Gas Tax Watch

Some taxpayers feel they were misled about the state’s gas tax increase.

They were told the money was to repair crumbling roads and bridges.

On its Facebook page, the nonprofit SC Alliance to Fix Our Roads shared the latest state Department of Transportation video touting its interstate work in Spartanburg County with gas taxes.

“Seeing is believing!” the alliance said, promoting the video about work on I-85 and I-26. “Check out the projects in Spartanburg County – all thanks to the new gas tax revenues!”

The 2017 gas-tax-hike law raised the tax 12 cents a gallon over 6 years and increased other vehicle taxes.

Legislators promised the money would be used to fix crumbling roads and bridges in constituents’ communities – not funneled to interstates.

DOT plans to use more than a 3rd of gas-tax-hike money to widen and repave interstates over 10 years.

Relatively little has been spent and few major repaving projects completed.

2 months ago, the fund had nearly $482 million.

SCFOR no longer shows its members’ names on its website, but representatives of 3 major road contractors – Palmetto Corp., C.R. Jackson Inc., and Sloan Construction Co. – were members of its board last year, according to tax returns.

DOT paid more than $327 million to the 3 companies, state records show.

C.R. Jackson’s CEO Richard Jackson serves on the SCFOR board. His company handled I-26 and I-95 paving and other projects.

Under “Accomplishments” on the SCFOR website, it noted that in 2018: “No legislators were defeated in the primary elections because of their support of road funding. This can be attributed to hard work of SCFOR and our allies when it came to educating the public on the need for investment.”

Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve. Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@thenerve.org