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Penny tax, Sunday alcohol sales get OK in Orangeburg County

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Penny tax, Sunday alcohol sales get OK in Orangeburg County

The Orangeburg County Capital Projects Sales Tax and Sunday Alcohol Sales referendums were approved Tuesday by voters.

The one-cent tax placed on sales within the county received 25,156 yes votes to 11,941 no votes — 67.81 percent of voters being in favor of the projects list.

The tax that began in 1998 is a continuation of the current penny tax, which runs for seven years. The new Capital Projects Sales Tax will be the fourth round of the tax and will begin in 2017.

Revenue from the tax will go toward building infrastructure and improving the quality of life in Orangeburg County.

“I’m excited about that,” Orangeburg County Council Chairman Johnnie Wright said upon learning of the tax’s passing.

“The people realize the benefit that we have derived from (it),” Wright said. “Everybody will benefit.”

Wright said the tax has already helped the county move forward tremendously with infrastructure projects.

“I think that reflects the effectiveness of what we’ve been doing over the past few years,” Councilman Clyde Livingston said. “There’ll be jobs for some people moving up and there’ll be jobs for some people who haven’t had jobs.”

Livingston said it is a good sign that the growth experienced over the past five years is going to continue.

“We want to try to continue to promote economic development in this county and improve the quality of life,” Councilman Harry Wimberly said of the tax passing.

Wimberly said it gives the council projects to work toward in the coming years. He is glad to have seen it passed by a majority of the county’s voters.

Though he was pleased with the tax referendum, Wimberly said he was “a little bit disappointed” to see the Sunday alcohol sales passing by such a large margin.

The alcohol referendum received 21,307 approval votes with 12,386 votes against it. The totals represent 63.24 percent of voters in favor of allowing the Sunday sales.

“What little bit of revenue it’ll bring in, it will probably create more problems in the way of alcohol abuse and accidents,” Wimberly said.

Livingston believes the Sunday sales will be a benefit to the people of Orangeburg County.

“I think it’s going to increase sales,” he said. “I don’t think it’ll bring any more people here but I think the people that come here, they’ll spend more money.”

Livingston said it speaks well that there was a fair amount of differing opinions, but “the majority of the folks in Orangeburg County prefer that we have liquor sales available on Sunday.”

“It’s a new opportunity,” Wright said. “That too will be something that will help us in raising funds to help move our county forward.”

Orangeburg County saw a turnout of 67 percent, with 39,168 of the county’s 58,756 registered voters casting ballots.

In other races:

  • Orangeburg County voters overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. Voters cast 26,258 ballots for Clinton and 11,909 for Donald Trump.

Libertarian Gary Johnson received 307 votes; Independence candidate Evan McMullin, 119; Green candidate Jill Stein, 124; Constitution candidate Darrell Castle, 63 and American candidate Peter Skewes, 44.

  • In the U.S. Senate race, Republican incumbent Tim Scott received 12,233 votes in Orangeburg County to Democrat Thomas Dixon’s 24,743.
  • In the U.S. House District 2 race, Democrat Arik Bjorn received 4,119 votes in Orangeburg County to Republican Congressman Joe Wilson’s 4,028.
  • In the U.S. House District 6 race, Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn received 22,438 votes to Republican Laura Sterling’s 6,802 votes.
  • Incumbent John Mark Gilmore and challenger Robert Thrower Anderson defeated incumbent Sheryl Patrick for two seats on Santee town council. Gilmore received 189 votes, Anderson with 143, and Patrick with 124 votes.