On that date, Charleston County voters could decide whether to pay a half-percent more in sales tax on everything they buy in the county to raise $1.3 billion for building roads and bridges, bailing out the bus system and preserving undeveloped land.

The push for a quick vote comes as the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority, which runs the local bus service, nears death. The agency slashed yet another set of routes today and is expected to shut down by April unless it finds a new funding source.

It would be the third such referendum in less than four years, and the specter of a special vote this spring raises a new set of questions.

Will anyone challenge it in court, and will they succeed? How will the tax be sold to voters? What difference will CARTA's imminent demise make in the campaign? How will county voters react to all this when they go to the polls?

"I'm not a gambling man, and I don't want to go to Las Vegas," County Council Chairman Barrett Lawrimore said. "I don't know whether it will pass or not."

The council unanimously agreed last week to urge Gov. Mark Sanford to call a new referendum as early as April.

Sales tax elections are supposed to be held only during general elections, which are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even-numbered years. Council members cited a little-known 1938 state law that allows an earlier vote in instances in which a court throws out an earlier result. They said the law essentially allows, even requires, a redoing of the county's half-cent tax referendum.

County voters narrowly approved the tax in November 2002, but the state Supreme Court threw out the result because of biased ballot wording.

Some have said the 1938 law applies only to candidates, not to referenda. Others feel differently. Most lawmakers who passed the law were born in the late 19th century, so they're not around to say.

Lawyers who successfully fought the outcome of the 2002 referendum have not guaranteed a lawsuit over the issue. At least not yet.

"No one has called me to question whether or not that statute applies. At this point, I have no plans for any action," said Trent Kernodle, one of the lawyers who successfully fought to throw out the last referendum results.

It's unclear whether that will change.

"Everybody is going to watch and see what happens. If that statute applies and Governor Sanford calls for an election, then someone might call me and say, 'Can you look at it?' " Kernodle said, adding that his clients were not necessarily opponents of the half-cent sales tax. Instead, they opposed what they saw as illegal ballot wording.

"Personally, I hope they can do it and do it right, and it will be decided. Then maybe people will stop calling me 'CARTA killer.' "

SELLING IT TO VOTERS

County Council is expected to finalize the ballot language Thursday, and then the pro- and anti-forces will kick off their campaigns.

Under the 2002 proposal, the county would have divided the half-cent income as follows: 17 percent for green space; 18 percent for public transportation; and 65 percent for roads and bridges, including $75 million for the county's share of the new Cooper River bridge.

Mount Pleasant Mayor Harry Hallman, who supports the half-cent tax, said he has mixed emotions about calling another vote in April.

"I really think we need to pause and think through, 'Do we have enough time between now and April to educate and sell the voters on something I consider vital?' " he said.

Council members clarified where the money would go in 2002 more than they did in the 2000 referendum, but they might be asked to do even more this time.

The S.C. Coastal Conservation League, a local environmental group that came out against the tax in 2002, could change its position if the county is more specific about how the money would be spent, director Dana Beach said.

Beach said only a small slice of the 2002 money was committed to specific projects, such as widening Johnnie Dodds Boulevard in Mount Pleasant from the Cooper River to Interstate 526.

"The rest of it was open-ended," he said. "It was simply a 25-year grab bag."

Also, Beach said he would like the county to set criteria about how the money for green space would be spent, such as how land purchases would advance the goals of ecological protection, helping farmers, preserving history or simply improving scenic views.

While council members know they must change the ballot wording, there has been no public discussion on what other elements of the 2002 referendum must be kept and what can be changed.

THE 'CARTA FACTOR'

Only a small slice of the tax would go to support the Charleston area's bus service. But to many, it's the most important slice of all.

That's because road and bridge projects and land conservation might be able to wait a year, but the bus system can't.

About eight years ago, the city of Charleston took a gamble on the future of its public transportation. S.C. Electric & Gas Co. had subsidized the buses for years and wanted out. No public transportation system in the country breaks even.

Mayor Joe Riley and Charleston City Council agreed to let SCE&G off the hook in exchange for $25 million, enough money to subsidize the service for seven years.

CARTA thought it would be saved when voters narrowly approved the tax in November.

The seven years have passed, and the bus system has slashed more than half its routes, cut the frequency of runs on surviving routes and taken other steps to survive a few more months.

"The most important thing for CARTA now and in the past has been it has to have community support," CARTA Chairman Patterson Smith said.

Will the prospect of a public transit meltdown sway more people to support the tax?

"Your heart pulls you one way on that CARTA issue, and your fiscal responsibility pulls you the other way," said Hallman, whose town of Mount Pleasant has relatively few bus routes but who still believes mass transit is needed.

Charleston City Councilman Kwadjo Campbell said he would like to see the question altered to invest more of the proceeds from the tax in public transportation. "CARTA is the only one that can make it pass," he said.

"We have a responsibility to each constituent not only in our city but in our county to make sure they have transportation to get to and from work," said Charleston City Councilman James Lewis.

WHAT WILL THE VOTERS DO?

In 2002, the tax won by about 691 votes out of more than 80,000 cast. Two years earlier, it lost by 932 votes out of almost 100,000 cast.

Almost everyone expects a tight contest next time.

Asked whether tax supporters or opponents would have the advantage in a special election, College of Charleston political science professor Jeri Cabot said, "It's probably a big uncertain at this point."

In an April 1998 referendum, Charleston County voters rejected, 54 percent to 46 percent, a $350 million school bond issue. Seven months later during the general election, voters approved, by about the same margin, a $175 million bond issue.

Cabot said a special election has the advantage of removing the clutter of other races. "When it's on the ballot with other issues, it's just one topic among many to be discussed," she said. "You assume people get a little fatigued at the bottom of the ballot."

Another factor will be how the public reacts to yet another vote on the half-cent.

"I just think it's a long shot at best," said former Council Chairman Tim Scott. "I think there's a tremendous amount of distrust around this referendum."

Others are more confident, especially because of CARTA's problems and what they see as pressing needs to protect undeveloped land and to come up with more money for building and maintaining roads and bridges.

"The needs ... have only increased since November 2002," Riley said. "It is critically important."

Beach said an early referendum "is going to be a three-ring circus. No one can predict (the outcome) because of the nature of special elections."

"Special elections just don't draw that big a crowd," Hallman said. "It all depends on who gets their vote out. If the governor calls for an election, I'm going to be shoulder to shoulder with everybody pushing it as hard as I can because we've got $120 million at stake.

"We can't afford to fail again."

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