Post and Courier on infrastructure funding

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The Charleston paper had a commonsense editorial Sunday on road funding. The thrust, basically, is that pols need to stop tiptoeing around what needs to be done, and what needs to be done is to raise the gas tax. Excerpts:

Gov. Nikki Haley has a plan for highway funding that is long on promise and short on details. So far, the only known fact about the plan itself is that it won’t include a tax hike.

And the road funding plan won’t be announced until January, after the November election. Why not provide all the details now and have the highway issue become a meaningful part of the debate between Gov. Haley and her Democratic challenger, state Sen. Vincent Sheheen?…

So many legislators have signed the “no-tax pledge” that road advocates have been pitching a badly needed gas tax hike as a user fee increase. So far the hardheads in the Legislature haven’t been willing to recognize the dire need for road and bridge improvements….

But calls for SIB reform, or further improvements to DOT governance, shouldn’t obscure the general need for additional road funding. Or the fact that a gas tax increase is the best way for South Carolina to provide it.

If the governor has a better plan, we shouldn’t have to wait until January to hear about it.

All of that said, let me say one thing in the incumbent governor’s defense — maybe, sorta, kinda: Maybe the reason she won’t say what her plan is before the election is that she actually wants to do the responsible thing — raise the gas tax.

Oh, but wait — she said it won’t include a tax increase. So, never mind… I was just reaching here for something to be hopeful about…

5 thoughts on “Post and Courier on infrastructure funding”

  1. Brad Warthen Post author

    Not that y’all are interested, but here’s another editorial taking the governor to task on this subject, this one from the Aiken Standard. An excerpt:

    South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley may have what South Carolina needs to fix our crumbling roads and bridges, but she’s not telling us until January. All we know after her announcement last week is that she’s working on a plan that will be a road map for future infrastructure funding, and that it won’t include a tax increase.

    At this point, it is a clear campaign ploy on her part and a decision that doesn’t help move our state forward when it comes to finding a comprehensive, long-term plan.

    We need collaboration on an issue of this magnitude, but the governor is indicating she won’t start that dialogue until after the election. Her plan may be an effective fix, but to keep this mystery plan under wraps for six months is almost inexplicable….

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    1. Kathryn Fenner

      Extreme seniors, in fact. 85+
      Folks who probably buy next to nothing outside of a drug store….

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      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        Oh, you have to be 85+.

        For a minute there, I was wondering where my tax credit was…

        I’ve been AARP age for a decade now, but my Dad is just barely old enough (85 years and seven months yesterday) to get that credit, and my Mom is still too young…

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