Economy Important to Engineers

If you haven’t heard, Washington insiders are predicting a federal gas tax hike is not going to happen.  The plan was to raise the 18.4 cent per gallon to 58.4 cents over a five year period, but law makers are looking at private toll-road contracts. Work and passage of the next highway bill is probably coming next year in 2009.

In discussions on stimulating the flagging economy, the Democrats and Republicans are considering a number of stimuli. Democrats are considering raising spending on roads and bridges, good news for engineers and contractors, but insiders say this plan won’t get past Senate Republicans.

There may be some relief for the construction industry if Congress passes another plan, to help for states with large budget deficits. South Carolina may not fall into the large budget deficit category Congress may consider, but state spending is important to the overall economy.

The state’s unemployment rate in December leapt to 6.6 percent, up from 5.9 percent the month before, according to the S.C. Employment Security Commission’s monthly report released Jan. 18. It was the largest one-month increase in state unemployment in nearly 20 years, state employment officials said. The 0.7 of a percentage point rise in statewide unemployment is one of many signs that the economy is not performing as well as it had been.