Voters in three of South Carolina’s Charlotte metro counties will decide the fate of nearly $1 billion in school bond referendums this election. School districts in Lancaster, Chester, and York counties are looking to expand capacity and enhance security features in campus buildings.

Meanwhile voters in Chesterfield County are being asked to renew the county school district’s penny sales tax to help fund upgrades to athletic facilities, general renovations, and expanded classroom and cafeteria spaces.

Lancaster

The largest of the referendums on the ballot is in Lancaster, where the county school district is seeking $588.15 million, mostly for the construction of four new school buildings. The district serves almost 16,000 students in 22 schools; it is looking to add an elementary school and a high school to fast-growing Indian Land (which would use $315.6 million of the bond funds); a new elementary school in Lancaster ($113.45 million); and a new elementary school in Kershaw ($95 million).

An additional $37.6 million is earmarked for districtwide facilities upgrades, while $26.5 million would pay for security, safety, and facilities upgrades in the Buford community.

The tax impact on voters, should the referendum pass, would be about $65 per year for every $100,000 of assessed property value of an owner-occupied home, and per every $10,000 of assessed vehicle value. That tax would bump to $92 per year $100,000 of assessed value of non-owner-occupied residential properties.

Chester

In Chester, voters will decide on $227 million that would fund a pair of new high schools and upgrades to another.

The new high schools would replace the current buildings in Chester and Lewisville. The upgrades would be made at Great Falls High School.

The money raised by the referendum would cover most of the costs of the projects. According to information published by the district, the referendum would pay $99.1 million towards the new high school in Chester and $100.15 million towards the new high school in Lewisville. The remaining $16.8 million to complete both projects would be paid for by the district’s capital funds – which would pay for a theater and a gym at each location.

The tax impact, according to the district, would be $230 annually per $100,000 of assessed home value, plus $34.50 for every $10,000 of assessed vehicle value. The owner of a home valued at $100,000 and a vehicle valued at $10,000, therefore, would pay an additional $264.50 per year in taxes, if the bond referendum passes.

That is a big if, however. Chester voters have denied three successive bond referendums, in 2018, 2020, and 2022.

District spokesman Chris Christoff said that following the 2022 referendum, voters stated that they had felt the district was trying “to do a little too much at one time.” In response, the district launched a series of listening sessions this past spring.

“We asked, if we were to pursue a fourth referendum, what would you want to see,” Christoff said.

A follow-up survey asked whether voters understood the capacity, security, and facilities conditions issues in the district. According to the district, about 80% of the roughly 1,000 respondents said they better understood what they would be voting on, which is a scaled-down slate of projects that no longer include athletics expansions or work to the district career center.

If the referendum fails this round, Christoff said, the district will spent about $20 million of its own capital funds to replace the roofs at Great Falls and Chester high schools, plus other funds to buy additional modular classrooms in Lewisville – the fastest-growing area of the school district, he said.

Chester County School District serves about 5,500 students, which is up from about 5,100 students in 2018-19.

York

The smallest referendum on the ballot for Pee Dee voters this election is a $90 million bond that would pay for a new middle school and expansion and renovations to a learning center in York County School District 1, in York.

According to the district, four elementary schools and one middle school are between 80% and 90% capacity in a district that continues to grow along with the Charlotte metro. As of March, almost 2,400 new homes in the City of York are on tap from development plans in place, according to the district

Therefore, the district maintains, a new middle school is needed to meet that growth as elementary students age up.

The district also wants to renovate its Pinckney Street Learning Center/York One Academy to become an early childhood center.

The tax impact on voters would be $36 additional per year for every $100,000 of assessed home value; $54 per year for every $100,000 of assessed value on second or rental properties; and $945 per year for every $1 million of assessed business property value.

Moore’s attorney describes a formerly addicted man who is now a devout Christian, a good father and a changed man. Only the governor can stop the execution now.

The last Black man on South Carolina’s death row to be convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury, according to his attorney, is set to be executed for killing a convenience store clerk during an alleged robbery in 1999.

