Two Beaufort County chambers of commerce and a civic group Monday called on state legislators to raise South Carolina's gas tax to repair state roads and bridges, which they said are vital to the area's economy.

The tax of 16 cents a gallon should be higher and should rise with inflation, representatives of the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Beaufort Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Island Committee said at a meeting of the Beaufort County Legislative Delegation. Revenues also should be reserved for road and bridge upgrading and maintenance.

The Greater Island Committee is a nonprofit group that studies and takes stands on local issues.

"The business community is solidly behind these requests," said Libby Barnes, president of the Beaufort chamber.

Businesses depend on good roads to move goods and people, Barnes said.

The state's policy for dividing up gas tax revenue based on a county's permanent population also should be changed, said Barry Connor of the Hilton Head-Bluffton chamber. That formula is unfair to tourism communities.

Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head, said legislation to raise the gas tax was introduced in the General Assembly this year, but discussion was cut short.

"The decision was made by leadership É that because of the budget situation and the major issue with (raising) the cigarette tax, that it would be impossible to take on the cigarette tax and the gas tax in the same year," said Richardson, who has supported raising the tax by 5 cents a gallon.

But he told the groups to press the issue to legislators statewide for the next six months because the gas tax could come up next year, the second year of the two-year session.

"You're preaching to the choir here," he said.

Also at the meeting:

Herman Gaither, superintendent of the Beaufort County School District, said the Beaufort-Jasper Academy for Career Excellence is getting on track financially, after two years of budget deficits. A new director should be on board by July, Gaither said, and both school districts have agreed to include more money for the academy in their budget requests for next year, part of which will go to pay past debt.

But the remaining problem, he said, is that the school's charter, approved by state lawmakers in 1975, does not address sharing the costs of capital improvements, such as repairing the school's leaky roof. The charter only covers cost sharing for operating expenses. Beaufort County pays two-thirds of the operating budget and Jasper pays one-third.

Richardson said the charter could be changed to include capital improvements, but first he would like to see consensus between the two counties over the percentage each would pay.

Rochelle Ferguson, executive director of the Lowcountry Regional Transportation Authority, asked the delegation to help convince the S.C. Department of Transportation to approve the bus service's purchase of 15 used buses from the New Jersey Transit Authority, each for up to $5,000. The buses are about 12 years old and would replace 22-year-old buses.

Because the buses are federally financed, they can be transferred to another transportation authority at no charge or sold for $5,000. The decision is up to the New Jersey Transit Authority.

LRTA has the money but needs the S.C. Department of Transporta-tion's approval, which officials are withholding because the 15 buses are not equipped with lifts for disabled riders.

Ferguson said Federal Transportation Authority rules say not all buses must have lifts if other vehicles in the fleet have them, and LRTA has lift-equipped vehicles already.