In 1982 Ronald Reagan, conservative icon and one of America’s greatest Presidents, addressed the nation to convey the importance of fixing our roads and funding them in a fiscally responsible way – with a gas tax.
Reagan warned that failing our roads today will cost us more in the future.
“The bridges and highways we fail to repair today will have to be rebuilt tomorrow at many times the cost.” President Reagan in his November 27, 1982 radio address.
Fast forward to 2017, and South Carolina finds itself in this position.
President Reagan was committed to prudent tax policy. He was also confident that a gas tax was both an equitable and fiscally responsible method of funding infrastructure investment.
“Good tax policy decrees that wherever possible a fee for a service should be assessed against those who directly benefit from that service. Our highways were built largely with such a user fee—the gasoline tax.”
President Ronald Reagan was right in 1982, and South Carolina Republican Governor Carroll Campbell was right when he signed South Carolina’s last gas tax increase into law in 1987. We must implement fiscally responsible funding plan that addresses the critical needs of our highway system.