Richard Moore is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Friday for the death of James Mahoney. If it moves forward, that will make Moore the second inmate executed in the state in a five-week period following a more than decade-long break in the death penalty in South Carolina. Moore also would become the 21st inmate executed in the U.S. in 2024.

Not only does the death sentence imposed by an all-white jury raise serious questions about whether Moore got a fair shake in the South Carolina court system, his attorney argues that Moore was unarmed when he walked into the convenience store and wasn’t even there to rob it.

“This isn’t the worst of the worst,” his attorney, Lindsey Vann, told USA TODAY. “This isn’t the premeditated cold-blooded killing you think of when you think of the death penalty.”

Moore said recently that he prays for forgiveness from Mahoney’s family.

“I hate it happened. I wish I could go back and change it,” a tearful Moore said as part of his request for clemency to the governor. “I took a life. I took someone’s life. I broke a family.”

Here’s what you need to know about Moore’s execution, who he killed and why Moore’s trial judge, two jurors and the former director of South Carolina’s corrections department all believe he deserves clemency from Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.

What was Richard Moore convicted of?

Moore was convicted of fatally shooting James Mahoney on Sept. 16, 1999, at Nikki’s Speed Mart in Spartanburg, a city in northern South Carolina.

At trial, prosecutors told jurors that Moore confronted Mahoney with the intent to rob Nikki’s, even though he was unarmed, according to coverage of the trial from the Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY Network.

It was Mahoney who drew a .45-caliber gun, after which Moore overpowered and disarmed him. Moore then shot a customer, Mahoney drew another gun, and a shootout ensued, prosecutors said. Mahoney was killed and Moore was hit in the left arm, the Greenville News reported.

Moore ended up leaving the store with $1,400 in cash after dripping blood on Mahoney while stepping over him, and then tried to buy crack cocaine at a nearby home, prosecutors said.

Moore’s attorney argues that he wasn’t robbing the store and a confrontation only arose after Moore was pennies short of being able to pay for his purchases and refused to leave the store.

The jury convicted Moore of murder and sentenced him to death.

He has previously been scheduled for execution twice. It was first scheduled in 2020, but South Carolina didn’t have the lethal injection drugs to carry it out. It was then scheduled for 2022, when Moore was set to be killed by a firing squad, but his attorneys were able to delay it after challenging the constitutionality of the method.

Who is Richard Moore?

“Richard is a devoted Christian father, grandfather, and friend to many, who has reformed his life in the 25 years since his arrest,” his attorney, Lindsey Vann, wrote in his clemency petition. “Like anyone who grows in their walk with Christ, Richard recognized the sins of his past and has sought forgiveness for his mistakes and how they hurt others.”

Moore’s two children, who are now in their 30s, said in a clemency video that he has been a good father to them despite being behind bars since then were 4 and 6 years old.

“I have only ever known my dad as a great father,” his daughter, Alexandria Moore, said in Moore’s clemency request to McMaster. “That’s the only picture I have of him, as giving me copious amounts of love, he has never made me feel anything but incredibly loved and special and I’m grateful for that.”

Moore has taken up painting in prison and likes to do landscapes, Vann said.

Back when the crime happened, Vann said in the clemency petition that Moore “was a man who loved his family and wanted to support them, but who also struggled with a drug addiction that had plagued him since his teenage years growing up outside of Detroit, Michigan.”

She said that addiction cost Mahoney’s life and Moore’s freedom but that Moore “was finally able to break free” of his addiction in prison and has led a good, clean life behind bars.

“We − neither Richard nor his counsel − do not seek to minimize the immense grief and suffering the Mahoney family has experienced over the past 25 years,” she wrote. “His life was cut short and his family lost him forever. But Richard’s death will not undo that harm. Instead, it would remove a loving and supportive presence from the lives of his family and loved ones.”

During the penalty phase of Moore’s trial, prosecutor Trey Gowdy told jurors that Moore had repeatedly assaulted multiple women over the years and had previously been convicted on weapons and burglary charges in the 1980s.

Michelle Crowder testified that Moore punched her in the neck in 1991 and kicked her repeatedly in the head and back as he tried to steal her purse. He then severely beat her fiancé, who had come to her rescue, she testified.

