Voters in three South Carolina communities on Tuesday authorized as much as $812 million of new borrowing for roads and schools, clearing the way for a wave of local bond sales in one of the country’s fastest-growing regions.
The largest and closest measure was in Beaufort County, where a 1% transportation sales tax passed by 1,227 votes, 40,951 to 39,724, with all precincts reporting, according to unofficial results. The tax will raise up to $780 million over nine years for 87 road and intersection projects. A companion question letting the county issue up to $450 million of general obligation bonds, repaid from the new tax so work can start sooner, passed with about 51% of the vote.
Beaufort ends a losing streak
The vote was the county’s eighth transportation-tax referendum since 1996 and reversed a 2024 defeat of a $950 million plan. As MERGER MONDAY reported before the vote, the package targets bottlenecks such as U.S. 278 in Bluffton and Highways 170 and 46 in Okatie, along with countywide resurfacing and dirt-road paving, under a citizen oversight committee. The sales tax rate in the county will rise to 7% from 6%. HERE Beaufort covered the referendum in the run-up to Election Day.
School bonds win comfortably
In Greenwood School District 50, about 74% of voters approved up to $175 million of bonds for two new elementary schools and major additions elsewhere, 13,923 to 4,957. The district has said the debt fits within its existing debt-service tax levy, so no tax increase is projected. Construction could start in 2027. HERE Greenwood detailed the plan ahead of the vote.
Spartanburg School District 2 voters passed both of the district’s bond questions by double-digit margins: up to $156.6 million for a new kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school in Boiling Springs and classroom additions, which the district says won’t raise taxes, and up to $30 million for stadium, athletic and playground upgrades backed by a five-mill increase. The district has added about 2,000 students since 2019, HERE Spartanburg reported.
All results remain unofficial until certified. More local business coverage is on the business pages of HERE Beaufort, HERE Greenwood and HERE Spartanburg.
