The new fee, if enacted, would generate $100 million a year for road maintenance. Vehicle owners and commercial truckers would pay $15 per axle when they renew their vehicle registration.

Revenue from the proposed user-fee would be used only to repair roads on the state's secondary system. The roads, dubbed orphans, wind through rural areas and through the middle of cities and towns. The roads typically have substandard lane widths and are riddled with potholes. They do not qualify for federal funds.

Repairs on more than 2,300 miles of roads that are not eligible for any money in Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton and Dorchester counties would receive money for maintenance if the fee is imposed.

"Our first priority has to be to rescue our roads that are crumbling," said State Highway Commissioner Bob Harrell. "The roads have been patched and re-patched so many times that we now have a crisis on our hands. It's not that our funding source is too small. There is no funding source."

Money was previously available, but for the past four years officials with the state Department of Transportation have diverted funds from their maintenance budget to pay for new construction projects. The trade-off has created a yearly $560 million maintenance shortfall.

David Hartgen, a professor of transportation studies at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, said South Carolina transportation officials knew the day of reckoning was fast-approaching. Since 1984, Hartgen has analyzed all state highway departments and ranked them according to cost-effectiveness.

Historically, South Carolina has done well, he said, scoring in the top five. The state's ranking dropped between 2001 and 2002, when South Carolina slipped from third to 22nd.

Hartgen cites three reasons:

-- The state embarked on several large projects, including the new, $632 million Cooper River bridge.

-- The state has 41,000 miles of state-owned roads to maintain, the fifth-largest system in the country.

-- South Carolina motorists pay one of the lowest gas taxes in the country. The gas tax has not been increased since 1987.

"We all want low taxes, perfect roads and access," Hartgen said. "But the time has come for South Carolina to address this problem openly. They have done a great job under tough circumstances. But everything breaks down. They are now saying they need money."

Although highway commissioners are calling for new fees, whether you end up paying them depends on lawmakers and the governor.

It may prove a tough sell.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the DOT needs money," said state Rep. Annette Young, chairman of the House Ways and Means transportation subcommittee. "But I don't like the idea of raising taxes."

The commissioners' proposal also does not sound like the best idea to Commissioner Harrell's son, state Rep. Bobby Harrell, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

"I agree with my dad, that there is a need for road maintenance, and the DOT is making a strong, legitimate argument that they need money," said Rep. Harrell. "I just think you ought to use money from the General Fund before you increase fees or taxes."

Rep. Harrell said he is drafting a bill that would detail how $60 million could be siphoned from the state's coffers to the DOT's maintenance budget. He cited gas tax and vehicle license fee revenues. A portion of such revenues used to be given to the state DOT, but the state's hard financial times the past several years have shifted that money to other agencies, he said.

"Now that the state's revenue picture has turned around, it is time to put that money ($60 million) back where it belongs ó in road funding and maintenance," said Rep. Harrell.

Unlike other state agencies, such as the Department of Natural Resources or the state Department of Motor Vehicles, the state DOT is not under the purview of the governor. Commissioners decide which projects are funded and how remaining money is spent.

State Rep. Chip Limehouse, whose father Buck Limehouse was a highway commissioner in the 1990s, said he will not give a dime to the state DOT until the department makes two changes in the way it operates.

First, the DOT would have to become a Cabinet-level agency under the control of the governor. Second, the DOT has to start spending its budget in a prudent fashion.

"Before we pour more money into the DOT, we are going to have to see a change in their culture and the way they spend money," Limehouse said.

He added if the state DOT would quit building unnecessary projects ó he cited the widening of U.S. Highway 52 near Lake City in Williamsburg and Florence counties and the proposed construction of a bridge over the Santee River in Calhoun and Sumter counties ó it would have millions to spend on maintenance.

Some who drive the worn out roads say they would not be opposed to paying the $30 fee.

A guarantee from elected officials that the additional money would only be used for road maintenance would be enough for Johns Island resident William Handy to willingly pay an extra $30 a year.

"If the money would strictly go for potholes and not into pockets, I would support it," he said. "People always are talking about the poor conditions of our roads."

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