"We have a great place to live, we have great school systems, and people want to live here. They’re coming; it’s growing. Without pennies...my personal opinion is without pennies, there’s no way we could keep up with the roads infrastructure. And so, with pennies, we have the opportunity to not only prepare for the future, the citizens of York County who vote on it have a say-so in how we do it," says Jerry Helms, a Pennies for Progress 4 Chairman.
Patrick Hamilton, the Pennies for Progress Program Manager, explains what Pennies for Progress is. He says, it "is a 1 cent sales tax that’s added onto all goods and services in York County. It’s been in place since 1997; that was when the first referendum was passed. Pennies 2 and Pennies 3 have just been continuations of that same tax. So, the tax has been in place for over 20 years, and most people probably don’t know they’re paying it, but it’s been in effect for a whole generation. We collect that revenue and build roads, build projects, intersection improvements, and large highway widening projects. In the past, there’s been gravel road paving. And those projects are identified in the very beginning of the referendum."