“He’s had chance after chance after chance,” Gowdy said. “James Mahoney had no chance.”

Other voices requesting reprieve for Richard Moore

Among those who believe Moore’s life should be spared in favor of life in prison include his trial judge, two jurors and the former director of South Carolina’s corrections department, according to Moore’s clemency package to McMaster.

“I hope that Governor McMaster will give Richard sort of the rest of his life to continue to pour into the lives of others,” said Jon Ozmint, who believes in the death penalty and is the former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, which carries out the state’s executions.

“He’s a changed man,” Ozmint said.

Retired Circuit Court Judge Gary Clary, who imposed the death sentence, also asked McMaster to grant clemency.

“Over the years, I have studied the case of each person who resides on death row in South Carolina,” he wrote. “Moore’s case is unique, and after years of thought and reflection, I humbly ask that you grant executive clemency to Mr. Moore as an act of grace and mercy.”

Who is James Mahoney?

Mahoney’s family has not responded to a request for interviews made through the state’s Attorney General’s Office.

They testified in court during the penalty phase of Moore’s trial that the 42-year-old Mahoney was a doting uncle and an avid NASCAR fan.

“I miss his future with us,” Kathy Pinson, Mahoney’s younger sister, said through tears. “I miss the holidays. I miss him coming over on Sundays … to hear him knock on my back door and say, ‘Hey sis, what’s for supper?’ I’ll never hear that again.”

When is Richard Moore’s execution?

Moore is set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. ET Friday at at the Broad River Correctional Institute in Columbia, South Carolina.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Moore’s request for a stay of execution on Thursday.

The last means of a reprieve for Moore lies with McMaster.

Contributing: Tom Langhorne, Terry Benjamin II

South Carolina comes out of their bye week to take on the number one team in the SEC standings, the Aggies of Texas A&M. Last time we saw the Gamecocks, they were fresh off a dominant defensive performance against Oklahoma. As they enter the final stretch of their season, can South Carolina pull off the upset or will the Aggies continue to separate themselves in the conference?

Coming off a big win ove the LSU Tigers, Texas A&M is riding high this week as they travel to Columbia, South Carolina. Like the Gamecocks, the Aggies deploy a strong defense under new head coach Mike Elko, but an intriguing offense that could give South Carolina issues. The Aggies currently have two quarterbacks who offer different styles of play, but both have been effective at times so far this season. The Gamecocks will have to play a clean game on both sides of the ball to come away with a win on Saturday.

In a matchup that has a lot on the line for btoh squads on Saturday night, here’s how the SI Staff believes this one shakes out:

Alex Joyce: South Carolina 27, Texas A&M 24
I’ve gone back and forth on this game for a while now. I expect to see both Marcel Reed and Conner Weigman play on Saturday, but genuinely believe that Reed playing favors the Gamecocks defense more. South Carolina has one of the best defenses in the conference with veterans loaded everywhere. Offensively, the Gamecocks have to limit turnovers. That has been a big ask this season, but you can’t afford mistakes against this Aggie team. Ultimately, I think South Carolina plays complementary football on Saturday night. That combined with what will be an exciting home crowd and a little Beamer Ball, the Gamecocks pull off the upset for the signature win of the season at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Jonathan Williams: Texas A&M 30, South Carolina 24
South Carolina has certainly proved they are more than capable of competing with the top teams in this conference, however, this game boils down to the Aggies defense for me. I think both defenses are going to make plays on Saturday, but Texas A&M’s defensive front against South Carolina’s offensive line is the keynote matchup. I think the Aggies are going to cause some problems for the Gamecocks to cleanly operate on offense, and that’s going to be the deciding factor for this game.

Fisher Brewer: South Carolina 28, Texas A&M 21
The Gamecocks are riding a wave of positive momentum and have plenty of bulletin board material to fuel them in this matchup. Heading into a high-energy night atmosphere against a strong Texas A&M team, I believe South Carolina will come away with the win, making up for games they narrowly missed earlier in the season. Their defense has shown impressive ability to contain dual-threat quarterbacks, successfully limiting some of the nation’s most elite, which could be a key factor in this game.

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