Haley takes aim at House, Senate road proposals

Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday she would veto both the House and Senate proposals to repair South Carolina’s battered roads.

Undeterred, a House panel passed a proposal that would increase the state’s gas tax by the equivalent of 10 cents a gallon. It also proposes increasing the state’s current cap on its sales tax on vehicles to $500 from $300.

In letters that she sent to House and Senate leaders, Republican Haley said both the House and Senate proposals amounted to “a massive tax increase” on S.C. residents.

House Ways and Means chairman Brian White, R-Anderson, said he hoped the governor would rethink her veto threat. “I would hope that the governor would reconsider vetoing what the folks of the state are saying they want – which is their roads fixed.”

The Senate’s roads proposal, sponsored by state Sen. Ray Cleary, R-Georgetown, likely will include a 12-cent-a-gallon gas-tax hike and increasing the fees on driver’s licenses, bought every 10 years, to $50 from $25. Cleary also proposes levying a $60-a-year fee on hybrid vehicles, a $120-a-year fee on alternative-fuel vehicles and increasing the cap on the state’s sales taxes on vehicles to $600.

Senators plan to continue debating that proposal Wednesday.

Legislators say the added money is needed to raise the billions more in added revenue that the state needs to repair its roads and bridges.

Haley had proposed a tax-swap deal — increasing the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon to pay for road repairs but cutting the state’s top-end income tax rate by 2 percentage points to 5 percent.

Critics said that deal would gut state revenues, forcing cuts in spending on education, health care and law enforcement.

Cleary, who sponsored the Senate proposal, addressed Haley’s letter and road-funding proposal Tuesday during a Senate meeting, saying: “Her way will not be able to be passed by the Legislature.”

White said S.C. residents and businesses are demanding the state’s roads be fixed.

The president of Michelin North America has said that company will not open a new plant in South Carolina until its roads are fixed, White said. “He didn’t say he wasn’t going to locate another plant in South Carolina unless we cut the income tax.”

Still, in an effort to meet Haley’s insistence on a tax swap, White has proposed his own tax cut — adjusting the state’s income tax brackets, a move that would save the average taxpayer about $48 a year.

White said his proposed tax cut is responsible for the state and its citizens.

The full Ways and Means Committee will take up the roads and income tax proposals Thursday before the House goes on a two-week furlough.

This story was originally published March 24, 2015 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Haley takes aim at House, Senate road proposals."