South Carolina state lawmakers received a stark warning Tuesday regarding the widening financial gap between the state’s road maintenance needs and available funding. The update, delivered at the State House, highlighted that current transportation revenue streams are insufficient to keep pace with rapid population growth and rising costs.
A representative of the SC Department of Revenue and Fiscal Affairs presented projections indicating that South Carolina’s population is expected to grow by more than one million people over the next 20 years, reaching 6.6 million. Vehicle use is increasing even faster than the population.
However, the primary sources of transportation funding—the state gas tax and vehicle sales fees—are not keeping pace. While these revenues benefited from the 2017 gas tax increase, they have since become stagnant. The state has already lost an estimated $165 million in gas tax revenue due to increased vehicle fuel efficiency alone. Simultaneously, inflation has driven construction and maintenance costs significantly higher, reducing the purchasing power of every transportation dollar.
Lawmakers on the ad-hoc committee are now exploring several ways to generate increased revenue and restructure road ownership.
Potential funding sources include:
-
Shifting ownership of some state maintained roads to counties and municipalities
- Raising the gas tax and tying it to inflation
-
Higher fees on electric vehicles.
-
Increases to new vehicle sales taxes.
-
Added fees for large commercial trucks.
These revenue streams are being examined as the gas tax and vehicle sales tax currently account for 82% of the state’s transportation funding.
Lawmakers plan to review all recommendations over the coming days with the aim of finalizing draft legislation before the General Assembly returns next month.
Sign up for our Sunday Spectator. Delivered to your inbox every Sunday, with all the news from the week.
