As a reminder, I asked the following in an earlier post:
The Big Question – Does the passage of the referendum in any way reduce the amount of money spent by DOT in Greenville in the future?
For example, if the three projects (itemized on the referendum) are on the DOT priority list but are funded by local referendum, will Greenville lose our ranking while other projects in other counties take our place on the DOT list? Will Greenville end up paying for projects, that had we waited, DOT would have completed?
The Big Answer was provided today by an official at SCDOT:
Generally speaking, a sales tax initiative would have no effect on the level of transportation funding currently provided by SCDOT to Greenville County. Federal aid and state resurfacing dollars are distributed among the 46 counties by formula and Greenville would continue to get their allocation. Likewise the GPATS MPO and Appalachian GOG funding allocations will remain unchanged.
Several of our programs like interstate, safety, and bridge are prioritized and funded on a statewide basis. In other words, funds are distributed based purely on need and not split by formula across the 46 counties. If Greenville county were to pursue a bridge project that we are currently planning to fund, we would simply go to the next project on the Act 114 list which may or may not be in Greenville county.
So, there you go.