Miley: Fixing SC roads and funding state needs isn’t brain science, or rocket surgery

We need to fix our roads with a reliable, user-fee-based funding source. That is, by increasing the per-gallon gas tax.

South Carolina has third-lowest gasoline tax in the country, ranking behind only New Jersey and Alaska. The last time South Carolina’s gas tax was increased was in 1987, when it went up by 3 cents per gallon. The Consumer Price Index shows that prices have doubled since then. Ask any household if things cost the same as they did in 1987.

What we do not need to do is offset a gas tax increase with an income tax cut. We are not a high-tax state. Just last month, the Tax Foundation released its annual State-Local Tax Burdens report, and as usual, South Carolina ranked near the bottom: 42nd in the country and the lowest in the Southeast.

While the state’s economy has grown, the capacity of the state’s revenue system has declined. Fifteen years ago, half all retail sales were taxable. Today, according to the S.C. Department of Revenue, only about 34 percent of all sales are taxed.

It might be OK to remove more revenue from the general fund if we had a high tax burden or if we were funding everything adequately. But neither is the case. The local government fund that helps counties and municipalities hasn’t been fully funded for years. K-12 education hasn’t been fully funded since 2008: By law, the base student cost is supposed to be $2,801 this year, but it’s $2,190. The shortfall is putting more and more pressure on property taxpayers. Of course, since homeowners no longer pay school operating taxes, business owners bear the increased tax burden. The Department of Social Services, DHEC, higher education and other state needs continue to be underfunded as well.

Smart fiscal policy would be to wait until we pay all the important bills we owe before we cut taxes any more in a state that has one of the lowest tax burdens in the country.

To suggest that any road-funding plan has to be “revenue-neutral” is to say that we can fix all our road problems and pay all our bills with no new money. If that’s the case, why haven’t we done that for the past 30 years?

It reminds me of that great rocket surgeon Albert Einstein, who defined “insanity” as doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.

This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 1:21 PM with the headline "Miley: Fixing SC roads and funding state needs isn’t brain science, or rocket surgery."