Charleston Voters Approve Half-Cent Transportation Sales Tax Extension

Charleston County voters have chosen to keep a half-cent transportation sales tax in place, with the extension projected to pass Tuesday’s election with roughly 65.5% of the vote, Live5 News reported. The Post and Courier’s early returns put both related Nov. 3 referendum questions at nearly 64 percent, with certification expected later this week.

The tax does not raise the sales tax rate people pay now; it replaces the existing half-cent levy when it expires next year.

A Tax With a Long History and One Big Defeat

The program traces back to 2004, when voters first approved the half-cent sales tax, and it was renewed again in 2016. But in 2024, voters decisively rejected a referendum of a similar nature — one that would have primarily funded the controversial Mark Clark Extension project. That defeat stung enough that county officials scrapped the old project list and ran an extensive public input process with local mayors and residents before building the 2026 ballot measure.

Hwy 17 Main Road Flyover Construction_010.JPG (Copy) (copy) (copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) — Photo: postandcourier.com

The rebuilt plan is expected to generate $4.25 billion over the next 25 years. About $2.7 billion would go toward roadway infrastructure projects across the county, more than $850 million for public transit — the Post and Courier puts CARTA operations funding at about $858 million — and nearly $700 million, listed as $690 million by the Post and Courier, for the Greenbelt Program, which funds land preservation.

Big-ticket items on the list include extending Charleston’s Battery seawall, with $225 million earmarked for work on the western part of the roughly 8-mile project near the Medical District; widening U.S. Highway 17 South in West Ashley; funding a North Charleston overpass where rail lines cross Rivers Avenue; and redesigning the intersection of Highway 17 and Houston Northcutt Boulevard in Mount Pleasant. Areas of the peninsula not covered by the wall would be shielded by nature-based “green” flood projects.

Charleston County transportation sales tax referendum passes by historic margin

Political strategist Logan McVey, who resigned in 2025 from his post as the city of Charleston’s chief policy officer to launch the “Yes for CHS” campaign, said the group raised upwards of $1 million and reached up to 200,000 voters to educate them about the transportation and education referendums.

“What we saw was regardless of partisan makeup and regardless of peoples’ political affiliations,” McVey said. “What we saw was they wanted to improve their quality of life.”

That bipartisan read matches the geography of the need: sales tax revenue from the program has already helped build the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge and the Palmetto Commerce Parkway, widen U.S. Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant, protect greenspace, and create new county parks — projects that span the county’s urban core and its fast-growing suburbs alike.

After voters rejected a similar referendum in 2024, county officials gathered new community input to build a project list expected to generate $4.25 billion over the next 25 years.

What comes next is already on the calendar: early results are to be certified later this week, and the new measure takes over when the existing tax expires next year, keeping the half-cent rate unchanged while redirecting the money toward the rebuilt project list.

Worth a look