Friday, July 30, 2021
The SC Senate paved the way for a roads bill debate to begin as early as tomorrow when it passed new abortion restrictions yesterday.
The questions for the roads bill now are how much of a tax increase the SC House and SC Senate agree on and will they have the votes necessary to override a Nikki Haley veto?
Look for a fairly stiff increase in the gas tax as well as an increase in fees for licenses, registrations and the like.
The SC General Assembly turned its attention back to passing a road funding bill this year, but the devil is in the details.
The bill, which began as H. 3579, was set for special order yesterday after a compromise was reached in the SC Senate to move it to priority status for debate.
Much changed since its original version, the bill contains the three elements Gov. Nikki Haley said was needed to avoid a veto – sort of.
The current plan raises the state gas tax by 12 cents per gallon and allows it to be adjusted for inflation in future years. Increases in license and registration fees and raising the sales tax cap on car sales are also included bringing the estimated rise in revenue to approximately $800 million per year.
The bill proposes a decrease of 1% in the state income tax spread over five years. However, the reduction in tax rates would be suspended in any year the projected growth in state revenue is less than 4%.
If the rate is lowered over five years, the estimated tax cut is $700 million.
From 2003-2013, South Carolina’s annual average growth rate was less than 2%, making the possibility of income tax reductions less than certain.
Finally, the bill makes some changes in how the SC Department of Transportation commission is appointed.
While the bill would probably allow for some improvement in funding road maintenance and repairs, it now appears to be more political nonsense than a real effort at fixing the state’s roads.
This is the final week to get bills passed in one chamber of the SC General Assembly for the other chamber to debate them without a two-thirds vote.
In other words, this is the week bills effectively die for this year.
And with the rush to keep legislation alive, I believe road funding will become a dead issue for this year. H 3579 has passed the House, but includes an approximately $400 million tax increase. The Senate is probably amenable to a tax increase for road maintenance.
SC House members amended their road maintenance bill last week to allow county councils the choice of whether to take over maintenance of current state roads.
Instead of County Transportation Committees as first included in the bill (H 3579), it will now be county councils that have the choice whether to accept maintenance responsibility for roads within the county now in the state system.
It would be nice to see County Transportation Committees disbanded with gas tax rebates (C Funds) from the state to the counties directly disbursed to county governments.
Speak Up…