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Overview of the Capital Project Sales Tax · Saluda County Unplugged

• Josh Morton: How do you decide which community projects come first? And what keeps the money going where voters intended? Today, Ricky Bailey takes us into the committee's work on the Capital Project Sales Tax. It's a proposal to renew the existing penny sales tax, not add another one. The question is on the November third ballot and early voting is already underway. Let's talk about the projects and the process right here this week on Saluda County Unplugged. Welcome back to Saluda County Unplugged. I'm Rachel. And I'm Josh. This week we're joined by Ricky Bailey, the chair of the Capital Project Sales Tax Committee. And Ricky's gonna be here discussing the projects, the process, how these projects were prioritized and the safeguards that are already in place to help make sure that this money is spent properly. So, Ricky, welcome to the podcast. Hey, thank you for having me. So, Ricky, I thought we'd start by talking a little bit about the process of how the penny sales tax comes about. So if you could tell us a little bit about that process. So the county council got to pick four people to represent the county. The town of Saluda gets to pick three. And then two of the town people get to pick one out of another municipality, which would be Ridge Spring. So of the four for the town, we did have an alternate in case somebody wasn't there. And then the town having three, one of those was an alternate in case somebody was there. So it was actually made up of six of us, but we did have eight total just in case. and we started meeting in January of twenty twenty six. The different department heads came in, presented projects to us from various things from the fire department, EMS to tearing down a jail. fixing parking lots, that kind of stuff. And we usually met about every two weeks. They would come in, introduce the projects, we would ask questions why it was going on. And then when we got done with the presenting part, we would sit there roughly 15, 20 minutes and we would discuss amongst ourselves how do we feel about these projects. And early on we decided that we wanted to focus on three areas. And the first area was of course our children and our senior citizens. And then we moved into our infrastructure for our public safety. And then we looked at economic growth. So that was the three things that we came up early that we wanted to focus on and see what met those criteria. so after the committee finished its work, then this moves on to the county council from that point? Yes. So we had to have this in a referendum form by April 30th. in order for them to have enough time to to have three readings to get it approved, to get it on our ballot coming up in November. So we finished up I think a week early. Now, one thing, and Rachel and I have talked about this capital project sales tax on some other podcast episodes And I want to remind everybody that this is a continuation of a sales tax that's already in place. So we are coming up on eight years of having the Capital Project sales tax, and that has allowed the county do several things, including the detention center, which was the largest project. purchased the new building for new library as part of that, and some other things throughout the county. But I did want to bring that up because We do have eight years worth of experience with the Capital Project sales tax already. So, Ricky, could you maybe talk about some of the experience and some of the safeguards that Saluda County has in place as we go possibly into another CPST? So to start off with when you put this stuff out for bid, we have state purchasing procedures that the counties have to follow. And they would get audited. and I and from what I understand that during this eight year term, we've been audited a few times. every time we have passed everything, Everything is good. They have to file quarter reports with the state. And I was discussing with them as of today about that. And I said, is there any way that when we do these projects, when we get started on this new one, if it passes in November, can we have those type of reports monthly, give out updates maybe during the county council meeting, just to keep the public informed and up to date on what's going on. But also experience, My father was born in nineteen twenty four and his mentality was that if you couldn't afford it, you didn't need it. And he always felt that you need to have money in your pocket before you go buy. and I know a lot of the folks that have served on county council prior to now, probably grew up with the same mindset or the same values. But knowing that and nobody expected COVID to be here and that doubled or tripled the cost of everything. So it's a learning experience. And I know in one of our meetings there was some talk about going ahead and borrowing the money and getting started on this. And of course people say, Well, yo, you want to borrow money. If we don't borrow the money and get started with these projects, then we could run into a course like with the detention center now with the cost of it going up. I think it was projected to be around eight and a half million dollars. And I think when it's gonna be said and done, it's gonna be close to twenty. From my perspective, that's one of the biggest lessons that I think we learned from the first capital project sales tax was because we