With the South Carolina Republican presidential primary just days away, former President Donald Trump’s campaign has launched an advertisement targeting Nikki Haley’s alleged position on the state’s gasoline tax during her tenure as governor. However, the ad, like previous attacks from other 2024 Republican candidates, lacks crucial context about Haley’s stance on the gas tax, selectively omitting key remarks to portray her as an unambiguous tax-raiser, a label she never embraced.
The Missing Facts
The Trump campaign’s ad fails to acknowledge that Haley, as governor, stated she would only approve an increase in South Carolina’s gas tax as part of a broader package that also included a significant reduction in the state income tax. This would result in a substantial net tax cut for residents. In 2015, the state economic board estimated that Haley’s proposal would save the average taxpayer hundreds of dollars annually once fully implemented. However, the proposal was quickly rejected by state legislators, including some Republicans, who feared it would lead to a significant loss in tax revenue. Notably, the state gas tax was never increased during Haley’s governorship from 2011 to 2017.
What the Trump Ad Omits
The Trump ad features a clip of Haley stating, “Let’s increase the gas tax by 10 cents over the next three years.” This quote is indeed from Haley’s State of the State address in January 2015. However, the ad fails to mention that Haley also stipulated that she would only approve the increase if it was part of a “three-part package deal,” which included restructuring the state Department of Transportation and, crucially, reducing the state’s top income tax rate from 7% to 5%.
“Let’s increase the gas tax by 10 cents over the next three years, and let’s dedicate that money entirely toward improving our roads. That will keep our gas tax below both Georgia and North Carolina. And we can do it without harming our economy – because when coupled with the 30% income tax cut, it still represents one of the largest tax cuts in South Carolina history. Now, I hope everyone listened carefully to what I said: this is a three-part package deal. In order to get my signature on any gas tax increase, we need to restructure the DOT, and we need to cut our state income tax by two percent. If we do all of those things, we will have better roads and a stronger economic engine for our people. That is a win-win.”
The Trump ad also accuses Haley of lying during a Republican presidential debate in September 2023 when she stated, “I fought the gas tax in South Carolina.” While Haley did abandon her previous outright opposition to increasing the gas tax by 2015, she continued to resist legislative proposals for gas tax increases that did not also include significant income tax cuts. Thus, Haley’s claim is, at the very least, defensible.
It is essential to note that Haley did not sign any gas tax increase during her tenure. The Republican-controlled legislature passed an increase in May 2017, more than three months after Haley resigned to become Trump’s US ambassador to the United Nations.