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?