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Two Upstate legislators said Wednesday they expect to see action on increasing state Department of Transportation funding dedicated to road maintenance in 2007 -- but they're not sure what shape the action will take.

State Sen. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, and state Rep. B.K. Skelton, R-Pickens, spoke at the annual Upstate Transportation Summit, organized by the Greater Greenville, Spartanburg Area and Greater Greer chambers of commerce. The half-day meeting focused on mass transit, but highway needs also were discussed.

"I think DOT -- transportation infrastructure -- will be the front-burner issue this year," said Verdin.

He said he's concerned that infrastructure funding not become tangled up with the anticipated attempt to restructure the Transportation Department, perhaps making it a cabinet-level department. No matter what happens with the restructuring, funding needs to be addressed, Verdin said.

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Verdin said the state needs to diversify its funding for highway maintenance rather than relying on one or two revenue streams.

One possibility, which neither see as likely, is an increase in the state's excise tax on gasoline. It currently brings 16 cents on a gallon of gasoline. If a tax increase doesn't fly, Skelton suggested the possibility of indexing the excise fee to the Consumer Price Index. The tax then would increase with the CPI, generally a portion of a penny per gallon annually.

He said he recently talked with a trucking group, which said it would support increasing the excise tax on gasoline because of the need to maintain the highway infrastructure in the state.

Another possibility, he said, is switching the gasoline tax to a sales tax, which is automatically indexed. Also, if the auto sales tax money -- now capped at $300 a vehicle -- is transferred to state DOT, he said he'd like to see the cap raised to $500 a vehicle. Skelton also floated the idea of setting a fee on driveways, probably about $2 each annually. That would bring in about $26 million a year and makes sense, he said, because DOT puts in many free driveways on state highways.

"There are a number of things we could do, but I'm not sure we will do anything," he said.

"We'll have to cobble it together," Verdin said.

But he said he believes the public wants to see highway infrastructure maintained and improved even if that construction does end up costing them a little more in fees or taxes.

"The public does not want to see a continued degradation of the road system," he said, and probably would support "little" increases in taxes or fees.

As the state's population continues to grow and to age, mass transit issues are becoming more important, several speakers said. The population of the Upstate is expected to increase by 50 percent in the next 25 years, said Jim Daniels, special assistant to the South Carolina Department of Transportation and a former Clemson University professor

"We're already crowded," he said. "We're going to have a greater need to get people, products and materials into, out of and through the state."

And "traffic growth is far outpacing population growth," said Russell Stall, executive director of Greenville Forward. Of the top 15 issues facing the Upstate, members of focus groups told the organization that congestion on the roads and highways is the fourth most important issue.

Other issues discussed at the summit included:

-- High-speed rail. Rail is a logical alternative to roads that can't be widened any further, Daniels said. A feasibility report on the high-speed rail system and the likely speeds is expected from the Volpe Center after Christmas.

"It's going to happen," he said, and high-speed rail will boost economic development opportunities and job creation.

-- Low-fare carriers at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport. GSP, which serves 16 destinations with non-stop service, is losing about 35 percent of its potential traffic to Atlanta and Charlotte, said Rosylin Weston, GSP spokeswoman. Fare cost is the driver of that leakage, but the need for additional non-stop designations also plays in a traveler's decision.

GSP recently talked with Frontier Airlines, a low-fare carrier based in Denver, and has been asked for more information, she said. A non-stop flight to Denver, the 14th most popular destination out of the local airport, would open up the western part of the country to GSP.

-- Bus systems in Spartanburg and Greenville. Judy Dudley, general manager of Greenville Transit System, and Marc Keenan, general manager of Transit Management of Spartanburg, both said they face funding difficulties and a lack of needed service. Both are trying to find funds to expand the service they provide.

-- State DOT statewide planning project mass transit. The state is developing a plan, anticipated in the late fall of 2007, that would make it easier for residents to travel around the state without a car. That includes creating strategic, non-interstate corridors that could be used for mass transit and figuring out ways to encourage people to use mass transit.

In addition, the state is inventorying all the mass transit systems statewide to determine what needs are not being met. The biggest issues facing mass transit are lack of funding, lack of service and a lack of connections between various kinds of transportation, said Frank Curti, senior planner with URS Corp.