Lawmakers will consider a recommendation when they return in January to raise the gasoline tax by 5.5 cents, from 16.75 cents to 22.25 cents a gallon, along with a financial doom-and-gloom message from state Department of Transportation Secretary Buck Limehouse.
Limehouse told lawmakers in a letter he sent Monday that funding is the agency’s biggest challenge. The state gasoline tax pays for road improvements and construction, safety upgrades as well as bridge replacement. That cash is used to pull down federal highway dollars.
Actually, the construction of new and unneeded roads using Federal highway dollars is a HUGE boondoggle, since the budget does NOT have enough money to *properly maintain* the roads.
That’s the real issue. The State transportation department constantly pursues the rabbit of “more Federal highway dollars” at the expense of maintenance — and succeeds in adding *more highway* to maintain, while not maintaining the old highways.
It really turns out to be a ponzi scheme — the transportation department bleating about not having the money to “maintain” while in the meantime building more roads which it does not have the money to maintain.
Of course, the South Carilina government would never think to tax the middle and lower class more… Oh wait, gas tax increases everyone’s taxes, not just on gas but all goods that must be transported.
Sarah,
Amen. The problem is that the biggest contributors to guernatorial campaigns, at least in my state, are usually highway engineers and contractors, and they naturally want to build new roads rather than maintain existing ones. Lots more $$. A former governor once told a gathering I attended that if anyone wanted to know the key to politics in KY he only had to know one word – asphalt.
Well, the SCDOT is the biggest boondoogle in America. I worked there when I was in law school, and when I worked there I was one of about 50 people out of about 500 in the HQ Building that actually worked the whole time I was getting paid. I could go to the break room in the basement at any time from 8 to 5 and about 200 people were always in there and 100 of them pretty much never left. The place was so corrupt that a former governor actually called out the National Guard and surrounded the Department with a machine gun battalion (no, I’m not joking). A few years ago they reorganized the Department and the DMV is now actually pretty efficient, but the same old boys are still running DOT. The first truth is, in SC like most places, no one in government knows how to prioritize and the DOT always assumes Uncle Eagle will step in and solve their problems. We got hundreds of millions from the tobacco settlement in the 1990’s and frittered every penny of it away. Second, the likelihood of a tax increase is pretty small–more like non-existent. We had a sales tax increase a few years ago to reduce the property tax burden on homeowners, and the boys/girls in Columbia want to remove the cap on property taxes and start taxing food and prescription medicine. That dog just ain’t going to hunt around here. Finally, Sarah is right. While we can’t maintain the roads we have, the DOT wants the Federal DOT to pay for a new Interstate from I 95 to Myrtle Beach. It is a multi-billion dollar project because darn near everything from Florence to Myrtle Beach is a swamp.
Actually this may be a smart strategic move by SCDOT. They must see the future trend of their revenue stream if ObamaCars get 65 mpg and if Crap & Trade raises energy costs by 30% or more causing people to drive fewer miles and use less gasoline. What is a DOT guy supposed to do with the big O in the Whitehouse………..
When we drive south from Asheville we usually get gas 10 miles into SC where it is about 10 cents a gallon cheaper. An increase of 5.5 cents a gallon will reduce the savings – and encourage the profligate Democrats in the NC General Assembly to increase the NC tax again. The only effective way to reduce the rate of increase in taxes to starve the government.