BY ROBERT BEHRE
Of The Post and Courier Staff
Charleston County Council plans to hold a special meeting Jan. 15 to give final approval to new wording of a new half-cent sales tax ballot.
Council members agreed unanimously Tuesday to ask Gov. Mark Sanford to call a special election, possibly in early April, on the half-cent sales tax measure that county voters narrowly approved in November 2002 but the S.C. Supreme Court later threw out.
The justices based their decision on the ballot's wording, which they said was biased to encourage a vote for the tax.
Sanford's office has said he won't consider the county's request until the ballot language is fixed to the court's satisfaction. County Council's Finance Committee is scheduled to meet at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 15 and discuss the wording then Council Chairman Barrett Lawrimore has called a special council meeting immediately afterward to give it final approval.
"They're working right now on the ballot question because they want to make sure we cross all the t's and dot all the i's to make sure it's correct," Lawrimore said Wednesday. "I don't want any doubts in anybody's mind.
"We don't want to make another mistake."
County Council and others are pushing for a referendum as soon as possible, partly because the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority is expected to cease operating in April unless it finds a new source of local money.
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