Richland County, SC (WLTX) - After reviewing an audit by the Department of Revenue, the South Carolina Supreme Court said Richland County was improperly spending some of the Transportation Penny Tax funds.
On Friday, Richland County Council made changes to their spending in attempt to fix the issue. After discussing the issue privately in executive session and in front of the public, Councilman Chip Jackson motioned to do as the state Supreme Court opinion stated.
"I made a motion tonight that was adopted and approved by the council to suspend temporarily those programs in question until we are able to get a definitive answer with regards to the written guidelines that have been asked of us to develop in cooperation with the Department of Revenue," he said.
In accordance with the state Supreme Court opinion, Richland County Council temporarily ceased funding to a mentor/mentee program, a marketing program and the Small Local Business Enterprise program.
The state Supreme Court said that money from the Penny Tax is to be spent directly on transportation projects, not on programs associated with projects. As of last month the Small Local Business Enterprise Program received roughly $1,052,000 from the Penny Tax.
Councilwoman Dalhi Myers said this is less than one percent of the total money spent.
"That's a lot of money. One nickel of an error is a problem to me, but in a program this large I don't think that small of an amount of money by comparison to the large amounts that have been properly assigned to projects mean that we are somehow all the criminal element in Richland County," she said.
According to the county's monthly progress reports, more than $280 million have been spent since the tax was implemented.