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 — while many gasoline drivers pay at least $200 per year in gasoline taxes, depending on mileage and vehicle type.

Powell urged lawmakers to consider increasing EV registration fees to the $200-per-year level used by neighboring states and to examine a per-kilowatt-hour fee to capture revenue from pass-through charging at travel stops. “I would say we would need to look at a registration fee at the $200 level like we have in Georgia and Alabama and Tennessee,” Powell said, and suggested a per-kilowatt-hour charge so pass-through drivers who use South Carolina roads contribute to system costs.

On bridges, Powell said DOT owns about 8,400 bridges (9,500 government-owned statewide) and that 2,400 DOT bridges are 60 years old or older. At the current pace of addressing roughly 50 bridges per year without additional appropriations, Powell warned that the number of bridges older than 60 years would grow to about 3,900 in the next decade. He said DOT has 370 bridge projects underway and raised its replacement target from 500 to 530 bridges after a $200 million appropriation last year; DOT had committed about $67 million of that funding and expects to obligate the remainder before the fiscal year ends.

Powell outlined DOT’s estimated FY26 revenues at just under $2.8 billion, including about $1.63 billion in state funds and roughly $1 billion in federal reimbursements. He said half of the department’s $2.78 billion appropriations request would go to maintenance and system preservation; about $500 million is targeted annually for interstate capacity and operations. He also told the committee the agency has been debt-free since 2023.

Other budget items and provisos Powell discussed include:
- Requesting continuation of $120 million per year in match funds tied to federal programs;
- A separate $200 million bridge request to accelerate replacements and rehabilitations;
- Asking for $50 million to complete hurricane Helene-related debris cleanup not covered by FEMA or FHWA after staff-estimated damages of roughly $70 million in 16 upstate counties;
- A requested transfer deletion tied to welcome-center funding: DOT currently must transfer $5.1 million to Parks, Recreation and Tourism; Powell asked that the receiving agency be appropriated the amount directly so DOT can manage maintenance obligations;
- Increasing recurring funding for interstate-adjacent litter pickup from $3 million to $8 million;
- A proposed proviso to retain DOT’s expedited practice for very small right-of-way acquisitions, after an appraisal board ruling requiring full appraisals on entire tracts rather than only the small strip actually acquired; Powell said the full appraisals could cost about $2,500 each and have a possible $10 million statewide impact.

Powell also briefed senators on two discretionary federal grants for projects that remain unsigned pending federal review: about a $175 million grant for replacing the Lake Marion Bridge on I-95 and funds for reconstructing the Long Point Road interchange in Mount Pleasant, which serves port traffic. He said DOT was ready to sign agreements when federal approvals are complete.

Committee members asked how the House budget treated EV fee changes; Powell said altering EV registration fees requires a permanent law change in Title 56 and that the House budget included no change. Senators also pressed whether DOT’s small-parcel appraisal workaround preserves due-process protections for property owners; Powell said the statutory condemnation and fair-market-value processes would remain in place and the expedited practice would apply only to small-dollar acquisitions up to a $20,000 threshold.

Powell closed by reminding the committee that county transportation committees receive a 3.99-cent portion of the gas tax for local projects and that one-time general-fund supplements the past three years have driven swings in the total counties received. He offered to provide additional details on any items the committee requested.

Next steps: Powell’s requests and the three specific proviso changes will be considered by the Senate and could require statutory changes or appropriations; the committee did not take a formal vote during this hearing.