For years at the Statehouse, there’s been a running joke that the House of Representatives, fired by a tempestuous desire to do stuff and be relevant, passed bills relatively quickly, sometimes without much thought. They were considered the equivalent of legislative teen-agers, compared to senators, who saw themselves as the adults of the legislature who cooled the passions of the House.
Now comes the recent effort to pass real road funding and reform. House members last year passed a measure that included a higher tax on gas, something preferred by a majority of South Carolina voters. Senators, however, stalled, hemmed and hawed like the teenagers they used to poke fun at. So the House waited and waited and waited on the Senate.
This week, after about a year, the Senate finally passed a road reform package, but by thwarting a targeted gas tax in favor of using $400 million in general tax revenues — a strategy that critics say steals from other agencies that run public schools, colleges, prisons, social services and more.
House Speaker Jay Lucas clearly wasn’t happy with the Senate’s angst-ridden roads package, which now will go to the House where it just may be rejected, sending the whole thing into a compromise committee for which there may be no compromise.
“The Senate’s deceptive plan to fix our crumbling roads system is irresponsible and prioritizes politics over a sound solution,” Lucas said Thursday. “Not only does their plan mislead the people of South Carolina into thinking that a large pot of general fund money will be available every year for roads, it also practices reckless budgeting that jeopardizes the prosperity of our economy. While I acknowledge the Senate’s governance reform efforts, kicking the can further down the road and into a giant pothole defies the test of real leadership.”
Ways and Means Chairman Brian White, R-Anderson, agreed.
“The Senate’s plan is not a fix for our chronic roads problem,” he said. “It’s a plea for the House to budget them out of their inability to pass a comprehensive roads bill. The House has budgeted hundreds of millions of dollars for roads in the last several years and will continue to do so while we wait on the Senate to get serious about a long-term fix for our roads.”
What many fear is that because the House and Senate have such different solutions, nothing will be done, putting roads, bridges and infrastructure at further peril.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!