didn't borrow the money up front and get those projects knocked out, it really did create a situation where the cost jumped a lot by the time we got to the detention center. it did. And I think if we could probably go back and do that again, they probably would have done things a little differently. And there was some concern about why we didn't have detailed drawings in some of our meetings when they was presenting the projects to us, we asked that. And the way it was explained is you don't have that money until and it gets passed. And they can't just spend county money to get drawings So a lot of these things came up because we have an architect company that they contract, yearly with, I believe. and an engineering firm they contract yearly with. And I think they went to those and just asked, Hey, look, we want to build this kind of building. this is what we're looking for. Can you give us a rough estimate about what it would cost? with the fire department and the EMF, getting into those I'm kind of jumping but getting to that though, is we just build a fire department. You already know what it's going to cost. You know what your cost was. So that kind of helps us on some of these projects because there was some concern that were these projects are they padded any? what kind of safeguards did y'all put in to keep from overspending? I think there was fifteen projects total. that cost was twenty seven point nine million dollars. We're only projected to take in eighteen point nine million through the state Department of Revenues, what their their reporting says. So with that being said, there was no way to do all those projects. And then when we went through and picked out nine, we still was kinda high and we're like, We need to do something and then we were informed that we could shave numbers, shave the numbers off, cut them down some. So we went through and we cut those down to like seventeen seven. and the question was asked, could you guys lift another project off? We could. But when we start going through these projects, Tell me which one of the nine is not a need or necessity we probably need. You know what I'm saying? So it was hard for us not to do that. But Some of these numbers, and when we get into them, I'll discuss more about the numbers, but I think we did a great job with our committee. we didn't want to overspend, left money on the table. So, as we talk about some of these safeguards and the reporting that's in place, one thing that I I think is really important for people to understand is this money cannot be spent on anything else. There I think that's always a concern in government is, well, they're gonna say they're gonna spend it on this and then they're gonna do this. You can't do that. this money is specifically designated. It must be spent on these projects. I just think it's so important for people to know that you cannot take this money and spend it on anything else. we can't take the money and decide three years down the road, well, you know what, instead of building the substation on Fruit Hill Road, we're gonna, go buy five new police cars. We we literally cannot do that. It is completely illegal to do that. And that is one of the biggest safeguards that's in place with this kind of funding. Mm-hmm. something I really wanted to share at a couple of meetings and the question never came up. But when we had our very first meeting, one of my questions was that when we voted last time on this referendum, we were going to build a detention center with capital project sales tax money, meaning that the citizens that pay property tax, the burden would be off of us. It was not explained the way I'm gonna explain it here in a few minutes to everybody else. So my question was, Well, we got a shortfall. Why can't we continue this capital project sales tax and let it finish paying for the detention center? And there's state statutes in place that prevent that. Now playing Monday morning quarterback, we could have did the thing where we could have done phase one and phase two. Then we could have used the new capital project sales tax to finish that up. we didn't foresee that. so that taught us something. That's something that we thought about on some of these projects if we could do it that way. so that was real big to me. And nobody, I was really surprised. Nobody asked, why can't we just continue it to finish paying for the jail? But there are state statues that says we cannot do that. and again, getting back to lessons learned from the first time, the detention center, which was the most expensive project, was put at the very end. And we're gonna get into the projects specifically here in just a minute, but one thing that I think is is also different is you've got the most expensive project on here is actually the first project listed. And and I know that's not why it's in that order, but I I do think that also makes a difference in protecting From the inflation that we saw with the jail. Yes. And and talking about the money, so we're talking about leaving money on the table. Some one of our one of the last meetings I think we had, maybe it may was one that was in town. The question was well what happens with the money if we have money left over? Did you just go to the county to spend and the answer is no? That money goes into an account, and if we do another capital project sales tax after the end of seven years this time, that money's already in the bank. So once that stuff passes in