Gov. Nikki Haley brought reinforcements to a news conference Wednesday to help push her proposal to raise money for fixing the state’s aging roads and bridges through a gas-tax increase coupled with a cut in the income tax.

But House Democrats, who held a counter conference immediately after, noted that the support was coming from Haley’s hand-picked Cabinet members: Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt, Department of Transportation chief Janet Oakley and Department of Parks, Revenue and Tourism Director Duane Parrish. “We are now the state with the highest income tax in the Southeast,” Haley said. “We are now a state that is not going to look as competitive.”

Haley’s plan has been met with mixed reactions. It would raise the tax on gasoline by 10 cents over three years while reducing the state income tax from 7 percent to 5 percent over 10 years. It also calls for restructuring the Department of Transportation.

For the full article click the link below:

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150128/PC1603/150129381/1031/haley-ties-tax-cut-in-roads-plan-to-south-carolina-x2019-s-competitive-edge

Twice each month, Gail Strohmeyer climbs into her Ford pickup and drives 20 minutes south for the cheapest gas she can find. “I refuse to get gas anywhere else than the first BP station crossing the line into South Carolina,” said Strohmeyer, a Gastonia retiree.

She lives near Rhyne Elementary School in Gastonia and said the 10-mile drive makes sense because gas is so much cheaper in South Carolina than anywhere in Gastonia. A proposed change in the Palmetto State could cut into that savings. It exists mainly because South Carolina’s gas tax is 21 cents less per gallon than North Carolina’s.

The Marathon station on U.S. 321 and Gateway Farm Road — barely inside South Carolina — was $1.79 per gallon of regular gas Tuesday. Roughly 5 miles north, a WilcoHess station at York Road and Carson Drive, was selling regular for 17 cents more per gallon. Gastonia’s cheapest gas? The WilcoHess on West Franklin Boulevard, which was at $1.90 per gallon Tuesday.

Read the full article by clicking the link below:

http://www.gastongazette.com/spotlight/sc-gas-prices-could-go-up-1.430199

Richard Shannon moved to South Carolina from Memphis 10 years ago to raise his family. Shannon says he feels right at home in the Palmetto State, but his only complaint is having to drive on bad roads.

“If you’re drinking coffee or something like that, you better make sure you have a top on it,” Shannon said, “because if you don’t, you’re going to have some hot cocoa or coffee all over you.”

Shannon, an Uber driver, spends nearly half of his day on the road since his driving is his primary source of income.

“I have two rims and tires right now that are shredded,” Shannon said. “The rims are no good no more.”

In the past month alone, Shannon says he spent $1,600 on repairs to his BMW. He says the repairs have become par for the course and are affecting his ability to feed his family.

“It’s been at least two weeks that it’s got erased,” Shannon recalled, “where I’ve made good money and I had to put tires and rims back on my car.”

TRIP, a national transportation research group, recently found Columbia drivers are paying$1,250 a year because of bad roads. The state Department of Transportation says they paid out $232,800 for damage claims in 2013 not including payments by the Insurance Reserve Fund. Shannon says he hasn’t filed a damage claim form against DOT, but many others have.

Read the full article by clicking the link below:

http://www.wistv.com/story/27957716/bad-roads-across-south-carolina-costing-state-drivers-thousands-of-dollars

While discussing her tax-swap plan Friday, Gov. Nikki Haley said S.C. taxpayers should be rewarded for the state’s population and job growth.

That plan would cut the state’s income tax – now capped to 7 percent – by 2 percentage points over a decade.

“If ever there was a time to return money back into the pockets of the taxpayers – when our populations are growing, when our businesses are moving in and when we’re seeing the state flourish – now is the time,” Haley said.

Haley pointed to surpluses in state revenues in recent years – about $100 million a year in each of the last three years – as a reason the state can afford to cut individual income taxes.

In exchange for the income tax cut, Haley would increase the state’s gas tax by 10 cents a gallon over the next three years to help pay for repairs to some of the state’s crumbling roads.

Haley unveiled her roads plan during Wednesday’s State of the State address, where she also called for restructuring of the Transportation Department before she would approve the gas-tax increase.

Haley’s income tax cuts would start in 2016, reducing the state’s general fund budget by $119.3 million. By 2025, the cuts would be $1.8 billion a year.

The state’s general fund has increased $1 billion in the past decade, an average of $100 million a year. If revenues continue to increase at that pace, growth would offset 55 percent of the amount Haley wants to cut, before inflation.

How big is $1.8 billion in terms of the general fund budget?

Gov. Nikki Haley sat down with us to explain the tax-swap proposal she announced in her State of the State address Wednesday night. Her three-part plan would raise the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon over three years, cut the state’s top income tax rate from 7 percent to 5 percent over 10 years, and restructure the state Department of Transportation.

Some of you contacted us saying you felt lied to because she said last year that the state could fix its roads and, “We don’t have to raise taxes to do it.” We asked her what changed, and why she’s now proposing a gas tax increase when she said last year it wasn’t needed?

“We studied it, I mean for months and months,” she said. “About $200 million a year in maintenance needs to be done. There was nothing that could pull those kinds of numbers for $200 million a year, and if we were looking for something consistent we had to go this route.”

Her proposed 10-cents-a-gallon gas tax increase would bring in about $300 million a year. The problem is that the SCDOT says it needs about $1.5 billion more a year to bring roads up to good condition. She disputes that number, saying that includes new roads like the proposed I-73.

And while some lawmakers say $300 million more a year for roads isn’t enough to do much good, she says, “We see that it’s more than enough, and I think what we should look at is we have none of that now. Add $400 million a year. Wait several years and tell me if you don’t see a difference. If you need to do something then, then look at it. But right now we’re not seeing that. We think this is going to be good.”

