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Legislature needs strategy to pay for state's highways

Old roads need maintenance; new ones need to be built

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Residents of Beaufort County and the city of Mount Pleasant have a common dislike of congested highways. More than a few people in both places continue to ask why local taxpayers are being asked to pony up the money to pay for highways that for years were paid for by the state.

The answer, of course, is that the S.C. Department of Transportation says it doesn't have the money. In fact, the recent decision by the State Infrastructure Bank to loan the transportation department $93 million to widen a 6-mile section of U.S. 17 instead of providing a grant to complete the whole $221 million, 22-mile project is indicative of the billions of dollars of under-financed needs statewide. The Beaufort County Council recently decided to include $5 million in the $152 million it's asking voters to approve in a November referendum to help offset a $19 million deficit for the U.S. 17 project. The council had to choose between the U.S. 17 project and a bus project to help eliminate traffic on U.S. 278.

Mount Pleasant Mayor Harry M. Hallman Jr. blames the state's highway problems on the legislature, which has failed to appropriate enough money to take care of our aging roads and build new ones.

The legislature allocates $510 million a year for road maintenance, but transportation department's executive director, Elizabeth Mabry, is seeking a 10-year plan that would increase funding to $1 billion a year.

The shortage of money has been apparent for years. The State Infrastructure Bank was formed as a result of inadequate funds. Soon after the infrastructure bank opened, though, money ran out, and the bank came back with a requirement that counties seeking money would have to contribute about 25 percent of a project's costs. Consequently, Beaufort County participated in paying for the widening of S.C. 170 so the badly needed project could be completed.

In a newspaper column last week, Hallman wrote that the legislature should create a bipartisan committee to consider a comprehensive funding plan for the nation's fourth-largest state-supported system. He also said the problem lingers because legislators fear voter backlash over a tax increase, presumably the gas tax, more than they fear anger over a failing road system.

Many in South Carolina share the sentiment that increasing the 16-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax is the right thing to do. Other states have enacted higher gas taxes to pay for infrastructure.

Tremendous growth in population, as well as in the number of tourists, over the past decade has had a significant impact on traffic congestion. Beaufort County grew by almost 40 percent in the 1990s, recording a population of 120,937 in the 2000 census. Projections indicate that the pace will continue.

While dollars are scarce, lawmakers must look for ways of paying for the maintenance and expansion of South Carolina's highway system.

Hallman may get some help in his plea from a soon-to-be-completed review of highway funding being done by the Legislative Audit Council. Let's hope legislators read it before they return to Columbia in January.