Title: Why the Haley Plan Would Make S.C.'s Roads Problem Worse | The South Carolina Policy Council
Headings: Haley Road Plan: Higher Taxes, New Debt, Fuzzy Numbers
Haley Road Plan: Higher Taxes, New Debt, Fuzzy Numbers
THE GOVERNOR’S PLAN IS A SHELL GAME THAT WOULD DO LITTLE TO IMPROVE S.C.’S ROADS
The plan is based on contrived assumptions, impossible predictions, and misleading promises.
The governor’s plan would transfer funds from maintenance to expansion
Haley’s DOT reform plan isn’t a plan.
How to Fix our Roads
1) Require maintenance work be prioritized over new construction
2) Make the DOT accountable to the governor
3) Devolve some state-controlled roads to local control
4) Abolish the Infrastructure Bank
5) Full transparency in DOT spending and construction contracts

Content: But a closer look at her actual proposed spending plan – leaving aside the talking points – reveals that other monies would be taken away from DOT, with the result that the agency would receive about half a million dollars less than it received the year before. Whether the governor intended this or not is impossible to say.) In other words, Gov. Haley’s roads plan would first divert funds from much-needed maintenance to new expansionary road projects, many of which are unnecessary. It gets worse. The funds the governor wishes to transfer to the STIB come from state gas tax revenues, which are the only transportation funds the DOT has complete discretion over. Roads in South Carolina are funded through three revenue sources: other funds (state gas tax revenue), federal funds, and debt financing as provided by the STIB. Out of these three funding pools, state gas tax revenues are by far the smallest. They are also the only revenue source that is free to be devoted to routine maintenance. Federal funds cannot be spent on routine maintenance, and they cannot be transferred upfront to the STIB (since federal funds are dispersed as match dollars and the STIB finances its projects with bond debt).