COLUMBIA, S.C. — A Richland County Council member wrote a two-page op ed calling the County's penny tax program, “A billion-dollar mess.”
Councilman Joe Walker wrote the two page op-ed to criticize the County's handling of the penny tax and to call for more transparency.
“The project was built on a shaky foundation at best, therefore how could we expect any result other than a shaky result,” Walker told WLTX in an interview on Wednesday.
Walker's op-ed comes roughly two weeks after state Representative Kirkman Finlay, (R) Richland, said a preliminary audit report from the South Carolina Department of Revenue said the County may have misspent $40 million penny tax dollars.
"As I understand it, the point being the County proper may have to repay $40 million of money that has been expended by the penny. Because, money expended by the penny project was inappropriate. In other words, money has been expended from the penny for items that the penny is not able to do," Finlay said in early November.
The report has not been made public and WLTX's open records requests with the County and SCDOR have been denied.
After a recent council meeting, none of the council members, including Walker, would confirm the amount or give more details on the preliminary audit report.
Walker said the County should be more transparent.
“Extremely frustrated, it flies in the face of everything that I'm here for which is clear and open governance, transparency, accountability to the taxpayers,” Walker said.
“And the story here needs to be, 'Here's the problem, here's how we're going to fix it, not continuing to hide whether or not there's a problem,” Walker continued.
Walker’s op-ed is the first time a member of council confirmed DOR told the County it, “Is on the hook to repay millions in dollars in money it spent on the program not covered by the governing statute.”
At one point he writes, "It's time to stop fighting, stop finger-pointing, and start fixing."
During an interview with WLTX, Walker clarified he was speaking to all the involved parties, not just council.
“Let's figure out how to fix the problem and let's put this one behind us so we can move again to the good governance expected of us by our constituents. And quite frankly, to clean up what has become-- I don't know how to describe it other than a spectacle of a mess,” Walker said.
He also commended the COMET bus system for its recent comments on its own penny tax woes.
Last week, COMET leadership said DOR told them it might need to repay $1.4 million. In interviews, COMET leadership said they were aware of questionable spending and were working to end or repay the alleged mis-spending.
“I applaud the COMET and its leadership for getting in front of an issue, declaring there is an issue, and then putting forward a plan to rectify the issue. I think that the County could’ve handled this much the same and that this issue could be behind us and we could move on,” Walker said.
Walker’s entire op-ed is posted below: