The Legislature’s failure to adequately fund highway construction and maintenance is endangering a $1.6 billion slice of the state’s economy.

Highway work in South Carolina is becoming scarcer and scarcer, and companies that build and maintain roads are having to look to other states for work, an industry representative said Tuesday.

“If BMW were to come to the Legislature and say, ‘We are going to China,’ everybody would be upset,” said Bill Dubose, a former DOT engineer who works for the American Concrete Pavement Association.

“That is the magnitude of what we are talking about.”

Under-funded highway construction and maintenance was one of the perennial issues that raised its hand Tuesday as the S.C. Chamber of Commerce kicked off its annual series of regional meetings to take businesses’ pulse prior to a new legislative session.

The chamber has scheduled nine meetings around the state to get input from business leaders before crafting its 2007 “Competitiveness Agenda.”

The first meeting, with the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce as host, was held Tuesday in Columbia.

A study by the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina found that spending by the S.C. Department of Transportation has about a $2.1 billion economic impact annually with $1.6 billion attributed to highway construction and maintenance.

The study also estimated that 50,000 people work in the state’s transportation construction industry.

“We’ve talked about safety issues until we are blue in the face,” said Deborah Bass, executive director of the S.C. Transportation Policy and Research Council. “Apparently three people getting killed every day doesn’t have an impact on people.”

So the proponents of increased funding hope economic arguments will get lawmakers’ attention next year.

The State Department of Transportation is so under-funded that every penny of maintenance money now goes to match federal highway funds, Bass said.

In 1970, highway funding represented 17 percent of the state budget. Today it represents 6 percent.

As a result, South Carolina has done little to no maintenance on its secondary roads and bridges. Approximately half of the state’s secondary roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and one out of every five bridges is considered deficient, according to the transportation council.

In the past, business leaders have supported an increase in the state’s motor fuel tax along with measures to redirect back to the highway fund highway user fees that are currently diverted to the state’s general fund.

With the high cost of gasoline, an increase in the motor fuel tax is likely to face tough sledding again in 2007.

“It is critical we deal with highway funding this year,” House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said in a statement. “We are going to introduce legislation that would move money from the general fund to the highway trust fund.

“With the big surplus we had last year and with revenue coming in strong this year, this is a way for us to deal with this problem without having to raise taxes.”