An influx of people moving down South has prompted South Carolina lawmakers to debate whether newcomers should pay a $500 “Yankee tax” before they can take advantage of the state’s infrastructure.
Specifically, new residents would pay the fee with their property taxes and present the receipt at their local Department of Motor Vehicles office for driver’s licenses and car registration. Each county may have its voters decide whether or not to implement the fee by adding the question to the ballot in a general election.
According to Goldfinch, this would make sure newcomers pay their fair share for roads and bridges that had already been funded by existing taxpayers. He also described the fee as something similar to what a construction company typically pays to offset the potential impact its new project may have on the neighborhood.
“We’re not trying to build a wall across the North Carolina border,” Goldfinch said, reported The Associated Press. “But, at the same time, we think that people should have to pay their fair share when they show up.”
Meanwhile, Democratic state Sen. John Scott argued the newcomers are already paying their share through other ways such as gas tax, noting that South Carolina in 2017 approved a plan to increase gas taxes by two cents every year for six years. Most of the new revenue is deposited into a trust fund dedicated to infrastructure maintenance.
Republican state Sen. Sean Bennett also raised the question of why, under the bill’s logic, the same tax wouldn’t be imposed when new residents register their children for school.
“Growth is not easy to manage, particularly in your community, certainly in my communities,” said Bennett, who supported the proposal. “But where does it stop, I guess, is my question.”
