The importance of keeping voters’ trust in referendums

Guest Correspondence

Image courtesy Wikimedia: Charleston County.

I recently had the opportunity to go on a benchmarking trip to Charleston organized by the Sarasota Chamber. These trips are organized to learn both best practices and what to avoid in public policy and processes. It is good to get out of the community and learn about the challenges and successes of other areas and how they are dealing with them.

It was during this trip, that I discovered there was a recent sales tax vote in Charleston County this past November. According to the newspaper, Post and Courier, the referendum was for 25 years and was to raise $5.4 billion with about $432 million of that for green space preservation. 

That referendum failed overwhelmingly with 61% of voters voting against renewing the tax. It was a jaw-dropping defeat that will affect mass transit, road projects and badly needed infrastructure to a growing area.

In 2022, Sarasota County overwhelmingly passed our sales tax extension by 77.9%. On top of that, 69% of voters granted the county authority to borrow against part of its share of the incoming funds. This extension will be valid for 15 years and the money is shared by the County, School Board, and municipalities for infrastructure. The money is not for operations, it is for building infrastructure.

An important part of getting the buy-in of voters was the extensive public process in putting together the list of projects that will be funded by this program. Government staff from each local government put together lists and listened to the suggestions from the public. Committees were put together to publicly vet these projects and ultimately the lists went to the elected bodies for their stamp of approval in a public meeting.

After each body approved their project lists, the lists were all put together and then also received the approval of the County Commission in the form of an ordinance calling for the referendum with each publicly vetted project attached to it in a list.

Our vote in 2022 was the fourth vote on an additional sales tax, with the initial vote and the three renewals all passing because of the collaborative efforts between the public and the government in putting together the project lists.

This list in the county can only be changed with a supermajority vote and the cities can also change these lists, but for the most part, these changes only occurred in circumstances where other funding streams paid for the project or in the later years of surtax. Elected officials have been good about honoring the public trust and intent in this referendum by sticking to the voter-agreed on list. It is a matter of following through on what you held out as the reason for the renewal.

In more than one jurisdiction, we are now seeing some conversations about altering that list for projects just three years after the vote. This is a mistake not only for the renewal of this tax in the future, but also for the public trust of other referendums. How is the public supposed to trust you after a bait and switch?

Charleston is facing a dire situation with their infrastructure, particularly in transportation. This could easily have been us if past elected officials had not stuck to the lists as much as possible. The passage of taxing referendums are not a given, and elected officials should do everything they can to maintain the public trust in this referendum and others. Voters do pay attention, as evidenced in Charleston. Let’s maintain trust and honor the list the public helped put together and voted on in 2022.

Christine Robinson is Executive Director of The Argus Foundation.

Image courtesy Wikimedia: Charleston County.

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