In a major win for our region, Charleston County Council voted Tuesday night to place the Transportation Sales Tax (TST) referendum on the ballot. When voters go to the polls in November, they will decide whether or not to extend the half-cent sales tax to fund critical infrastructure projects across the county, a measure that is projected to generate $4.25B over 25 years.

Some of the key pieces of the sales tax program include:

• $858 million for public transit, specifically funding Lowcountry Rapid Transit, which is slated to begin construction next year.
• $225 million for the Battery Extension, a vital project to mitigate flooding on the peninsula. The majority of this $1.3 billion project will be federally funded.
• $220 million for the widening of Highway 17 in West Ashley.
• $170 million for improvements to Long Point Road in Mt. Pleasant.
• $175.9 million for a new overpass at Rivers and Durant Avenues in North Charleston.
• $690 million for the county’s greenbelt program.

For more information about these projects and the full project list, click here.

Charleston County Council should be commended for their leadership and hard work in developing this referendum. After the county’s previous effort to extend the sales tax failed in 2024, officials listened to voters and developed a new proposal shaped by extensive public input and a stronger commitment to transparency.

The product of this nearly year long process is a well-rounded package that will fund critical infrastructure projects in every part of the county, support public transit and help conserve green space.

As the Charleston region continues to grow, one of the biggest challenges we face as a community is our ability to keep up. The transportation sales tax program has been a vehicle to fund critical infrastructure projects in Charleston County since 2004. It has played a major role in making the Lowcountry a great place to live, but without it, our ability to fund and complete road, bridge and transit projects would will be severely limited.

This November, vote YES for CHS and say YES to extending the Transportation Sales Tax.

Together, we can support public infrastructure that will continue to make the Lowcountry a great place to live.

In the coming months, the Chamber will be sharing out additional information on the impacts of the sales tax continuation. We will encourage you to share this information with you friends, family and coworkers, so they can be better informed before heading to the polls.

If you have questions or are interested in getting more involved with the Chamber’s advocacy work, I’m happy to connect. Reach out at jgamble@charlestonchamber.org.

Jacob Gamble
Business Advocacy Manager, Region & Policy