Infrastructure is a top concern in Spartanburg County Council District 4 race (2024)

SPARTANBURG — In Spartanburg County Council District 4, incumbent Justin McCorkle is facing his first reelection challenge from two candidates with long roots in the area.

The district includes most of the rural southern half of Spartanburg County, where infrastructure is a priority for all the candidates. That includes McCorkle, who pushed for expanded broadband internet access last year and wants to replace aging stormwater infrastructure underneath failing roads.

But McCorkle’s challengers, Frank Tiller and Grant DeShields, have questioned whether the county has grown too much for the existing infrastructure to handle and say the extensive use of tax breaks for manufacturers is to blame.

Here’s where the candidates stand.

Justin McCorkle

McCorkle, a real estate broker and the son of Marshall Tucker Band founding member George McCorkle, is running for his second term for District 4.

In his first term, he supported the county’s use of American Rescue Plan funds to expand broadband internet to thousands of homes in Spartanburg County, pay raises for county employees and county support of planned South Carolina Department of Transportation infrastructure projects on Highway 221 and Highway 56.

“When I first ran, I ran on the principle of just leaving the place a little bit better than I found it,” McCorkle said. “And I’ve made some headway with that.”

Last year, the county used $4.5 million in federal money to set up internet infrastructure to provide broadband access to homes in Spartanburg, Cowpens, Duncan, Lyman, Greer and Wellford.

This year, the county’s budget calls for a 5 percent raise for all county employees and a 10 percent raise for patrolling deputies. The county also offers retention bonuses for its law enforcement officers.

Going forward, he’s advocating for expanding broadband access, infrastructure projects to replace aging and outdated stormwater systems and supporting small businesses.

Internet access is “not just about TikTok or television anymore,” McCorkle said. “This is stuff that our children depend on for education and opportunities to be successful in life now. I kind of equate it to electricity in the '20s. This is something my constituency really pushed me and I listened and really pushed hard for it.”

His top priority is stormwater infrastructure. A lot of the stormwater systems in the county are reaching the end of their useful life, and instead of just paving over the roads above, McCorkle wants to replace the infrastructure below as well.

“I’m looking forward to some of the stormwater projects that we have because those are the kind of issues that cause our roads to fail to begin with,” he said. “We need to touch the underlying issues of why our roads are failing and correct that before trying to just pave it.”

He supports fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreements for manufacturers because they level the playing field and create jobs in the county.

The state property tax assessment ratio for manufacturing businesses is 10.5 percent, which is higher than the ratios for other types of businesses. The FILOTs are a tool to lower that rate in exchange for a large capital investment in the county.

“A lot of people think that the FILOT, … we're picking and choosing companies to give that to,” he said. “And the fact of the matter is we have to operate under a state statute with that. We have to use the guidelines for those companies and that FILOT is not available to as many people or as many companies as what folks think.”

Grant DeShields

DeShields, a conservative Christian small business owner and utility contractor, is running on better representation for the common folk on County Council, providing more transparency for why County Council fixes some roads over others and offering better benefits to first responders.

“We don’t need the good ol’ boy system any more with our tax dollars being used for pet projects and selective use of infrastructure needs,” DeShields said. “We need a fighter, somebody that’s in place that will look out for the average man, not just the special interest needs of developers and select few individuals for the use of our tax dollars.”

Like McCorkle, his top priority is infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and water and sewer treatment plants. He’d like the county to create a priority schedule of needs.

“Those kind of fall by the wayside and with the growth of the county as it has been, it needs to be looked at as an overall system,” DeShields said.

He supports the 1 percent sales tax for road work and believes the county has done a good job of providing transparency on spending from that fund, but not with other projects.

He wants the county to better explain the reasons why certain roads get worked on but not others.

“We need a list of items that tells you why we’re doing this, and it needs to be made available to the public,” DeShields said.

He also supports FILOT agreements in principle, but questions whether the county has taken an unbalanced approach to development by overdeveloping industry compared to residential areas.

And he warned that the FILOTs give breaks to larger companies while local companies still pay their full share of taxes.

“I don’t see local companies that are expounding how great it is to pay their fair share of property taxes,” DeShields said. “Everybody’s saying ‘Hey, we’re paying plenty in property taxes. Why should we offer a fee-in-lieu-of-taxes to draw somebody new in when we don’t need the jobs right now?’

Finally, DeShields would like to find ways of helping out the county’s first responders without just pay increases by looking at giving them a better benefit package. But he couldn’t expound on the specifics.

“We need to look at other ways outside of tax money being handed to employees, but also the benefits that we’re able to help them with too, to make a better life for these guys,” he said. “We need to think outside the box.”

Frank Tiller

Tiller, a real estate broker, believes that the county has grown too fast at the expense of its residents, straining local roads, EMS and law enforcement resources.

He believes the FILOT agreements are too generous.

“I’m concerned about this good economy. It’s not going to last forever,” Tiller said. “We’re wide open just running over a cliff. While the real estate developers are doing well, the citizens are left behind to pick up that tax bill.”

Tiller believes the county already has more jobs than can be filled —the April unemployment rate here was 2.8 percent—and would like the county to slow down development by increasing the fees the developers pay as part of FILOTs and shortening their life span to eight years; 30-year agreements are common.

Simultaneously, he would like new companies in the county to pay a fee to help fund road and bridge work, schools and fire stations.

“We’re overbuilt,” Tiller said. “We know growth is inevitable but managed growth must take place. All they do is build, build, build.”

He points to Green Pond as an example. Residents in the rural area face the prospect of Duke Energy running a power line through rural farmland to feed growing demand around Woodford and along the Highway 221 corridor.

He blames County Council for letting the growth happen and says the county needs more comprehensive planning that factors in roads, bridges, water and power. “Something’s broken and needs to be fixed,” he added.

Finally, he doesn’t like the County Council’s practice of voting unanimously on nearly every item on their meeting agendas without much public debate between councilors.

“They’ve already taken care of business not in the public eye,” he said. “And that needs to change.”