Lexington meal tax sought for roads

A 2 percent meal tax scrapped 10 years ago in Lexington is back on the menu to pay for road improvements.

Town leaders outlined a plan Monday to adopt the tax again on dining out, takeout meals and most snacks to pay for three projects intended to reduce traffic congestion.

The tax would pay for:

▪ A traffic circle on Corley Mill near U.S. 378 and side road on the east edge of town.

▪ A traffic circle at S.C. 6 and U.S. 378 downtown, with new routes into Lexington Middle School.

▪ Making parts of S.C. 6 and Church Street one-way routes downtown.

Those projects will cost $13.6 million and take up to four years to finish, officials estimate.

The tax – which would be permanent – is estimated to generate $2 million a year initially.

Plans call for collection to start Oct. 1. The seven members of Town Council can adopt it on their own, with no approval from voters required.

Use of meal tax revenues is limited to tourism-related projects. including roads.

The projects are eligible for using that source, Mayor Steve MacDougall said.

Each will improve access to Lake Murray, the Lexington County Museum, a downtown walking path and an outdoor amphitheater being built for concerts and other events, he said.

“We are making it easier for people to come and go to them,” MacDougall said.

Those projects also will benefit local traffic headed elsewhere.

The U.S. 378-Corley Mill intersection is a major route for those going to and leaving nearby River Bluff High School. Town leaders are stepping in after county officials abandoned the project.

Meanwhile, the S.C. 6 and U.S. 378 intersection is on a major route for commuters headed to and from jobs across the Midlands.

Adopting the tax for what appears to be mainly local road improvements is “a stretch” but probably allowable since “the definition of tourism is so nebulous,” political consultant R.J. Shealy of Irmo said.

“Give them credit for trying to do something, but a new tax is not going to sit well,” he said. “There will be a backlash against it.”

Town officials say the three projects were chosen from among 35 examined, with 20 disqualified as not tourism-related.

More road projects will follow once the initial package is finished, MacDougall said.

The plan comes after town leaders concluded that federal aid to pay for new roads isn’t likely.

It also is designed to complement a network of traffic signals being installed to improve flow on major routes.

The proposed improvements “are what we need,” said Susan Ruinen, head of an advisory town panel on traffic.

It’s a package that’s “very salable,” said Clyde Smith, owner of a Main Street flooring store who has advocated steps to lessen congestion.

The push for the meal tax comes after voter rejection of a penny-on-the-dollar sales tax increase that would have paid for road projects across the county, including five in town different from the new package.

It’s the only way to ease road bottlenecks soon, MacDougall said.

“I’m 100 percent committed to making this happen,” he said. “Traffic long has been our biggest problem.”

Lexington is a major crossroads for commuters, with three routes intersecting downtown. It’s also a shopping hub.

The community with an estimated 20,000 residents copes with traffic that’s the equivalent of a population of 130,000, Town Administrator Britt Poole said.

Town leaders repealed their original meal tax in 2005 after conflict over plans to use it for parks, a performing arts center and other recreation projects.

Its restoration would mean Lexington joins Cayce as the only Lexington County communities with a meal tax. The tax is uniform in adjoining Richland County.

This story was originally published July 20, 2015 at 8:37 AM with the headline "Lexington meal tax sought for roads."