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Hutto: I-95 toll not aimed at locals, truckers

Sen. Brad Hutto said Monday his proposal to install toll booths on Interstate 95 is aimed at tourists, not truckers or local residents.

“It’s the family that’s traveling to Disney World and back to Ohio,” the Orangeburg Democrat said in an interview. “This is a chance for us to collect a one-time fee from them for using our road.”

How much? He’s looking at “probably a dollar” for an auto.

“It’s not my intent to put constraints on commerce coming out of the Port (of Charleston) or the trucking industry,” Hutto said.

The issue arose in the state Senate last week, when Orangeburg County senators Hutto and John Matthews proposed amending a separate bill to allow an I-95 toll. The original bill would make Interstate 73 a toll road in South Carolina.

Hutto spoke just days after a Charleston company said it will build a multi-million dollar inland port just off I-95 in Orangeburg County.

“I’m willing to exempt the truck drivers,” Hutto said. “Any vehicle that pays apportioned taxes, as far as I’m concerned, could be exempt or get an annual discounted pass.”

Similarly, Hutto said his plan would “make provision for local use on a daily basis, like an annual pass or that kind of thing.”

Hutto said he’s espoused charging a toll on I-95 for years, but never managed “to elevate the issue to discussion.”

Now the General Assembly is looking at building Interstate 73 — which ultimately will connect Detroit and Myrtle Beach — as a toll road.

“It’s a very much needed highway and it will support tourism in South Carolina. I support it,” Hutto said. As for making it a toll road, he said, “I support that.”

“While we were taking up the one, I wanted to take up both. I have introduced (an amendment) to toll I-95 for the purpose of improving the roadway,” Hutto said.

“Folks at the Department of Transportation have told me we are in need of upgrades on I-95. I think anybody who travels on 95, particularly in holiday seasons, is aware of that,” the senator said.

“It needs to be expanded to three lanes in places, some of the interchanges and ramps need to be upgraded,” and various stretches need to be resurfaced, Hutto said.

“Ideally there would be enough in the federal highway bill to maintain federal highways. But there’s no prospect of the federal government sending us any money any time soon.”

Hutto said 90 percent of the motorists using I-95 are “out-of-state travelers. They don’t pay taxes here. They don’t necessarily buy their gas here.”

A toll is “like low-hanging fruit, one of the easiest mechanisms” for raising revenue, one “that would have the least impact on the general population,” he said.

Geography would suggest placing toll booths in the vicinity of Lake Marion, because there are no alternate routes across it, he said.

“The highway department would do a traffic study and determine where to capture the optimal number of tourists and where to widen the road,” he said. “Those are details you’d leave to the professionals.”

“The truckers association has raised some questions. They support a gas tax. I don’t think (that’s feasible), with gas as expensive as it is,” Hutto said.

“In the end, the truckers will be the big beneficiaries” of the wider road with improved ramps and interchanges, Hutto said.

Hutto’s amendment is co-sponsored by Orangeburg County’s Matthews, who deferred comment to Hutto.