House vote to Pass the Gas Tax Increase

The House of Representatives voted to raise the gas tax in South Carolina by ten cents a gallon, raise the sales tax on vehicles and nearly double the registration fees for cars. There were no tax “off-sets” included in the Houses version of the gas tax bill, amounting to a straight tax hike of hundreds of millions of dollars a year on South Carolinians.

Supporters of this bill claimed that the money raised would go to repair roads that need it the most while giving the Governor control of the Department of Transportation. Neither of these claims were true.

The new revenue from the tax and fees would have gone to a newly created “Infrastructure Maintenance Trust Fund.” However, money from this fund could be used to pay of debt that the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank (a politically controlled entity that funnels money to only a few select counties). Any funds that go to the STIB do not go to repair existing roads. Additionally the legislature would still have played a large part in the DOT Commission approval process. Both the House and the Senate would be required to approve the DOT Commissioners.

Representatives, listed below, that voted for this bill ignored South Carolinian’s demands to truly reform the Department of Transportation by eliminating the DOT Commission and making the Director accountable to the Governor while not increasing the gas tax.