Staff reports | House brass and Senate Democrats were in a tizzy Thursday after Senate GOP members banded together and announced a new roads plan to put $400 million in general tax revenues toward roads projects without raising gas taxes. The Senate has been mired in debate over how to fix road infrastructure and reform state transportation agencies.
House Speaker Jay Lucas (R-Darlington) called the move to a “Band-aid,” as the DOT has said that $400 million would only maintain the current roads system. The DOT has also said that it needs $1.43 billion for the next 29 years just to get the state roads system up to a “good” rating.
A leading Democrat, state Sen. Vincent Sheheen of Camden, issued an online “fraud alert,” saying his Republican colleagues “conspired” with Gov Nikki Haley to kill a separate roads bill in that chamber. Sheheen said that not only would the $400 million not fix the roads, but also it was supposed to go to “teacher pay raises, cutting college tuition, and lowering property taxes.”
Lucas said the Senate amendment “simply kicks the can further down the road and frankly, into a pothole.”
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!