DOT requests more bridge money, warns EV registration fees threaten gas-tax revenue

Secretary of Transportation Justice Powell told the Senate Finance Transportation and Regulatory Subcommittee on an unspecified date that his department’s fiscal year 2026 budget asks the General Assembly for additional state funds — including a $200 million supplemental for bridges — and warned that growing electric-vehicle ownership is reducing the gas-tax revenue that pays for highways.

Powell said the department is executing the 10-year plan created after the 2017 roads bill and highlighted progress on rural road safety, pavements, bridges and interstates. “We set out a goal of a thousand miles of railroad safety projects. We have already gotten 1,126 miles underway,” Powell said, adding DOT increased the target to 1,300 miles after an additional appropriation. He told senators projects already completed on targeted corridors have produced a roughly 20 percent reduction in fatal and serious-injury crashes.

Why this matters: South Carolina’s primary highway revenue comes from motor-fuel taxes. Powell said hybrid and electric vehicles constitute a small but fast-growing share of the registered fleet — about 3 percent of roughly 3.4 million vehicles, with “double-digit annual growth” since 2022 — and pay far less in registration fees than gasoline vehicles. Under current state law in Title 56, Powell said an electric vehicle pays $120 every two years — about $60 per year —…