November, of that time, they can initially get started because they already got money in the bank. And personally I do think it's a good idea to have that little bit of a buffer on this sales tax. We we hope. We like I said we left money and even some of the costs on some of these projects, we feel like some of be done a little cheaper. And I'm sure we're gonna hit snags and some stuff might go up or some stuff might come down. But, that's the goal. I mean, I hope we have money left over. So Ricky, we had people bring up the idea of having a project manager for the CPST projects. Can you give us a little insight into that? Yeah, I so not know not directly which question, who asked the question at what meeting, but that that did come up in one of our meetings. and it was asked that, some safeguards be put in place about that. And I did some asking around some guys that do construction for a living. And the average cost for a site project manager would be two to four percent of your total construction cost. So if we've got somebody to come in to oversee all these projects, we at 177, two to four percent. We're over budget. We're in the hole. and we already have people in place that handle the bidding process. And we have state statues and stuff that we have to follow in procedures So we didn't see there was a need to to do that. So, Ricky, if you look at the referendum, the first project that our citizens are going to see is a wellness center. I know that is a joint thing with the town and the county. Can you maybe walk us through that project a little bit? Yes. So that that project there was kind of the weird kind of way it came about because when it was presented to us, the town actually presented a project and the county presented a project and it was the same project basically. And that meeting that night was a little heated and there was some discussion and and some it was exciting to say the least. but after that meeting we we talked to everybody that was involved and we said, Listen, you know, you're asking this committee to pick which project because there's no way we can build two gyms or two gymnasiums or rec centers or, wellness centers So why don't you guys come back together and think about it and present us one project and then We were told as a committee that we overstepped our boundaries that we we were there to take the projects that were at hand and pick the ones that we need. And then later on they come back and apparently they must have listened because the very next week they came back and presented this project where it was gonna be a joint venture. and the town has the property, the Boy Scouts give up some of the land over there at the pool, town pool. and it went to the town, so the project would be a joint venture between the YMCA, the town, and the county of Saluda. And what's supposed to happen is if the referendum passes in November, the town is going to relinquish some of the property where the old town pool was at for us to build the wellness center at. They housed the basketball courts, two workout rooms, dressing rooms, locker rooms, stuff like that. and that's where it's supposed to go and it's be a joint project. and we kinda need that in our county. When we looked at this project, we were looking at our children and I had kids that played Rick Ball and but us living out by the traffic circle, I mean it was a ride itself just to get here to practice ball. But these kids were out here, you know, eight and nine o'clock at night on a school night practicing ball because they couldn't get a field until then. And my kids never played basketball or they never played soccer. But it's the same thing with those kids. I mean, I think now they're using the gym at Hollywood They're using the gym at the middle school and the gym at the high school. Yeah, they stay busy. My little cousin had a volleyball game the other week. It started late at night and then they had to go home and hit homework after that. And I think some more space is definitely going to be helpful. We're talking with Speedy, our recreational director, he was telling me that the number of teams that we've had now, our rec department, has grown tremendously. Between softball, baseball, football, soccer, volleyball. And that's kind of the need for the gymnasium with the basketball courts, because he can take the two basketball courts, convert those over to four volleyball courts. and j our children's got to come first. But also this wellness center has a great impact to reach our senior citizens in the county. I attended a town meeting a couple of weeks ago, or maybe it was a month ago, and there was two ladies that were there and they came out and they were talking, they said, We can't wait till this gets built because we drive the newberry every day. to take therapy and say now we can do it close to home. and when we looked at this, we said, what's has the greatest impact to reach to most people? And in our opinion, this rec center would have the greatest impact to reach to most. and I think that's a really important part of this. a lot of these projects are, really impacting one part of the county or another part of the county. This is one of those things that's accessible. It's can be used by all ages, by every demographic, no matter what part of the county you live in. so I I think that's a really important thing to to point out. the next project on the referendum, we are jumping into fire service. Can you maybe walk us