ellis, “The Independent Republic of Horry County steps up again once more to raise local dollars to fund mostly state road infrastructure improvements. The 18-member Ride IV Committee put forth a list of projects totaling $3.2B. Horry County Administration estimates that Horry County is in need of $7B of infrastructure improvements today. The Committee put forth a solid list of improvements that will serve the entire County. Overdue projects such as highway 90 widening and Lake Busbee Bypass (another route over the Waccamaw River) is on the list and moving forward to the Tax Committee.”
The next stage of planning can continue for this 2024 ballot referendum question.
The 18-member committee, 12 county council appointees and 6 league of city appointees, have been meeting once a month since September of 2022 to develop a proposal of recommended road projects.
Technical assistance was provided by Horry County staff, SCDOT and GSATS (Grand Strand Area Transportation Study).
The RIDE program (Road Improvement Development Effort) initiated in 1996 with the RIDE 1 road projects funded by a 1.5% hospitality fee collected county-wide and funding from the South Carolina State Infrastructure Bank. RIDE II and RIDE III (currently in year 6 of RIDE III) are funded by a 1% capital project sales tax approved by the voters in 2006 and 2016, respectively.
The state statute that allows counties to propose these capital road projects does not require the advisory committee, however, Horry County Council wanted to follow the similar process of RIDE II and III with county-wide representation to include the municipalities.
The next phase of planning required by state statute is the appointment of a 6-member sales tax commission that is responsible for developing a road project list, prioritizing the projects to include the cost estimate for each project and present to Horry County Council along with the referendum question.
Council’s requirement is to vote to allow or not allow the referendum question. Council cannot amend or change the recommendations.
The sales tax commission is comprised of 3 appointees by Horry County Council and one from each of the municipalities that have the largest population which are Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Conway. This committee, likely to be appointed in late summer / early fall will fine tune the recommendations that came from the advisory committee.
As the planning process continues, there will be public meetings and presentations.
Chairman of the advisory committee, Wayne Gray, who also served on the RIDE III advisory committee applauded Horry County Council’s vision of following RIDE II and III with the larger advisory committee so that every corner of the county can be involved in the development of the recommended road projects.
Gray also complimented the diligent work of the committee members stating that the effort was to recommend road projects that have the most merit while also recognizing road investment must be county-wide. He went on to state the advisory committee is recommending a project list that reflects this goal with some additional recommendations based on potential revenue estimates being revised.
“We want to give good guidance to the sales tax commission on priority projects with enough flexibility to modify the plan with changing circumstances,” said Gray.
The current revenue estimate is $826 million. Some of the project lists include paving of dirt roads, improvements to 2 portions of Highway 90, widening of Big Block Road, widening of River Oaks Drive, environmental mitigation for SELL and environmental studies and mitigation for another river crossing over the Waccamaw River closer to Conway proper commonly being referred to as the Lake Busbee Bypass.
The referendum question will be on the November 2024 general ballot and the tax collection will start May 1, 2025, for a period of 7 years.
RIDE IV is not a new tax. This will be a continuation of the current 1% capital project sales tax that was passed with 69% voter approval in 2016. By the end of RIDE III, there will be approximately $2.7 billion of road investments funded in RIDE I, II and III.
Added Ellis, “I feel this group was faced with tough decisions due to having a budget of only 25% of the overall funds needed. I urge citizens to contact their State House representatives as Horry County desperately needs additional funding and cannot keep up with demand solely with a local penny tax.“