Attorney, mayor support ruling on half-cent tax

December 25, 2003

By JAMES LEE
THE JOURNAL

   Trent Kernodle was out of town last week when he received word that the S.C. Supreme Court had ruled against rehearing the half-cent sales tax case, but the phone call brought news he'd been waiting to hear.
   The Supreme Court's decision marked a modest victory for his clients and the defeat of the process by which the tax was presented.
   "This was never about the half-cent sales tax. This was always about what the government can get away with," Kernodle told The Journal.
   In August, the S.C. Supreme Court reversed the decision of the S.C. Election Commission and nullified the 2002 Sales and Use Tax Referendum in Charleston County.
   This signaled a victory in a lawsuit from W.J. "Joey" Douan and another by a group of complainants represented by Kernodle. The group included Folly Beach City Councilman Bob Linville; S.C. Rep. Wallace Scarborough, R-James Island; James Island Mayor Mary Clark and Town Councilmen Joe Qualey, Bill Wilder, Parris Williams and Bill Woolsey; James Island Public Service District Commissioner Eugene Platt; and Robert George, James Island's representative on Charleston City Council.
   Sales tax opponents said the question on the November ballot was phrased in a way that favored the tax, and the Supreme Court agreed.
   The court's decision prompted yet another appeal by tax supporters, spearheaded by Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., Mount Pleasant Mayor Harry Hallman and North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey, who asked that the the court rehear the case.
   The supporters said last week's decision is the death knell for the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority.
   "People will say that 'CARTA has been killed by this' and so forth and so on, but we didn't make that choice," Kernodle said. "It was made by someone else."
   Clark also maintains that the Charleston area needs public transportation, but that the public's desire for a fair government exceeds its need for the bus system.
   "I think the whole CARTA business should be revamped, restructured and a new plan made," Clark said. "People want the service, but they do not want to be cheated."
   Other projects that were relying on the tax included completion of the Mark Clark Expressway, continuation of the Glenn McConnell Expressway and improvements on U.S. Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant.
   Charleston County Council had also committed $3 million of proposed revenues from the tax to help fund the new Cooper River bridge.
   Kernodle hopes a better referendum will be proposed to raise money for these projects.
   "I hope they have another referendum and they do it right, and it will either win or it won't ­ but let's just do it right," he said. "I am sure they were well-meaning in what they did, but they chose poorly."
   "I have found that the people will meet a need," said Clark. "but you cannot catch it in chicanery and subterfuge."