through y'all's thoughts and how those came about? All right. So I live down by the traffic circle. So I have the Circle Fire Department. And years ago, before they got their ISO rating down to a five, I mean, I think we were at a seven or an eight, and your homeowners insurance was a lot is a lot higher when your ISO rating is higher. when it comes down to a five, it was a great impact. We got I think we got some fire hydrants down there now. and our ISO rating's down. So if you live within five miles of a fire department, your ISO rating is a five and it helps on your insurance. our county average, I believe, is a five right now. but this area in Duncan and the area in Fruit Hill, those areas are lacking a fire department. and it's my understanding that if we get those two facilities built for those areas. course those people there that's in that area and I just I just want to run by because I asked about numbers how many people was this possibly going to affect so the Duncan area the service gap we have a total of 596 addresses in that area that this fire department will service 527 of them residents 34 of them are businesses and five of them are churches so that's 596 addresses that that's gonna help. And they've I think right now they in a joint venture with Johnson or Edgefield County kind of helps with that area some. Is that correct? So on the Mason one. On the Mason. not not Duncan. Yeah, Duncan is is sort of in the middle. You you've got, you know, Midland up and and you got Batesburg to the side and Saluda and Ridge Spring down, but it's really sort of a a dead area. And getting back to the ISO ratings, the way this works is we have a countywide ISO rating of five. But it only applies if you live within five road miles of a fire station. If you live outside five road miles of a fire station, ISO basically says you have no fire coverage and you're a class 10. And the difference between a class five and a class 10, it your insurance rates are more than double. I mean, it's it's insane just how much more expensive is. Right. And talking about the Mason area, just to give those numbers, there's four hundred and thirteen total addresses with three hundred and fifty of them being residents, thirty-three of them being businesses, and then six of them being churches. So that's a gap. And and our feeling to put these with second and third on our chart was there is a need for this. They don't have anything. There's not a service there. So this would greatly impact that area of the county, both areas of the county, and that would help them. But something that was interesting I want to share when Mark Librand, our fire director, came to us and presented these projects. He presented the fire station at Duncan, a fire substation at Fruit Hill, and of course the fire department in town, which we'll get to that because that's we picked that project too. But he also brought up a fact about a fire truck and then a tanker and a pumper truck. the tanker and pumper truck was six hundred and ten thousand. The fire truck was going to be one point two million. So during one of our meetings we asked Mark, we said, well what's more important? the buildings or the fire trucks? And he said the buildings. He said, if you build the buildings, I'll find the trucks. And I think just last week he found a tanker pumper truck. Instead of it costing six hundred and ten, it cost $175,000. So it saved the county four hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. And where this truck is going, the door's what, ten foot, I think. And he was telling me it's like nine foot six. It's got enough room to go in. So we got lucky with that. But so there was some there was some thought about this. You know, when you ask somebody what's what's a need, what's a won't? And he said, I need the buildings. Yeah. And and you know, you can buy used fire trucks, but you can't buy used fire stations. No. so that's that's our mindset there on that was about the ISA road helping those people. And then And and one other thing before we move on is you know, with these, these projects are a little unique in the fact that they actually will put money back in the pockets of the people that live in those areas by cutting those insurance rates. So really you're investing in something that's going to actually save the taxpayers money. Yeah. And I think it was shared with us that possibly, possibly, that once these two facilities get built and get manned, like they we have volunteers and stuff to take these positions, we do have the potential for our ISI routing for our whole county to drop down on average so it can save all of us a little bit of money. Absolutely. That that are are that are benefiting from the ISO rating of five now. So the next project is the sheriff's office expansion. Can you tell us a little bit about that one? So this project here. And I I guess in one of the meetings I made a I made a comment that kinda got out and people had called me about because I made a comment that the Sheriff's Department was kinda like the redheaded stepchild of the family. Every time they put in for something they don't seem to get it, nobody seems to take look out for I'm pro Sheriff's Department. I think we probably ought to have fifty or sixty deputies out here because then people wouldn't come to Salute County to do crime and we wouldn't have had to build a new detention center. But that's that's that's putting a spin on it. But but no, but getting back