RIDGELAND--The longer the South Carolina Supreme Court waits to consider a lawsuit blocking a proposed $400 million port in Jasper County, the more it hurts the project, county officials say.

The proposed project has been stalled since October 2000 when the Georgia Department of Transportation sued, claiming Jasper County did have not the right to condemn land owned by the agency where the port would be built on the Savannah River.

Last April, Circuit Court Judge Perry Buckner dismissed the lawsuit, but the department appealed to the South Carolina Supreme Court.

County attorneys have asked the justices to give priority to the lawsuit. For each year of delay, the county loses $4 million in taxes, said Jasper attorney Tom Johnson, who helped file the motion in the high court last week.

Gov. Mark Sanford has said he would not jump at the idea of a privately funded port in Jasper County.

He questions the impact that port would have on the state-run Charleston port, one of the East Coast's busiest container terminals.

County Administrator Henry Moss said the county wants to move the lawsuit aside and get the project under way.

"This is money; that's it, this is money," Moss said. "It's for the economic development of Jasper County and for building up our tax base and building up our job base.