• Bill raises taxes on gasoline and motor vehicle sales.
• Enacts a roughly $360 million tax hike next year.
• Allows Infrastructure Bank to fund more projects, not fewer.
• Gives Infrastructure Bank $50 million more in annual funding.
• Does nothing to alter the Bank’s emphasis on new construction.
• Maintains legislature’s influence over DOT Commission.
• Imposes ineffectual moratorium on new road construction.
• Makes devolution of roads back to counties optional, thus pointless.
[This analysis has been updated to reflect minor modifications made before the House passed the bill on April 15.]
H.3579 is the roads plan originally put forward by the Ad Hoc House Infrastructure Committee chaired by Rep. Gary Simrill (R-York). The bill has since been amended by the full House Ways and Means Committee. Many of the provisions of the new bill are essentially the same as those of the ad hoc committee plan. Unfortunately, however, the changes imposed by the Ways and Means committee are overwhelmingly for the worse.
Continue reading this story at The SC Policy Council.