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York County voters Tuesday passed a $90 million bond referendum to build a new middle school and perform upgrades to a learning center in York County School District 1, in York.

The bond, which is expected to add $36 per $100,000 of assessed primary home value per year, was the smallest of three bond measures on the ballots in York, Lancaster, and Chester counties.

Voters in York County ultimately sided with the project, voting 10,508 to 5,875 in favor of the bond, according to unofficial results posted by the South Carolina Election Commission.

County voters also passed a 1-cent sales tax referendum to fund road and infrastructure projects, with 71 percent of voters saying yes.

Lancaster

Lancaster County residents voted on the largest of the referendums on the region’s ballots -- a $588.15 million package that would have funded four new schools, plus repairs and upgrades at others in the Lancaster County School District.

Two of the schools – and the bulk of the overall referendum allotment, $315.6 million – was earmarked to Indian Land, the fastest growing section of the county school district. Support was high in precincts in Indian Land, particularly the Harrisburg precinct, which voted 2-to-1 in favor of the referendum.

But voters in most of the county’s 36 precincts denied the measure. Opposition in the southern end of Lancaster County, where many voters said the school district’s plans unfairly overlooked schools there in favor of wealthier Indian Land, was especially strong. Facebook user Sharon Morris Stacks posted that schools in the southern part of Lancaster “don’t get what they need or deserve.”

Overall, the measure failed 30,759 to 20,869, according to unofficial results posted by the South Carolina Election Commission.

County voters also, but more narrowly, said no to a 1-cent sales tax bond measure that would have funded local roads and infrastructure projects.

Chester

Chester County voters, for the fourth consecutive time, voted against a Chester County School District bond referendum, -- this time a $227 million package that would have paid for the construction of two new high schools and repairs to a third.

As it was in Lancaster County, support for the project was high in areas where the new buildings would go – in this case, Chester and Lewisville – but fell off sharply in other parts of the county.

Overall, Chester voters rejected the measure 7,999 to 6,798, according to unofficial results posted by the South Carolina Election Commission.

School District spokesman Chris Christoff said last week that if the bond measure were to fail at the polls, the district would still replace the roofs at Lewisville High School – one of the provisions of the bond measure – and at Chester High School, but the district would pay for it with its own capital funds. Christoff said the projects are likely to total approximately $20 million.

Growth and Upgrades

Two of the school bond referendums were aimed at addressing growth in the South Carolina communities that are part of the Charlotte metro region. In September, the Charlotte Observer calculated that 117 people moved to the region every day between July 2022 and July 2023. That’s roughly one new person moving to the region every five minutes.

According to the U.S. Census, approximately 16,000 people moved to York County and approximately 12,000 people moved to Lancaster County between April 2020 and July 2023.

Chester County saw its population flatten over that same time period, but the district’s bond measure was less about growth and more about upgrades. Christoff said that Chester High School, for example, is a badly outdated building with far too many entrances – there are at least 70 – to meet contemporary school security needs.

But the building is also struggling with capacity, as is Lewisville, which would have received one of the two newly built high schools had the bond passed.

Christoff said part of the district’s plans, now that the bond measure has been defeated, will be to buy new modular classroom structures to ease capacity issues in Lewisville, which is the district’s fastest growing area.

This story has been corrected to state that the high schools in Chester and Lewisville are identified for roof repairs.

The longest, most expensive question on York County ballots this year asks about money for roads.

But the tax revenue and construction price tags are estimates, not guarantees. So, how confident should voters be in their decision?

Previous projects offers reasons both for optimism and concern on whether Pennies for Progress can deliver its latest road list on time and on budget.

A record $410.7 million bond vote on Nov. 5 includes $225 million for projects that appeared in prior Pennies campaigns, but weren’t finished. Yet road jobs were ahead of schedule and often under cost until a global pandemic changed everything.

First approved in 1997, Pennies is a one-cent sales tax program that’s been approved by voters four times. It’s responsible for hundreds of miles of road widening and resurfacing in the county.

With a fifth Pennies campaign on the ballot, The Herald asked program manager Patrick Hamilton for details on what voters should expect:

More than half of the Pennies 5 funding would go toward projects that were approved in prior Pennies campaigns, but weren’t done. Why weren’t they?

Due to the drastic inflation that has occurred post-COVID, there was not enough funding to complete all of the previously approved projects.

How much confidence do you have that all the projects on Pennies 5 will be completed if voters approve it? Are there certain roads or projects more likely to go unfunded than others?

