This unsuccessful ballot initiative campaign to increase transportation funding was narrowly defeated by a 1.88 margin in the 2010 election.  The plan would have increased Richland County’s general sales tax from seven cents to eight cents, and the initiative would have generated $1 billion over the next 25 years.  The ballot referendum proposed a one-cent local option sales tax to raise funds to support transportation.  This “penny tax” would have used the new revenues to decrease traffic and improve the roads in Richland County.  According to proponents of the measure, over 40 percent of the revenues would have been collected from people who live outside of Richland County.  Although it failed in the November 2010 election, the referendum was passed in the November 2012 election.