|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
by WILL FOLKS
***
Not content with passing a massively bloated budget – or providing a mere pittance of relief to less than half of the state’s struggling taxpayers – South Carolina’s so-called “Republican” lawmakers are apparently looking to do even more damage.
With pressure from the public mounting to address the Palmetto State’s abysmally managed infrastructure, faux conservatives in the GOP-controlled Senate and House of Representatives in Columbia, S.C. are responding by pushing massive local tax hikes, new state fees and the expansion of an already bloated, inefficient and unaccountable bureaucracy.
Having previously jacked the state’s gas tax by 71% as part of a demonstrably failed effort to “fix our roads,” lawmakers are now advancing legislation that would drain potentially billions of additional dollars from the economy – while doing nothing to improve accountability over our state’s failed infrastructure bureaucracies.
Does that sound like a recipe for anything other than more expensive failure?
“Taken together, these bills raise taxes and fees, increase long-term debt, expand unelected bureaucracy, reduce transparency, and provide no meaningful reduction in government size,” Anna Herron of Palmetto State Watch noted in a recent report on the bills. “That combination directly contradicts what voters are typically promised by Republican supermajorities.”
Indeed it does… but should we be surprised?
***
As we have often pointed out, South Carolina is home to the most liberal “Republican” legislature in America… something continually evidenced by the outright contempt its uni-party leaders (and their rank-and-file supporters) demonstrate for citizens and taxpayers.
The latest example of this contempt? Lawmakers’ primary S.C. Department of Transportation (SCDOT) “modernization” bill, S. 831, which “grows bureaucracy, weakens oversight, and creates many new revenue streams for the state,” according to Herron.
A companion bill, H. 5071, is just as bad.
“Both bills double up on the unelected (infrastructure) bureaucracy,” Herron warned, noting each piece of legislation called for the creation of new “metropolitan planning organizations” and “rural planning districts.” These provisions would add layers of additional bureaucracy to an already bloated system.
Compounding the problem, both bills would maintain the failed SCDOT commission structure through which the legislative branch, not the executive branch, controls infrastructure appropriations.
***
***
Even worse, both bills create sketchy new “public-private partnerships” which would receive an unprecedented influx of new taxpayer-guaranteed borrowing – including a significant chunk which would be financed on the backs of state pensioners. Another chunk of new state money would come via the massive expansion of toll roads across the state – not to mention a 300% tax hike on electric vehicles and hybrids.
Assuming these windfalls were insufficient to match the escalating grift and inefficiency, state accountants would be further empowered to “adjust all of these fees and electricity taxes for inflation every four years,” per Herron’s report.
As for the numerous new toll roads, bonds sold to finance their construction would not count against the Palmetto State’s constitutionally mandated debt limit – nor would their proceeds be specifically tied to the projects for which they are ostensibly earmarked.
“The result is a framework that enables toll roads across the state, billions in borrowing, and little to no public input,” Herron noted.
Again, that is not accountability… that is a blank check with borrowed money.
***
RELATED | A BUSINESSMAN’S PLAN TO FIX S.C. ROADS
***
Believe it or not, it actually gets even worse than that. In addition to a massive influx of new, totally unaccountable state spending and borrowing, these bills would open the door to huge tax hikes at the local level.
Both S. 831 and H. 5071 would permit county governments to impose a new 2% sales tax – and to dramatically increase annual property tax millage.
That’s right… at a time when affordability concerns are rampant, “Republican” lawmakers are poised to pave the way for massive tax hikes at the local level.
“What else would you expect from Republican supermajorities that routinely campaign on limited government and fiscal restraint?” Herron noted, tongue firmly implanted in cheek. “This should be a wake-up call for anyone who believes the Republican Caucuses are serious about reducing or abolishing property taxes.”
Indeed… it should.
After clearing the Senate overwhelmingly, this abomination is now hurtling toward the House floor – having received a lopsided 22–2 vote from the chamber’s ways and means committee earlier this week.
