WILL IT BE ENOUGH TO STOP A MASSIVE TAX HIKE?
|| By FITSNEWS || Lawmakers and S.C. governor Nikki Haley appear to be tacking every-so-slightly to the right on some important fiscal issues as a contentious 2015 session of the S.C. General Assembly winds down … with fiscally conservative S.C. Senator Tom Davis dominating the debate.
Davis has been filibustering in the S.C. State Senate for the past few days against a gasoline tax increase – arguing the state has more than enough money to adequately fund its roads and bridges. He’s absolutely correct: And his argument was further buttressed late last week when it was revealed an additional $400 million in new revenue was likely to be certified by the state’s Revenue and Fiscal Affairs (RFA) office.
Now Haley – who has done next-to-nothing to blunt legislative spending over the last four years – has come out in support of earmarking this new revenue toward road maintenance, debt reduction or tax relief.
Good for her … and good for lawmakers like Katrina Shealy and Eric Bedingfield, who joined Haley in standing with Davis.
Will it be enough to kill a tax hike?
We’ll see … let’s not forget there are some incredibly powerful special interests pushing to raise the state’s gas tax, and Haley has previously shown little backbone on this issue.
South Carolina’s “leaders” have tried all sorts of gimmicks this year in an effort to pump more money into the state’s chronically mismanaged highway bureaucracy. First there was Haley’s proposed swap – which backtracked on her 2014 campaign promise not to raise the gas tax. Then there was some attempted trickeration from the S.C. House (which ultimately passed a $427 million hike). That was followed by this proposed $800 million tax hike from the S.C. Senate finance committee.
The most recent proposal? Yet another tax swap offered by the S.C. Senate “Republican” Caucus – which we exclusively reported on and then exposed for what it was (another tax hike).
Our position from the beginning of this debate – through all the smoke and mirrors – has been clear: No new taxes. Especially not on dirt poor citizens who already pay a greater percentage of their income on fuel than residents of every other state save Mississippi and West Virginia.
There’s no need for it in a budget of $25.7 billion (and growing), and our people simply cannot afford it.
What is there a need for? Spending restraint …
“While the Palmetto State’s roads and bridges crumble, its lawmakers continue to pass record-setting budgets,” we wrote earlier this year. “Included therein? Billions of dollars for South Carolina’s worst-in-the-nation government-run school system, its duplicative and inefficient higher education system, bailouts for wealthy corporations, shady ‘economic development‘ deals and … lest we forget … dozens of exorbitantly expensive and totally unnecessary highway projects.”
We’re glad Davis has finally stood up (literally, for hours on end) and said “enough is enough.” And we’re gratified to see he’s getting some support in that effort …
Let’s hope it’s enough to defeat this unnecessary, economically harmful gas tax hike once and for all ..
(Pic: Via Will Whitson Twitter)
22 comments
Good for Mr Davis!!!! This is what some of us have thought and said, all along. They take more than enough from us under threat of force to do what needs doing. They just need to spend it properly, rather than on their cronies and themselves.
That has ALWAYS been Haley’s position.Fits likes it now because DEMOCRAT Tom Davis is out front on it.
Now fc, you know I love all kinds of positions. Will Folks probably knows best. Oh my!
Now I still want to raise taxes, so make sure you keep telling everyone how their taxes need to go up! LMAO!!!
Tom Davis proved he is really a card carrying Democrat when he sold his vote to Jean Toal. Davis is a Democratic Party Toalite whore.
Come visit us in the tomato fields in Dale. Tom, you know where we are. Turn right in Lobeco.
Sic,
Why did you stop investigating SCDOT and where the Federal and local money went? You do know this and the penny sales tax is just a bailout of SCDOT and trying to hide all the money people have stolen from the fund.
“slush fund”
No voter in their right mind should want one penny sent to the wasteful and corrupt road building and financing scheme of SC.
We all want better roads. Fraud waste and abuse will keep us from having it! Clean up the infrastructure bank and the DOT…and then we will have good roads!
^ Yes!!!!!! ^
What he said!!!!!!!!!
How many of the senate taxsuckers are in favor of increasing the taxes on fuels and food?
Got names? Any of those turkeys sticking their heads up?
That stupid shit Bedenfield looks like if you gave him a musket he would lead Picketts’ 2nd Charge.
Surely do love this state. They waste money on everything, but the one thing we all want, better roads, just isn’t worth it. Whatever!! Davis is just making a fuss so he can grandstand and seem like HE cares. Gimme a break!!!
Reading comprehension fail, Logic.
In case you missed it, the whole point of this article is that there is sufficient money to fix this problem (allegedly, at least). Specifically, there is a surplus of $400M. However, the call to action was to properly allocate the money in furtherance of . . . “better roads.”
I call Will out on his BS plenty. But in this case, the author is urging the state to properly allocate the existing resources in furtherance of . . . “better roads.” No part of the article argues that we shouldn’t spend money to fix roads.
No, I comprehended the article just fine. Just not falling for the Ali rope-a-dope, don’t look over here trick of magic $$$$ floating around COLA.
Yep, did it three times just to make sure
Every time I clicked on the photo of the assembled Cockroaches my sphincter began to cramp up
It may not be tomorrow or even next week but there is no doubt I am going to get it in the end
Pave the damn roads you payday-grubbing felons and if you think we’re dead
We’ll do to you what we’ll do to Boehner-loving Joe Wilson–next to go out on his head !!!
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1) fixing the roads is not a one-time proposition, contrary to the way it seems it must have been done last time
2) gas tax spreads the burden of road maintenance to all that use the roads, including drivers from out-of-state, especially truck drivers, whose vehicles do the most damage
3) tying up the General Assembly so that nothing gets done is not a strategy for effective governance, no matter who’s getting her 14-year-old daughter a job on Arsenal Hill.
As taxpayers we have a duty not to allow our money to be spent in wasteful ways. If we allow them to tax us and waste more of our money it is our problem not theirs. We will continue to have bad roads, and then they will ask for more of our good money,
It is a vicious cycle. Only the taxpayer can stop it.
Next year is an election year. Lets wipe the Senate clean of the big spenders.
We need the roads to be repaired and not a single cent to USC for another Pastides building project or a tax funded baseball or basketball project – enough of the soviet-style educrat waste. Benjamin and Pastides need to follow Pinson,
Second that – USC’s double- dipping is disgraceful! Poor little public school with billion$ endowment, cuddling student-athletes where’re they can. Is there anything but mediocre sports going on over there?
Speaking of USC, buried in its budget is $$$ for something called the “Small Business Development Center”, which its own people admit is a useless organization that doesn’t do anything for small businesses that other publicly-funded groups and private organizations don’t already do. They also seem to be having a hard time hanging onto people because of its oppressive management. Moreover, this group is supposed to counsel small businesses when most of its people have never even run a business themselves!! How stupid is this!! SBDC seems to like holding statewide “meetings” at places like the Greenville Westin on Main Street, in Myrtle Beach, and at resorts near Hilton Head complete with excursions to Charleston, all paid for by taxpayers. SBDC folks who complain about these costs or their organizational usefulness are hunted down and terminated. It’s CEO has an office at USC but SBDC has nothing to do with USC. Yet, all these SBDC folks are state employees!! It’s time for real line item analysis (are you listening Gov. Haley?) and cut SBDC and other types of useless, duplicative programs that exist and suck $$$ by saying they are “economic development” or “education” related. Hell, we have so many “education” study groups in the Upstate alone that we should be No. 1 in the nation (rather than 48) in education!! Enough is enough!