to it, Our committee was actually sitting there and we were debating whether to do this because a lot of people thought that, well, he's getting a new jail, new detention center. Why does he need an expansion? The jail wasn't on him. It was something that was mandated by the state that we had to do. So with that being said, with the insurance department expansion, we took a field trip and because I wanted to ask everybody in in the meeting one time, I said, How many of you have ever been to the sheriff's department? They sent the handcuffs or going out there just to be going out. I said, either way, it don't matter. but we went out toured the facility. when you first walk into the office there or into the four-year area, you'll notice that it's real tight. And right in front of you is the nine one one call center. So we got to go into that room and look around. And one big thing that's going on is our nine one one server system, it needs to be upgraded and expanded. In order to do that, they're gonna have to move into the squad room, which is directly behind that room. So basically their squad room will now become the size of a regular closet you would have in a hallway. the evidence room, that's something that we found was very interesting the evidence that they have on people has to be kept in their facility or in their hands until that person either serves their term that they've been sentenced to, or they pass away. So I asked Just ballpark. what's the oldest piece of evidence that we have? He said well, I know for a fact that there's some stuff on here that's twenty six years old that that I know of that we and we still have to keep because the person's still serving the time. So it's a real big thing with that. The interrogation rooms right now, if you had a victim and then you had the person that's being accused of committing a crime, there's a possibility they could pass each other in the hallway. There's no separation of that. he needs offices for his investigators and the victim services. we have two victim advocates, and they're sharing the same office. training rooms. Something he shared with me, he said that when COVID hit, that the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy now requires that police departments teach the first four weeks of that class in house. So they need a place where they can do that. And they could use the training room for that or one of these other offices for that. record storage, something else. You I asked him about he said something about his record. that they're off site. So now whenever they looking for information, they got it two or three places in the county they have to go to to find the information instead of being under one roof. And when that department was built back in ninety nine, I believe, there was eight deputies on the road. he shared with me today that there was twenty-eight deputies now. So I mean there's no room for anybody. So they definitely need an expansion. and that's kind of why we picked that but it took us going out there and seeing that the current conditions In one of the portable buildings, I believe I actually went to school in and I graduated in eighty nine. So yes, I know I'm old. That building is old. So it does need to be done away with. I mean, it's old. You know, I think we got some old issues going on, some water damage going on. one of those have already been torn down that was being used for the highway department years ago. So highway patrol. So therefore, I mean, that's why we picked that project. But the field trip really opened the eyes up for a lot of people when we went out there. All right. The next project that citizens will see on the referendum is the recreation area on Webb Road. Can you explain? Some people might not know where that is. Yeah, so that's actually beside the D V office where you go to renew your your driver's license and get your tags for your car. So it's next door to that. we went up to look at that facility because I think that facility used to be used a lot more years and years ago. And it it's kinda growed up. But Speedy went out there, they got it cleaned up, got the field looking great, but he's got trouble with the lights. I think they played a couple of games at night and the lighting was a real bad issue. And I think they called the games and and said they couldn't do it 'cause of the safety of the children. So he's wanting to replace the lighting that's out there and then we have some more land. The county has more land that is butted up to that that's been cleared and he wants to put two multi purpose fields out there that would do soccer and football. 'Cause right now I think the only soccer field that he has is the track field over here at the the complex that we have. And that's what they're using. so they definitely need the room for that. And once again for the children, we thought that was a great idea, be a good thing to have for them. So the next one we're gonna move into the town of Saluda. Can talk to us a little bit about the town fire department? Yes, the town fire department. That was that was another one that we took a field trip to see. hands off of those guys. They do a great job backing those fire trucks in there. Those doors are real, real small. and they've got that thing packed. I if you've never been by there, if the doors are up, go by and look and you'll be amazed. I mean, I'm looking to make sure they hadn't knocked the corners off or anything, but they