Monday letters: Senate road plan fails state

The roads and bridges in our state did not fall into disrepair overnight, but as the result of a long effort at mismanagement and neglect.

For years, South Carolina has been led by politicians whose only claim to fame is that they can cut spending, as could any fifth-grader. It takes wisdom and skill to cut wisely, without negatively impacting our state. However, that detail is of no consequence to those who have pretended to lead us. They stay in power with false promises, deceit and gamesmanship, and the voters keep sending them back.

Republicans in the Senate took another swing at us when they gutted what was an already-inadequate roads bill. The reality is that it will take money to fix our roads, and lots of it. The fairest and most rational approach would be to get the needed funds from those whose use of the roads causes the problem, proportional to their use of the roads — in other words, a tax on fuel. But instead of raising the gas tax and lifting the sales tax on their donors’ luxury cars, they chose to take money that was desperately needed for teacher pay raises, cutting college tuition and lowering property taxes, and other needs.

It is past time for the voters to rethink their prejudices and start electing politicians who are capable of leading us into the future instead of allowing us to fall further behind as our state and its roads continue to crumble.

This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 4:42 AM with the headline "Monday letters: Senate road plan fails state."