***
The SC House Ways and Means Committee passed both bad SCDOT bills H.5071 and S.831 in less than 10 minutes with the same roll call vote of 22-2. Rep. Micah Caskey and Rep. Kevin Hardee were the only two to vote against.
— Palmetto State Watch (@WatchPalmetto) April 1, 2026
Championed by Rep. Heather Crawford, there was only one… pic.twitter.com/7aAL6DrfOU
***
Thankfully, there are alternatives to the status quo’s latest “smash and grab” thievery.
Three bills filed by members of the fiscally conservative S.C. Freedom Caucus would chart a dramatically different path than the one being pursued by the chamber’s fiscally liberal leaders. H. 5331, for starters, would increase road funding to the counties for local use – and remove existing requirements that these monies be spent on state roads. This would free up resources for local governments to address local needs – without raising fees or taxes.
Another Freedom Caucus bill, H. 5362, would effectuate a complete overhaul of SCDOT – eliminating its legislatively controlled commission and placing authority in the hands of a secretary appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. This would be a vital, decades-overdue step in creating a single, direct line of accountability between the people and the department – while giving future governors dramatically expanded authority over infrastructure decisions.
The bill would also end decades of geographic favoritism by creating five regional transportation districts, with SCDOT ensuring work in each district is “carried on simultaneously… in a fair and equitable manner among the counties.”
***
***
Finally, a third Freedom Caucus bill – H. 5363 – would implement a “pavement preservation program” to ensure SCDOT conducted “preventive maintenance treatments designed to maintain pavement conditions before significant deterioration occurs.” Such maintenance could save taxpayers billions of dollars over the life cycle of various infrastructure projects, extending “the useful life of state-maintained highways” while reducing “long-term maintenance and reconstruction costs,” per the legislation.
While legislative leaders rush their tax-hiking, fee-raising, debt-exploding, toll-imposing, bureaucracy-expanding bills through the chambers, not one of the three Freedom Caucus bills has even received a hearing.
FITSNews has been calling on South Carolina lawmakers to reform SCDOT and better prioritize infrastructure decisions for years – calls which have gone unheeded. Instead of putting citizens and taxpayers first, GOP leaders have chosen to subsidize all manner of crony capitalist infrastructure projects – including interchanges for “economic development” projects that never wind up actually developing.
“Projects backed by powerful political leaders consistently receive ample funding – even if the underlying ‘economic development’ deals associated with them wind up collapsing,” I noted in February 2024.
Meanwhile, core needs are always addressed decades too late (see here and here).
In fact, efforts to properly prioritize infrastructure dollars toward more pressing needs have been explicitly rejected by the status quo in Columbia, S.C.
Enough is enough… it is past time for Palmetto State leaders to reject the costly, failed approaches of the past and embrace long-overdue reforms aimed at creating real infrastructure accountability in South Carolina.
More expensive failure is simply not an option… even if that’s the only “solution” legislative leaders seem capable of advancing.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
2 comments
With the fuel increase, our bill for road improvement just doubled.
Good article – alot to unpack- but I just wanted to highlight one aspect of it. We need to treat the phrase (and thus the concept) of “public-private partnerships” as a giant flashing red sign of inbound grift, insider politics, and the redirection of tax dollars to unelected groups that have no accountability to the citizens, who usually can hide their activates from public view and oversite, and in most cases, actually treat the common person with a view of sheer contempt. Time and time again, we find out that some private nonprofit partner is been set up by some politician’s wife, close relative, or business partner to receive public money for doing two steps from nothing and yet receive hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, for an organization that spends 50-90% of its budget on salaries and perks for its leadership. That same organization’s employees then send thousands of dollars in campaign donations back to the guys who set up the grift for them, and the cycle repeats. When you hear the term ” public-private partnerships”, you should view it on the same terms as you would leprosy – avoid it at all costs.