don't wreck don't beat the trucks up, don't beat the building up. But the big thing with that building, that building is actually being condemned. So it's very important for them to get a new fire department. it's supposed to go over next to where Henry Cleaners was used to be. There was a car wash there, and they want to put it there. And I believe they own the land that's in between those two streets. And I for the I can't think of what the name of the two roads are, but they want to be able to do a pull through fire department, which is a great idea. But after we went down to Ridge Spring and looked at that and down there, they actually have a pull through. But what they end up doing is some of the bigger trucks that are harder to back up, they'll pull in and then the simple trucks they'll back in the other way so they got pointing in all exit directions so they can leave and they don't have to move one to get another one out. So There's a little strategy that goes in there. I mean, it was kinda neat to see all that. You know, you don't think about that and you're like, well then that saves time because if you got to move two trucks to get one out or whatever, I mean time's you know, time's important. Yeah, you won't have to play Tetris. Nope. Nope. But but they they like I said they they made use of that building that they're in now. I somebody said it was a hatchery years ago or something. so they have used that building. And I think the town is wanting to do something to kind of fix that building up a little bit and use it for storage or something. They could do something like that. Well, and getting back to how does this benefit everybody across the county. So this was the town of Saluda's project that they put in because the towns get to submit projects as well as the as the county. But the Saluda Fire Department, because it sits dead center of the county Anytime there's a fire call anywhere in the county, Saluda a lot of times responds to that fire call. So this actually does benefit people throughout the county. So now we're going to move on from fire and recreation and sheriff's office and we're going to jump over to EMS. Can you maybe walk us through the two new substations? Yeah, so the two substations are number seven and eight that's on your on the referendum that would appear there. the first one was EMS at the traffic circle. The second one was the EMS these are substations, excuse me, EMS substations at circle and at Ridge Spring. once again, you know, we thinking that, hey, these things aren't that old because I think when we finally got those two substations put in, it was around two thousand fifteen. And time flies, it's almost tw coming up on twelve years now that those two facilities have been there. and they they have served. I think if you ask anybody, that's probably a wise thing to do. I don't know how many lives it's probably saved. I'm sure it's saved numerous. And you can't put a price tag on that. So it's real important to have these. and right now they're currently in like a mobile home with a metal carport. So when inflammate weather comes around, like when we had the hurricane, they had to leave those facilities. Josh has shared with me this morning that thank goodness they went The one at the traffic circle went to the fire department down there. The one in Ridge Spring went to the fire department over there. And he said if it they hadn't have been in those two fire departments in that general area, it could have taken them up to 10 hours to get to anybody that was in those areas that needed help back when we had that decur. so it's very important that way they at least they got to stay down there because the fire departments look welcome in and let them come in. so that's a big thing about having the mobile homes is to implement weather. another big concern is is climate control. And you think, well, climate control. Well, you got to keep your medicine bag at a certain temperature. If it gets too hot, it can mess the medicines up. If it gets too cold, it can it can make the medicine go bad. And another thing to think about, we all are humans and mistakes happen and people people get like I said get careless. You get you forget sometimes. So what happens if we have that medicine bag outside of that ambulance inside of one of these modular home mobile homes, and we get a call. paramedics rush out because it's a life and death situation, they rushing out, they forget to grab the bag. I don't think it's happened yet. Don't know, but yeah, that's something you have to think about. And by taking that thing in and out, somebody says, Well, you can put it inside. Well you can, but then you got the chance of that occurring. So that's that's one big thing. And then if you if you have it inside, then you can kind of regulate the temperature of the vehicle better. The bag can stay inside. And then in implement weather they can be there. And then also that facility could house law enforcement. Could it house somebody from the fire department? They needed extra space. They would have a place to go as well. So the last project on the referendum is the sewer line expansion to the traffic circle. Can you talk us through y'all's decision when putting that on there and what that will entail? So when we started this podcast, we were talking about what did our committee look at and we said we wanted to focus on our children, our senior citizens, our infrastructure for our public safety, and