The free lunch bunch
By Tom Sullivan
Image via Lexington County Chronicle.
Today opens a new session for the S.C. General Assembly, but much of its business dates from previous years, even previous decades. The longest running debate is over the state’s gas tax, which hasn’t been increased for 30 years. And the state’s roads show it.South Carolina's House Speaker Jay Lucas, a Republican, described the roads as "the most dangerous roads in the country."
The Legislature has acknowledged highway funding shortcomings in past years with half-measures, including last year’s $2 billion, 10-year repair plan aimed primarily at substandard bridges. But that would meet only a fraction of the highway funding shortfall, estimated at more than $1 billion a year.
A hike in the 16-cent gas tax would provide a regular, dedicated source of increased funding. South Carolina’s gas tax is the second lowest in the nation, even though we have one of the largest state-maintained road networks.
While a lot of people hate the idea of a tax increase, Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, says, “There’s no way to get this done in a revenue-neutral way. And so I ask people all the time, if there’s something that we can cut to come up with these sorts of funds that we know we need to have, tell me what it is. Tell us all what it is, because we sure can’t find it.”Gov. Nikki Haley promised to veto a gas tax increase that did not include an even bigger tax cut.
“The fact that we would borrow the funding to pay back on a later date is somewhat problematic,” says House Majority Leader Rep. Gary Simrill.Paying at a later date is how loans work, Simrill thinks you should know. Meanwhile, McMaster threatens to veto any bill that raises the gas tax.
“You’ve got a net tax cut to South Carolinians,: Hembree told reporters. “You fix the roads permanently. You restore money to the general fund and you increase funding to education.”And if you order before the next bridge collapse, you also get a set of steak knives. No wonder Donald Trump is so popular there.
Hembree said the gas tax increase by two cents per-year until 2025 would target a large number of out-of-state drivers who use South Carolina roads. “So we capture those out-of-state taxpayers, the ones using our roads and not paying their fair share, we scoop them up with the gas tax,” he said.