Sumter County voters pass penny tax by 61% margin

Sumter County voters passed the Capital Projects Penny Sales Tax referendum by a margin of 61.1% in favor and 38.9% opposed.

It is poised to bring in $125 million for 30 projects during the next eight years.

"With the penny coming, everything is gonna get exponential," Sumter Mayor David Merchant said. "It's gonna help our community grow, help quality of life for our citizens, help bring jobs and just improve Sumter all around."

The Penny Sales Tax will see an additional charge of 1% of the sales tax imposed on items within Sumter County, not including fresh groceries, gas, prescription drugs and medical supplies. The tax will last for no more than eight years.

This year, every precinct, except Rembert, Horatio and Furman, voted majority in favor of the tax. In Horatio, there was a tie with "yes" and "no" votes garnering 155 votes each. In Rembert, 532 voters were against the tax and 495 were in favor - a difference of 37 people. Furman was against the tax by one vote with 486 voters for the tax and 487 against it.

Merchant described the penny passing as a "landslide" victory.

After narrowly not passing when it was last on the ballot in 2022, Sumter Economic Development, or Sumter EDGE for short, worked to inform voters about the sales tax ahead of time with more than 70 speaking engagements across the county.

"It was highly organized with almost every available means of advertising, whether it be radio, social media, signs and really any avenue we could think of," Chairman of the 2024 Penny for Progress board Ed Bynum said. "Our speakers bureau was extremely important because they got out in front of different groups in the community, and I think that made a big difference."

The first Penny Sales Tax was approved by voters in 2008, and when it came back onto the ballot in 2014, it again saw favor with Sumter voters. In 2022, for the first time since the Penny Sales Tax was proposed, voters turned it down. Some think this was because of the wording of the penny question on ballots. This election year, Sumter EDGE released the ballot question early and put the actual word "penny" within the header of the question to avoid confusion.

"There's been incredible progress in Sumter, particularly over the last 20 years. Downtown has made a huge comeback. There's new retail, new homes and new industry bringing high-paying jobs," County Council Chairman Jim McCain said in a statement sent to The Item. "We have a lot of momentum, and we think Team Sumter is positioned very well for more growth. Penny 1 and Penny 2 saw over $160 million reinvested in our community; Penny 3 will add almost another $125 million. New projects will get underway next spring, and we will keep everyone updated on our progress."