Gas-tax advocates launch ad featuring GOP icons Reagan, Campbell

Gas-tax hike advocates have launched a web advertisement featuring GOP icons Ronald Reagan and Carroll Campbell.

“These two proud, conservative icons recognized the need to invest in our infrastructure and pay for it in a responsible manner,” Bill Ross, spokesman for the S.C. Alliance to Fix Our Roads, said in a statement. “Both knew the cost of doing nothing was higher than a small increase in the gas tax, which would save drivers money in the long-term.”

In the ad, former President Reagan — from a 1982 address — says: “The bridges and highways we fail to repair today will have to be rebuilt tomorrow at many times the cost.”

The ad also references late S.C. Gov. Campbell, who was governor in 1987, when South Carolina last raised its gas tax. That increase was to the current 16.75 cents-a-gallon, now the second lowest in the nation.

The ad launched Monday. The S.C. Senate is set to return to Columbia Tuesday and start discussing whether to increase the state’s gas tax to pay for road repairs.

This story was originally published April 17, 2017 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Gas-tax advocates launch ad featuring GOP icons Reagan, Campbell."