The $400 million figure includes taking the rest of the money raised by the sales tax on vehicles and sending that to the DOT for roads, instead of that money going into the General Fund.

The other part of her plan, to cut the income tax, would save the average taxpayer $689 a year once it’s fully implemented in 2025, according to the Board of Economic Advisors. But lawmakers say that will take $1.8 billion a year out of the state’s General Fund, forcing big cuts to education, health care, and law enforcement.

Read the full article by clicking the link below:

http://www.wbtw.com/story/27928951/sc-gov-nikki-haley-explains-her-tax-swap-proposal

The average S.C. taxpayer would save about $689 on their state income taxes under Republican Gov. Nikki Haley’s tax-swap plan that would cut state income taxes and increase the gas tax.

Those savings would be offset, to a small degree, by having to pay about $66 on average in higher gas taxes.

But don’t start spending your tax savings yet.

The state’s most powerful politician all but declared Haley’s tax-swap proposal dead Thursday.

State Senate President Pro Tem Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, said the loss in state income tax revenue —$1.8 billion in 2025 alone — would force huge cuts to other state programs, including education, public safety and mental health.

The Senate leader also said Haley’s proposed gas-tax increase, which would raise about $3 billion over 10 years, is not enough to address the state’s $15 billion deficit in the money it needs to fix roads and bridges over the next decade.

“We’re not raising enough to fix the problem, but yet we’re eroding our tax base, and that erosion is not a one-time erosion, it will be there year after year, after year,” said Leatherman, who also is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Plans to pay for transportation work in South Carolina are plentiful at the statehouse. State lawmakers are hopeful that they can work out a deal soon to address the additional $1.4 billion needed each year to cover the existing shortfall for road and bridge upkeep.

One option expected to be considered during the five-month session would increase the state’s 16-cent-per-gallon fuel tax rate by 10 cents.

Rep. B.R. Skelton, R-Pickens, sponsored a bill that would raise the tax rate all at once. However, residents would get a state income tax break for the first two years. Afterward, they would pay the same 26-cent tax rate as truckers and other non-residents.

H4563 would raise $335 million a year for roads, but the tax rebate would remove $211 million in new revenue the first two years, leaving the state with about $124 million more a year for roads. After the tax rebate sunsets, the state would get the entire $335 million a year.

Advocates say the switch would raise revenue overall.

However, the plan faces a steep uphill battle. Gov. Nikki Haley has said she would veto any fuel tax increase. Instead, Haley said she will offer a plan to lawmakers by the end of January to help the state address the funding problem.

A related option would lower the state’s existing fuel tax rate to as low as 8.65 cents per gallon. In exchange, the state’s 6 percent general sales tax would be added to fuel.

Read the full article by clicking the link below:

http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=28369#.VMEY3UfF9qg

South Carolina House Democrats on Tuesday announced their agenda for this year, saying fixing the state’s roads and bridges is their top priority. House Minority Leader Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, says they hope and expect to hear Gov. Haley’s plan Wednesday night in her State of the State address.

He says House Democrats are for “all of the above” when it comes to paying to fix our roads.

“All of the above means if the governor comes out with something we’ve never heard of or thought of but it’s going to meet our funding needs, we’ll be for it,” Rep. Rutherford told reporters Tuesday. “If the governor comes out and says she wants to raise gas taxes to pay for it, we’ll be for it. If she wants to do something innovative, like a sliding scale, a larger gas tax now that gas is cheap, one that goes away as gas goes up, we’ll be for it. We are ‘all of the above.’ We simply want her to come out with a plan.”

Read the full article by clicking the link below.

http://www.wltx.com/story/news/2015/01/20/sc-house-democrats-call-for-road-funding-plan/22071695/

We are not sure if increasing the states sales tax would cripple the SC economy but Andy Brack believes it will. Read his story below and decide for yourself what you think of tax increase.

“If a bill being pushed to add a seventh penny of state sales tax to fix roads ends up making it through the legislature, the state would suffer mightily.

Simply put, it’s a dumb idea. Not only would it make the Palmetto State less competitive, but it would catapult South Carolina into having the highest sales tax rate in the Southeast and the second highest in the nation! Imagine an economic recruiter trying to explain that to a prospect who wants to locate here.

The headlines are full of stories about how South Carolina’s road and bridge infrastructure is beyond crumbling and needs an infusion of $1.5 billion of new money every year for three decades to keep up with what we have and deal with traffic. Why? Because we’ve been mostly ignoring the roadways and underfunding them for the past three decades. Now is time for the bill to be paid.

A plan getting significant attention is being pushed by Rep. Gary Simrill, R-Rock Hill, and colleagues on a special House committee. It would restructure the state Department of Transportation, cut the state’s 16.75-cent per gallon user fee on gas, charge sales tax on gas and boost the state sales tax by a penny. Simrill has said the plan would raise about $400 million a year.

But adding an extra penny in a state that prides itself on a competitive platform for business and relatively low taxes overall would send a terrible message to companies looking to move to South Carolina. And it would be more ammunition for retirees to skip South Carolina and head to Florida.

Currently, South Carolina has the nation’s 16th highest sales tax rate nationally and third highest in the Southeast at six pennies out of every dollar, according to the Tax Foundation. Increasing it by a penny would make it second highest nationally and first in the Southeast.

Yikes! Fortunately, there are some good ideas out there competing to be a solution for South Carolina’s road infrastructure crisis.”

To read the full article click the link below.

Brack: 7th cent would cripple S.C.’s growth