Heavy trucks taking the back way between Piney Grove and Broad River roads have taken their toll on James and Miriam Ashford’s neighborhood.

Piney Woods Road, the narrow, two-lane highway they live on, is riddled with cracks and potholes. Until it was patched recently, a hump in the road near the Ashfords’ mailbox scraped the bottom of their car every time they pulled into the driveway.

“It was bad for us to turn in,” Miriam Ashford said. “It was a hazard.”

State lawmakers are debating how to fix roads like Piney Woods. Business leaders want a dedicated stream of revenue. A bill before the S.C. House would create a $70 million pool for state highway maintenance.

But officials from the state Department of Motor Vehicles are worried one proposal would mean taking money from their budget.

Business leaders used Piney Woods Road as a backdrop for a news conference Thursday urging the Legislature to repair state highways.

The state Department of Transportation three years ago stopped resurfacing the roads because of budget woes. Now, more than half are deteriorated, and the state has the eighth-highest highway fatality rate, they said.

That’s bad for business and for residents, they said.

“It’s time for South Carolina to heed the ... warning signs coming from the deteriorating roads crisscrossing our state,” said state Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Hunter Howard.

But at news conferences across the state, Gov. Mark Sanford and DMV officials had a different message.

The bill business leaders back would take $8 million from the DMV’s $60 million budget. That could create longer waits at the DMV, executive director Marcia Adams said.

“We don’t want to go back to the way things were,” she said at the agency’s Lexington office. Until changes enacted over the past two years, S.C. residents often waited hours for service at DMV offices.

Joining her in Charleston, Sanford called the proposal a budget line change. “It’s a line change all right,” he said. “There would be a long line out this door and a lot of other DMV offices across South Carolina.”

The bill in question, sponsored by Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, would redirect money from state agencies to create a fund for state roads that don’t receive federal highway dollars.

Harrell said the cuts would be replaced with money from the state’s general fund. “All we are trying to do is put the money where it ought to be,” he said.

Adams said she still feared losing the money could force the DMV to reduce its Saturday hours and put on hold some new developments to its Web site, among other cuts in services.

Lawmakers will have to weigh the plight of the Ashfords on Piney Woods Road with those of other South Carolinians, such as Jerry Butler.

The Columbia resident, who was renewing disabled parking permits at the Lexington DMV office, said he doesn’t want a return to the old days.

“Six or seven years ago, it was absolutely pitiful” at the DMV, he said. But Thursday’s visit took only a few minutes.

“If it’s a choice between taking money from DMV and giving it to roads — find some other way to get money for roads.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Talhelm at (803) 771-8339 or jtalhelm@thestate.com.