Editorials from across South Carolina: road improvements, how we talk, state employee pay raises

Road improvements

Not surprisingly, reforming the state Department of Transportation and improving the state’s infrastructure lead the agenda the (S.C.) Chamber shared in a recent meeting with the Editorial Board.

On this, the Chamber is definitely on the right track, joining the chorus of voices calling for an increase in the state’s gasoline tax along with DOT reform that brings more accountability to infrastructure decisions.

The Chamber hasn’t identified a specific figure for an increase in the gasoline tax that hasn’t been raised since 1987, but it says the state needs to find an additional $600 million a year for its infrastructure budget.

It would be encouraging to hear the Chamber advocate for a tax increase without the corresponding income tax cut that Gov. Nikki Haley has proposed and many legislative Republicans support. Instead, the Chamber says income tax relief is politically vital to passage of a gas tax increase.

Such a plan may be an acceptable fallback position, but it would be preferable to hear business leaders emphasize the importance of fixing the state’s substandard highways, period.

How we talk

Charleston has been named the most courteous city several times. New analysis suggests those good manners are used throughout South Carolina, the most courteous state.

If, indeed, we pepper our language with “please” and “thank you” more than other states, perhaps that explains why we’re the third-slowest-speaking state. …

Marchex, an analytics firm that conducted the studies, does note that the fastest-talking are not necessarily the wordiest. That distinction goes to New York, followed by California and New Jersey. South Carolina is chatty, too, but can’t keep up with those.

The least wordy? Oklahoma, Kansas and Wisconsin.

We also are in the middle of the pack when measured for profanity. Somewhere between Washington and Massachusetts, where they are comparatively swear-free, and Ohio and Maryland, where they turn the telephone lines blue.

The Atlantic’s online site reported on these studies recently and surmised that talking slowly is sometimes equated with being inferior intellectually. But perhaps we take our time speaking because South Carolina isn’t as impatient as people in Kentucky, Ohio and North Carolina, who top that list.

State pay raises

(T)he state’s Agency Head Salary Commission voted to give 2- and 5-percent pay hikes to 37 leaders of public agencies and colleges. … The right thing to do? Well, you’ll have to decide that. While the total amount distributed might be considered chump change — $215,000 — out of the state’s coffers, it might well be hard for some of us to justify it when we see state college tuition climbing by 3 percent or more on a near-annual basis, or when we see that our lawmakers cannot get together for years on end to fix our crumbling roads and bridges.

Sure, we have to pay to keep the talent, a message that resonates from the local level on up. But it’s the taxpayers who are paying, and — well, sometimes we don’t know if the rewards are truly justified. Nothing against University of South Carolina president Harris Pastides, but are we really to believe, as Sen. Hugh Leatherman wants us to, that we cannot find a worthy president for less than nearly $820,000 a year? The state’s portion of his salary is being bumped by the largest amount, sending the taxpayers’ portion of his tab to about $313,000 a year. The college foundation supplements the rest, thank goodness. Bet there are a few taxpayers who are giving their all at their jobs and who, even with excellent performance evaluations in their files, are not getting any pay boost this year.

This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 12:36 PM.