Clyburn bridge highlights problem with road agency

FOR AS LONG AS South Carolinians have been arguing about a proposed bridge over Lake Marion connecting Lone Star and Rimini, most people have acted as though the decision about whether to build it belonged to U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn alone.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s true that Mr. Clyburn got the initial funding for the bridge added to the federal budget. But the Congress could refuse to provide any more funding for the span; indeed, South Carolina’s other members of Congress could stop it if they wanted to. And as a lawsuit filed this month reminds us, all the federal funding in the world couldn’t move the project forward without state approval and support. Indeed, the defendant in the lawsuit is not Mr. Clyburn, but the state Department of Transportation.

And perhaps that is why most people seem to believe that they have no way of influencing the outcome of this matter: The Department of Transportation just might be the most unaccountable island in all of state government. It doesn’t answer to the governor: Just one of the seven commissioners who control the agency is appointed by the governor. It doesn’t answer to the Legislature: The other six commissioners are appointed by the legislators who live in the congressional district they represent, and those legislators can’t even remove a commissioner before his term ends.

The result is that even though Republicans in and out of office denounce the bridge as a waste of money, even though environmentalists (among the strongest Democratic constituencies) object enough to file a federal lawsuit, even though the governor has led a kayaking expedition through the swamp to highlight his opposition to the bridge, it’s apparently going to be built unless a federal judge stops it.

An attorney for the environmental groups, which argue that the Lake Marion bridge “highlights the larger problem within SCDOT of unnecessary projects getting a green light while identified transportation priorities remain unfunded,” told reporters that lawmakers need to reform the way the Transportation Department selects projects. And that’s true.

But the way to do that isn’t to write new rules about project selection. It’s to reform the Transportation Department: Abolish the parochial board that squanders our limited resources by horse-trading projects for commissioners’ home areas, and replace it with a director who can look out for the best interests of the entire state. And allow the governor to hold the director accountable — as governors in 47 states can — for decisions to build causeways through national parks and erect brand-new bridges while critical existing ones fall apart. That way, if we, the people, don’t think the governor has done a sufficient job holding that director accountable, then we can hold the governor accountable.

As it stands, there is no one we can blame for the way the Transportation Department spends our money.

Whether you consider it a boon or a boondoggle, this bridge is insignificant when compared to the clear problem of a massive state agency, which controls something so vital to our state’s future as its highway system, that answers to no one. Usually, when critics complain of “taxation without representation,” what they mean is that their views are in the minority. But when it comes to the Transportation Department, that is precisely what we have. And it’s time for our representatives in the Legislature to change that.