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Outline of the impact of the bill:
I've never understood the flat cap on sales tax on a car. It means someone buying a new Ferrari pays the same tax as someone buying a new Nissan Sentra. I think it would make more sense for that tax to be at a reduced rate without a cap. If it's really intended to offset the wear caused by the car on the road, it would probably make even more sense to base it on the weight of the vehicle.
The electric and hybrid vehicle tax seems odd as well. Most of those cars are lightweight vehicles that cause very little wear on the roads. We should be encouraging people to buy these types of cars, not adding a surcharge on them.
NC had the out of state vehicle fee set the same as their new car tax rate when we moved there 15 years ago. Cost me several hundred dollars per car and felt very unwelcoming as a new resident.
The income tax rebate seems particularly odd. Why not just do a smaller increase to the gas tax without adding more complexity to the state tax code? Is this intended to shift the tax burden to out of state drivers buying gas in SC?
The increase "sunsets" at the end of the 6 year period by default. That means this entire issue will again have to be debated at the end of 6 years, which seems like a huge mistake. I am glad they abandoned the idea of automatically adjusting the tax with inflation the way NC does. Taxes that automatically increase without legislative input are a bad idea.
I've been looking somewhere to spell out what the new bill means. I imagine this will hurt auto sales in western North Carolina a little bit. I also imagine there will be a rush to buy new cars before the increased sales tax goes into effect.
Are many roads in SC like that? I am considering moving to Greenville, but I like traveling , so the roads in Greenville and the rest of the state are an important consideration. Will I be encountering many dilapidated roads in the state?
I have read somewhere that SC roads are worse than NC roads. Considering SC has a high state income tax, considering no state tax in TN, I am starting to wonder if it is worth moving to SC if roads are not enjoyable.
In all honesty, the roads are not bad at all, at least the ones I travel. I do travel a lot of "back roads", and 385 to and in and around Greenville. There are bad spots, dont get me wrong, but they are not as bad as the experts claim, around here anyways. I think the worse I have seen in recent months is the on ramp on 26 in Moore.
In all honesty, the roads are not bad at all, at least the ones I travel. I do travel a lot of "back roads", and 385 to and in and around Greenville. There are bad spots, dont get me wrong, but they are not as bad as the experts claim, around here anyways. I think the worse I have seen in recent months is the on ramp on 26 in Moore.
Fairforest Way circa 1999
'nuff said.
Hwy 418 from 385 to Pelzer was awful and was just recently fixed.
Hwy 25 in Piedmont is currently undergoing resurfacing.. Badly needed.
385 N Pleasantburg exit on northbound side, under the bridge.. There's a constant pothole there.
385 S coming around that curve about where 276 enters in the left lane there's a seam/bump that will almost make you lose control.
The roads are generally considered bad and it's not because of long stretches of bad road.. It's a handful of really bad spots..
Right now, SC resources for roads seem to be on I 26 going into Charleston/Summerville.
Its all about the revenue..
This narrative again. Have you ever stopped and thought that maybe 26 gets so much attention because Spartanburg, Columbia, and Charleston are all located on it? Greer port on one end and Charleston port on the other. State capital in the middle. Cross 85, 20, 77, and 95. 26 is the states backbone.
Charleston definitely isn't getting a lions share. The Summerville area just got median trees removed, is a getting a new interchange, which is badly needed, and the road is being widened to Jedburg. And the only reason is because Volvo is coming, otherwise it wouldn't have happened.
Greenville is currently getting a new giant interchange and 85 is being widened and repaved, finally. Columbia needs malfunction junction fixed, but they can't start that until they finish a million year environment study.
The way the state handles roads and funding is a mess. Getting rid of the IB wouldn't be so bad. But there's no conspiracy.
Hwy 418 from 385 to Pelzer was awful and was just recently fixed. I blame the 18 wheelers on that, cutting through from 385 to 85.
Hwy 25 in Piedmont is currently undergoing resurfacing.. Badly needed. Havent been in that area in a while.
385 N Pleasantburg exit on northbound side, under the bridge.. There's a constant pothole there. Arent they working in that area now?
385 S coming around that curve about where 276 enters in the left lane there's a seam/bump that will almost make you lose control. Havent noticed that, but again, arent they working in that area?
The roads are generally considered bad and it's not because of long stretches of bad road.. It's a handful of really bad spots..
I could be wrong, and probably am about the areas they are working on.
Obviously there's something wrong when SC ranks 44th in road safety. According the DOT, 20% of SC's bridges are obsolete and 40% of the roads are in mediocre or worse condition. Both of those seem to be standard.
The mighty infrastructure rich Texas has 19% obsolete bridges, NC is 30%, and ultra wealthy Connecticut is 34%. 45% of NC's roads are bad, Texas is 38%, and ultra wealthy Connecticut is a whopping 73%.
As someone said earlier, SC is good enough in the primary roads. It's our rural roads, curvy back roads, outdated interchanges, sections of interstate, and poor drivers that's the problem. 95 needs to be widened, but there's other roads that need attention first.
Hwy 25 in Piedmont is currently undergoing resurfacing.. Badly needed.
That section of Hwy 25 out near Donaldson Center should have been repaved 5 years ago. The left lane in both directions along a several mile stretch was hard to drive in at the speed limit due to the continuous patched and re-patched potholes. Earlier this spring they dug out big sections several feet down to replace the base and put in patches. I was afraid they were going to leave it with all the patched spots but it looks like they were just preparing to repave the whole stretch.
It was one of the worst roads I've driven in a while. It was surprising to me given that it is the gateway to a major industrial park that they try to use to recruit businesses to the Upstate.
US123 between Easley and Clemson has several stretches that are overdue for resurfacing. They did the worst stretch a couple of years ago but need to do several more segments.
When they do resurface most of the secondary rural roads, they need to go ahead and pay to add shoulders of at least a foot on both sides. There are a lot of roads with no shoulder, which is an issue once a pothole forms on the edge. Once that happens, the pavement in the lane of travel is impacted.
I could be wrong, and probably am about the areas they are working on.
No, the only area that they're working on in my list is Hwy 25.
The two areas on 385 that I mentioned are outside the current construction area.
Do we even want to talk about Hwy 14 up there by exit 19 in Gray Court, right outside the turn for ZF? That's an area that I can show you lots of pictures of, because every single day that I drive through there my dash cam gets enough of a jolt to trigger an auto-record because it thinks i've been in an accident. I had to slow down quickly around that area last week and hit that pothole/whatever it is.. Disrupted the vehicle so much that it triggered the anti-lock brakes and everything.
I agree with you that for the most part, the roads a fair to decent. But it just doesn't take too many bad spots to make people think that all the roads are all complete crap. And we've got alot of those bad spots.
I havent been on that stretch since the last space shuttle went up, but I dont remember it being bad at all. I do remember though some rough areas, like in miles, on 95 near and through Jacksonville Florida. I went down for Discoverys final launch and was so glad to get back in Ga. When we went for Atlantis, it was much, much better.
You should see Jacksonville's portion of 95 now. It's like the road fairy came and made everything new again.
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