Lawmakers want more money for S.C. roads
South Carolinians might be asked to pay higher taxes to soothe some of the pain of highway congestion and pave the way for a growing population on aging asphalt, two state lawmakers told a business group here Wednesday. S.C. Rep. B.R. Skelton, R-Pickens, said he would prefer to raise the gasoline tax by a nickel per gallon.
S.C. Sen. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, said he would prefer the S.C. General Assembly pony up $200 million a year from the state’s general fund of taxes to give some catch-up money to the S.C. Transportation Department, which manages $1.4 billion a year in state and federal transportation money.
More likely, they agreed, S.C. drivers will pay the same 16 cents per gallon they’ve been doling out since 1987, the last year the major source of the state’s road funds was increased. That’s because Gov. Mark Sanford opposes any tax increase from one source without a tax decrease from another source. Overriding a Sanford veto requires a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate, a level of support unlikely to be mustered for a tax increase, Skelton said.
Whatever the source, the state needs to find a way to put more money into its roads and prepare for a future when more people get to work or stores by train or buses, Skelton and Verdin on Wednesday told a group of Upstate business and political leaders, who had gathered for a transportation summit sponsored by the Greenville and Spartanburg chambers of commerce.
Sanford agrees there are unmet transportation needs in the state, but he won’t support giving the Transportation Department more money unless it is put under his control, spokesman Joel Sawyer said. The department is run by a group of six commissioners appointed to four-year terms by state legislators. Any change in that arrangement would have to be approved by the state House and Senate.
A report issued earlier this month by the S.C. Legislative Audit Council said the agency might have saved about $50 million out of $253 million in construction-management contracts if the agency had struck bargains more favorable to taxpayers.
At the transportation summit, about a dozen engineers and administrators talked about needs to spend more money to improve the state’s network for planes, trains, buses and cars. Some said state and local agencies are turning away millions of dollars each year in federal funds because they are unwilling to provide the required matching funds. Verdin, a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, said the General Assembly will try to find more money for roads when the session starts in January.