Letter | Hembree: S.C. Senate Republicans propose road funding-tax cut plan

We have a historic opportunity to achieve three important priorities for the people of South Carolina in the closing weeks of this legislative year.

The Senate Republican Caucus has developed a landmark plan to fix our roads, reform the Department of Transportation, and pass one of the largest personal income tax cuts in state history. Most importantly, our comprehensive plan is a net tax cut for South Carolinian tax payers.

As conservatives, we are always focused on controlling the growth of government. Our plan cuts income taxes for every South Carolina taxpayer. It returns more than $700 million to S.C. citizens in the first five years, and the average taxpayer will see their personal state income taxes cut by 17 percent.

This is one of the largest across-the-board tax cuts in our state’s history.

It will help empower our people and control government spending for years to come.

With a solid plan to control the growth of government firmly established, we can confidently address the central issue before the General Assembly this year: fixing our roads and bridges. The roads of our state, especially the local roads our families travel daily, are in serious need of repair. We can no longer get by with “Band-Aid” patching.

Our plan requires that all of the new money must be used where we really need it: road and bridge repair and maintenance. By law, all the road funding generated by our plan must be sent directly to the State Highway Trust Fund, not to the general fund where it can be directed to other projects.

This will improve our competiveness to keep our economy growing, but more importantly it will make our roads safer.

Our plan to pay for the road work is well-balanced, drawing from several transportation-based user fees and will be phased in over five years.

The gas tax is the backbone of the funding plan. We chose that tax because approximately 35 percent of all gas taxes are paid by out of state motorists. That means we are reducing the burden on our citizens and spreading the costs of taking care of our roads to all drivers who travel across our state.

Overall, the gas tax will rise 12 cents over 5 years, but we also make sure that our taxes stay below Georgia and North Carolina. This balanced approach shares the burden fairly and keeps our state competitive.

We also know that a modern road system needs an accountable government structure to operate effectively and efficiently. Like our roads, the Department of Transportation is in need of serious attention. Our plan restructures the DOT Commission to improve performance and accountability.

The selection of the commission will be based on each congressional district having one seat, plus one at-large seat. District commissioners will be rotated within the counties of a district so that small and large counties will have an opportunity to be represented.

Each commissioner will serve one six-year term. The governor will nominate each new commissioner. All nominees must be screened by the Joint Transportation Review Committee using objective criteria. If a nominee is found qualified to be a commissioner, he must then be confirmed by the Senate.

The Secretary of the DOT will be hired by the Commission. The Secretary will be screened by the Senate Transportation Committee and confirmed by the full Senate.

In addition to establishing a better governing structure, our plan reforms the duties and responsibilities of the commission so that the commission is focused on long-term planning and blocks commissioners from “cherry picking” projects and micromanaging the department.

This new plan assures competent leadership and reduces political interference in the operation of the DOT.

I am proud to support this historic plan. It provides much needed, long-term funding to fix our ailing road system, establishes permanent across-the-board income tax cuts, and restructures the DOT Commission.

Additionally, it makes South Carolina more competitive, reduces the growth of government spending, and the taxpayers of South Carolina receive a net decrease in their taxes.

As this debate goes forward, I will fight to pass this critical initiative in 2015. These are tough issues but we can longer afford to wait.

The writer is a S.C. Senator for Horry and Dillon counties.

This story was originally published May 18, 2015 at 1:19 PM with the headline "Letter | Hembree: S.C. Senate Republicans propose road funding-tax cut plan."