Voters in 18 SC counties will set their own sales taxes

A young woman shops at Area 57 at Columbia Place Mall on April 24, 2020, in Columbia, South Carolina. Richland County is among 18 counties with a sales tax question on the general election ballot in November 2024. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

COLUMBIA — Beyond electing officials this November, voters across South Carolina are also deciding how much they’ll be paying in sales taxes within their county.

Voters are being asked in 18 of South Carolina’s 46 counties — 40% —whether they approve increasing their local sales taxes or continuing to pay an extra penny on the dollar for construction or, in one county, to reduce property taxes. In several counties, voters are answering questions about two extra pennies.

That’s a higher-than-usual number of sales tax questions on general election ballots, according to Tim Smith, public information officer with the state Department of Revenue.

South Carolina has a 6% sales tax for state coffers. (A long list of items exempt from sales taxes in South Carolina includes groceries and prescriptions.)

But state law allows counties to collect several additional pennies on the dollar for local construction, tax relief, or conservation if a majority of voters approve in a general election. Each additional percent must be approved individually.

Shoppers in all but three counties — Georgetown, Greenville and Oconee — pay at least one penny on the dollar more already. (Charleston County has the highest sales tax countywide at 9%, though sales taxes in the city of Myrtle Beach are also 9%, while the rest of Horry County charges 8%.)

But after Nov. 5, Oconee County in the state’s northwestern corner could be the lone holdout.

Greenville and Georgetown both have ballot questions on whether to add local sales taxes.

Greenville, the state’s most populous county, is proposing an eight-year, 1% sales tax for road and bridge construction.

Usually, questions about local sales taxes come with a guaranteed end date — the extra cent in sales taxes expire after the county collects a certain amount of money or after a specified number of years.

Many of the tax questions on November’s ballots seek voters’ permission to keep local sales taxes that are expiring.

Generally, referendums ask voters to approve additional tax collections for seven to 25 years, Smith said.

But the proposed tax in coastal Georgetown County is an exception.

One of its two local sales tax questions would indefinitely charge an additional 1% to reduce residents’ property taxes on homes, vehicles, and boats.

If approved, that tax would be removed only if 15% of registered voters call for a referendum to remove it, and a majority of voters then approve repealing the tax, Smith said.

Sales taxes aren’t the only questions on the ballot.

All South Carolina voters are being asked whether a single word in the state constitution should be amended, and some counties and cities have questions about bonds or alcohol sales. One watershed district in Orangeburg County is up not for approval, but for potential dissolution.