For bus system, swap a tax for another tax

By KEVIN FISHER

Guest columnist

Make no mistake, the crisis facing the capital city’s bus system can and should be laid at the feet of Columbia City Council.

That body signed off on letting SCE&G out of its legal obligation to provide transit service in exchange for a monopoly on electric and gas service — without bothering to first establish a replacement funding source.

While a failure of leadership of that magnitude deserves further comment, first things first: how to rectify the situation and keep the buses running.

The idea of an additional fee on passenger vehicles to fund the transit system has been floated, as has a property tax increase. Both proposals have been heavily shot at, if not yet formally shot down.

Also under fire is a proposal for yet another sales tax increase. Though just as unpopular as the other ideas, it at least carries the benefit of offering a real solution.

Unlike either a $20 vehicle fee or a $15 per $100,000 property tax increase, an additional 1-cent sales tax would actually provide the necessary funding to operate the kind of public transit system that would both meet the needs of the citizens who now depend on it as well as entice some folks out of their cars and onto buses.

But taxpayers are in no mood for yet another sales tax increase, which would come on top of the 1-cent increase recently added in Richland County, a 1-cent increase soon to be added by the state, and the 2-cent increase added by both Columbia and Richland County on prepared foods, the so-called Hospitality Tax (a misnomer for sure, as what is hospitable about an extra tax on dining out?)

Indeed, adding another penny would push the tax on restaurant meals to the once-unimaginable double-digit level, 10 cents on the dollar. Everything else would move to eight cents on the dollar.

Still, I think yet another sales tax increase is the best way to go — if it is paired with repeal of one or both of the recently enacted local sales tax increases.

As it was unwise to begin with and has been badly abused by Columbia’s elected officials (The State called it “City Council’s slush fund”), the prepared foods tax isn’t even a close call. Get rid of it.

As for the Local Option Sales Tax, it, too, could get LOST. Passed on the third attempt (barely) after being tied to property tax relief, homeowners are now seeing the other side of the coin as Columbia negated that relief with a property tax hike at the first opportunity. Richland County will likely follow suit, completing the “bait and switch” tax ploy.

In place of those taxes, which have been characterized by undisciplined spending and misleading promises, could be an honest tax used for a true community need — public transportation.

We’re woefully behind other cities of our size in this regard, something that not only hurts our people but also hurts the perception of Columbia by those being recruited to come here. With all that is being done, and spent, to redevelop the capital city, failing to adequately fund and operate public transportation is our Achilles heel.

Further, there is a companion benefit to having yet another sales tax increase as part of a tax swap. A 1-cent sales tax increase would generate more money than is needed for the transit system alone, providing revenue for street maintenance and other programs. One use of that additional revenue could be to provide funding for arts organizations that now receive money from the prepared foods tax, leaving that tax with no purpose and no constituency.

This arrangement would help build support for the transit tax from the arts community and arts backers, forming the basis of a coalition that might actually be able to pass the plan at the ballot box.

Yet another sales tax increase? No. Yet another sales tax increase in return for repeal of existing ones? Yes.

Mr. Fisher is president of Fisher Communications, a Columbia advertising and public relations firm.