The county made a significant investment into the development of detailed cost estimates for these projects. We used the same method on Pennies 4, and the first five projects that were completed all came in under budget. Once the massive inflation hit, the remaining projects became well over budget.

The largest single new project is U.S. 21 work in Fort Mill at almost $45 million, nearly four times as much as the next biggest. Two of eight carryover projects would widen U.S. 21 in Fort Mill, finishing jobs estimated at $150 million. Another carryover widening job connects to U.S. 21.

How would you explain to people in other parts of the county why so much money is going to the U.S. 21 corridor in Fort Mill?

The commission (that developed the Pennies 5 list) had this discussion during the project selection process. Their thoughts on this is the U.S. 21 is a regional project, not a Fort Mill project. There are people from Rock Hill and western York County that often use U.S. 21, especially if there is an accident on I-77.

Hurricane Helene wiped out roads, even interstates, throughout the Southeast that will have to be rebuilt. Are there large issues out there that could impact the costs of road jobs here due to availability of work crews, material prices, etc.?

We have not seen any negative impacts from the hurricane at this time.

How confident are you that the cost estimates for Pennies 5 projects are and will remain on target when the time comes to put them out for construction bids?

Based on the process that was used, we are confident that all projects can be completed on the Pennies 5 referendum. Looking back at Pennies 4, the first five projects that were completed, all came in under budget, which shows the process was working. Once the inflation hit, the remaining projects became well over budget.

What are the stakes for this Pennies vote? Do any of the listed roads get resurfaced or widened without it? When? How would you explain to someone in York County how important this decision is?

If Pennies 5 is not approved, it is very likely none of the projects on the referendum will be completed. There may be a few resurfacing roads that eventually get paved, but very unlikely any of the widening or intersection improvements get completed.

I will point out that this is not a new tax, but a continuation of a tax that has been in place since 1997. It is not a property tax or income tax, which means people who visit York county and don’t live here contribute to the program.

A Flourish chart

▪ $410.7 million

The total cost of Pennies 5 is about $130 million more than any prior campaign. All four prior Pennies ballot questions combined for about $710 million. Higher projections come from population and business growth.

▪ $225 million

Carryover projects on Pennies 5, that weren’t done from prior votes, include widening U.S. 21 from Springfield Parkway to Carowinds Boulevard in Fort Mill, S.C. 51 from U.S. 21 to the North Carolina line, Sutton Road from Interstate-77 to a bridge on Fort Mill Parkway, U.S. 21 from Springfield Parkway to S.C. 160 and S.C. 557 from Kingsburry Road to S.C. 55 in Lake Wylie. There are three other intersection improvements and one drainage project.

▪ $80 million

The cost of resurfacing about 77 miles of road across the county. There are 48 roads listed on the ballot to be prioritized for surfacing based on available funds.

▪ 3

The number of new road projects priced at $10 million or more, down noticeably from past Pennies campaigns. More money goes to carryover jobs and smaller new jobs that spread work across more of the county. A nearly $45 million widening of part of U.S. 21 in Fort Mill, almost $13 million for Neely Road improvements in Rock Hill and $9 million for design work to later widen Fort Mill Parkway are the largest new jobs.

▪ 70%

In four Pennies campaigns to date, York County residents cast more than 61,017 votes. The 70% overall approval rate includes passage at 51% in 1997, 73% in 2003, 82% in 2011 and 78% in 2017.

▪ 195,289

More than 195,000 registered voters live in York County.

▪ 2024

This year is the first when Pennies coincides with a presidential election, meaning far more votes are likely to be cast for Pennies 5 than in any prior referendum. There’s never been an even-year Pennies, and it hasn’t always been in November (2011 was in August). Voter turnout was 23% in 1997, 16% in 2003, 9% in 2011 and 10% in 2017.

Reality Check reflects the Rock Hill Herald’s commitment to holding those in power to account, shining a light on public issues that affect our local readers and illuminating the stories that sets the Rock Hill region apart. Email realitycheck@heraldonline.com

This story was originally published October 23, 2024, 5:50 AM.

The Herald

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John Marks graduated from Furman University in 2004 and joined the Herald in 2005. He covers community growth, municipalities, transportation and education mainly in York County and Lancaster County. The Fort Mill native earned dozens of South Carolina Press Association awards and multiple McClatchy President’s Awards for news coverage in Fort Mill and Lake Wylie.