York County Council gave final approval Wednesday night to a tax incentive package for Octapharma’s first United States plant, but only after adopting an amendment that steers most of Rock Hill’s share of the project’s revenue, along with a slice of the county’s, to the Rock Hill School District.
The 4-3 vote on third and final reading, at a special called meeting at the York County Heckle Complex in Rock Hill, clears the county’s side of the roughly $1.5 billion plasma manufacturing project. It now returns to Rock Hill City Council, which must decide whether to accept a structure that diverts revenue the city had expected to keep.
The project, known in county documents as Project Palmetto Rock, is projected to create about 1,500 jobs on land the city of Rock Hill owns and would sell to the company, a tract tied to the failed Carolina Panthers headquarters project several years ago. Council members have said repeatedly they support landing the plant. The fight has been over how the three local governments that would otherwise collect property taxes from the site divide the revenue that remains after the incentive.
Why the county met on short notice
Chairwoman Christi Cox opened the meeting by explaining why the county had called it on a few days’ notice. Council learned the Thursday before the holiday break that Rock Hill City Council had passed a resolution 10 days earlier, on June 22, attempting to lock in the percentages that govern how the incentive revenue is allocated, Cox said. That prompted the special called meeting, which the county noticed on Monday.
Cox stressed that the council does not dispute the merits of the Octapharma project, which she tied to the county’s life sciences workforce program and the number and quality of the jobs involved. The debate, she said, has always been about the internal allocation of the money among the taxing entities rather than the size of the incentive itself.
A bid to add public comment fails
Before the council took up the ordinance, Councilman Andy Litten moved to suspend the rules and add 20 minutes of public input, two minutes each for up to 10 speakers, noting the crowd that had turned out. The motion drew a second and an extended debate.
Some members argued that special called meetings follow a set format, that the meeting had not been advertised as a public hearing, and that opening the floor would effectively create one the public had not been told to expect. Two members said they had turned away constituents who asked to speak after being told the agenda allowed no comment period. Others countered that the public had shown up and deserved the same chance to speak the council offers at its regular meetings. The motion failed on a voice vote.
The amendment that passed
Councilman William “Bump” Roddey then moved to approve third and final reading with a set of amendments, and the motion carried 4-3. Roddey was joined in support by Cox, Councilwoman Debi Cloninger and Councilman Tommy Adkins. Vice-Chairman Tom Audette and Councilmen A. Watts Huckabee, Sr. and Andy Litten voted against.
Under the amendment, the ordinance takes effect July 21, 2026, and names Octapharma Plasma as the only company covered. On the money, it provides that after all special source revenue credits and other terms are applied, 85 percent of the city of Rock Hill’s annual allocation would be redirected to the Rock Hill School District for the length of the credit schedule, and the 10 percent of revenue that normally flows to the county’s economic development fund would instead go to the district each year, for the life of the agreement, for capital improvements. County officials have estimated the changes would direct about $80 million to Rock Hill Schools over 40 years.
Roddey said the move was meant to steer more money to schools and break from the practice of every taxing body giving up half its share. Three of the county’s four school districts have come to the county seeking help, he said, and Rock Hill is the district most constrained, without the impact fees that faster-growing districts collect and with tax increment financing to contend with. School boards’ main tools to raise money, he said, are millage increases or bond referendums that fall on all taxpayers, while fee-in-lieu deals hand districts only half of the largest pot of revenue. The county holds the smallest share, he said, and would give up its 50 percent readily while also committing its economic development money to the district.
A competing amendment fails on the same split
Tom Audette offered a competing approach. He moved to approve the fee agreement and special source revenue credits as originally presented, preserving a 40-year term, a 4 percent assessment ratio and a 30-year credit schedule of 50 percent for the first 10 years, 35 percent for the next 10 and 20 percent for the final 10. His amendment would have had the city of Rock Hill and York County each contribute 10 percent of its allocation to the Rock Hill School District for the duration of the agreement, a smaller redirection than Roddey’s.
The amendment was seconded but failed 4-3, with the same members split the same way, the four who backed Roddey’s version voting it down and the three who opposed his version supporting it.
How the split has shifted
The table below shows how the three versions Council has weighed would treat each taxing body’s share of the project revenue.
| Version | City of Rock Hill | York County | Rock Hill Schools |
| Original agreement | Gives up 50 percent of its share | Gives up 50 percent | Gives up 50 percent |
| June 29 amendment, passed 5-2 | Gives up 100 percent | Gives up 50 percent | Reduced to 31.9 percent |
| July 8 revision, passed 4-3 | 85 percent redirected to Rock Hill Schools | 50 percent, plus its 10 percent economic development allocation redirected to Rock Hill Schools | Keeps its share and gains the redirected 85 percent from the city and 10 percent from the county, an estimated $80 million over 40 years |
The original and June 29 figures reflect the Tega Cay Sun’s June 29 coverage; the July 8 figures come from the amendment adopted Wednesday. The precise accounting for each version should be confirmed against the adopted ordinance.
The city’s condition and the standoff
The dispute traces back to a condition Rock Hill City Council attached to its own approval. On June 22, the city council voted 5-0 to give conditional consent to including the Palmetto Research Park property in the York-Chester Industrial Park and to the fee agreement, but only for as long as the city keeps receiving its proportional share of the tax or fee revenue. Because the county’s restructuring redirects most of that share, the city would need to authorize the new terms, the same step required when Costco located in Rock Hill and its revenue distribution changed.
Mayor makes a public plea
Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys pressed the county publicly the day before the vote. In a post on his official Facebook page, Gettys described the county’s earlier amendment as a motion intended to kill the deal and urged council members to reconsider, writing that the city had spent a year building the opportunity and warning, “We get one opportunity like this and no more.”
Gettys also argued that the project’s value runs beyond its tax receipts. He said a data center had wanted the same site and would have paid well and helped the city’s budget, but that he favored the plant because “value is not found in tax receipts.” He cautioned that the city could not rescue the agreement on its own if the county held to its prior position.
What comes next
The decision now rests with Rock Hill City Council, which had backed an earlier version of the agreement on the condition it keep its proportional share and must weigh whether the revised structure meets that test. The city has not announced when it will take the matter up. Rock Hill City Council agendas are posted at cityofrockhill.com the Friday before each meeting.
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Thomas Hyslip lives in Tega Cay with his wife and daughter. After 27 years in the U.S. Army and Federal Law Enforcement, he retired to pursue his passion for teaching. Tom is now an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of South Florida. In 2 short years he has won 10 awards from the South Carolina Press Association, including first place in column writing, education beat reporting and best podcast.
