Will SC Senate again refuse to increase gas tax?

[TexasTowelie]

Time is running out for the S.C. Senate to approve increasing the state’s 16.75 cent-a-gallon gas tax, the second lowest in the nation, to pay to repair the state’s crumbling roads.

This week, senators will consider a roughly $8 billion state budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1 and takes priority over other bills. Then, senators plan to take a week off.

Lawmakers will return to Columbia on April 18 with only four weeks left in the 2017 legislative session.

That gives senators, who work only three days a week, 12 legislative days to address the session’s top issue — increasing driving fees to pay for road repairs — and work out disagreements on the proposal.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/latest-news/article142459949.html

[napi21]

1. How much are they planning to increase it by? A couple of cents is important for the highways and

will be forgotten by the electorate pretty quickly.

[TexasTowelie]

2. It's an additional 12 cents per gallon tax,

but the GOP senators want a reduction in the income tax if they are going to pass the bill. Considering the regressive nature of a gas tax compared to the income tax it seems best to keep the status quo rather than pass a bill that is nearly revenue neutral.