then we want to look at economic growth. if you ride to Lexnon, you know how bad traffic is when you get in Lexington, you really know how bad it is. And everything is shifting and coming our way. so with that being said, we felt like that that area down there with the sewer line being at the county line there, we felt like that that would be a great expansion to the traffic circle. There's a lot of land there that's not developed. and we thought that would be a good thing to maybe attract some businesses to come in. and everybody talks about we want to get a plan or an industry to come in here to look at us to to put some facility up that's going to help us. But they look at the draw with people. How many people do I have? They look at other businesses that are already here. And and so that that all helps. And they also look at water and sewer. So if you don't have water and sewer, that cuts you out a lot of times on some of these projects or some of these companies that are interested. So our mindset was that maybe if we run the sewer line up to the traffic circle. There has been talk one time before with a a doctor from Newberry had made mention about putting a like an urgent care in. but you would need water and sewer there. there was a talk maybe about a small grocery store like a KJ's or something, not nothing that's real big. and that would be tremendous down here. I mean, we got our circle Walmart with the dollar general and I mean it gets used a lot. so, but I mean that's that's that's got a jeopardy. I mean, that's got the chance to help us to grow in that area. And and one other thing with that. know, when we talk about the need for sewer with business, if you don't have sewer lines and you put businesses in, you also end up wasting a lot of extra land by having to put those fill lines in because it's it's a lot more than you would have to put in for a home. So you can maximize your land to fit things and not have to worry about, like you said, the sewer systems, the drain lines and all that kind of stuff. Which I think the de the dollar generator does have that, but it'd have been a lot easier for them. If there'd have been a water and sewer line there. So as most everybody knows that our county runs on a budget and most of that budget comes from property owners from property taxes, whether it's on your boat, your car, your home, your land that you have. And it seems like every time we turn around when county wants to do something, they don't have the money. And the first thing that happens is they go up on property taxes. Well, by doing these projects here, if you look at the projects that we we we talked about, There's nine projects. And of those nine, there are probably I'd probably say six or seven of them that's probably gonna have to be done in the future. Nine saying it's got to be done tomorrow or next week. But some of these projects have got to be done. And if we don't pass this referendum, then the chances are it's gonna be a burden to the taxpayers, the property owners that already pay the majority of the taxes in the county. so this is a fair tax to anybody who buys anything in the county. There was some talk, they were concerned about Amazon shopping. we called a Department of Revenue, had a conversation with them. They assured us that the taxes collected. So I have a Liesville address, but live in Saluta County. there's a system that they use. They talked about it, it's kind of elaborate, to assure that, if it's a first time address that they've never charged tax to. It gets flagged to the Department of Revenue. Department of Revenue picks up on it. Once they decide where it belongs, then that the issue solved. The next time that address is punched in, it it automatically pops up. So we're getting our tax dollars from Amazon, from other online shopping and stuff like that. So if you want to buy something in Saluta County, buy something. Support local business because what we need. But it's very important this pass. This is not a new tax, this is a continuation And I can't stress that enough. But this makes it this is fair to everybody. one of the points you just made about the online shopping, I think that's something a lot of people don't realize is that money does come back into Saluda County, as far as the sales tax goes. It does. It does. And like I said, we that was some one of our questions that we had too. And so we our committee reached out and talked to someone at the Department of Revenue to verify that's how that works. All right. Well, folks, that wraps up our conversation today with Ricky Bailey. And Ricky, we are so grateful for you being able to come out today and share with us a little bit about the capital project sales tax. Thank you for having me. I I truly enjoyed it. As you can tell, I'm kind of passionate about this. We do have a copy of the referendum posted on our Facebook page. So you'll be able to see exactly what that referendum looks like. Early voting is actually going on right now. So you'll be able to do early voting up through October the 31st. And then the general election is on November 3rd. So if you choose to vote on election day, that will be November 3rd. again, Ricky, thank you so much for being here. And thank you all for listening to Saluda County Unplugged. Have questions or an idea for an upcoming episode? Email us at publicinfo at salutacounty.sc.gov. And in the immortal words of Mr. Spock, live long and prosper. We'll see you next time