Our state lawmakers have a lot of things to worry about. Telling local governments how to name roads should not be one of them.

Yet the General Assembly has spent its valuable time in recent days doing just that.

The members came up with a bill that would prevent local governments from naming certain roads and highways after living people. Fortunately, it has been sent back to a subcommittee. It should be sent to the trash can.

Local governments know best who roads should be named after. In the cases when they make a mistake, well, it's their mistake and they can fix it by changing the name.

That's what is happening in the Upstate, where the Earle Morris Highway is being renamed after Morris was convicted of securities fraud. That specific case is what set a few misguided lawmakers into action with the proposed bill.

They obviously paid less heed to examples where naming roads after living people proved to be a wonderful experience for all involved.

The Cross-Island Parkway bridge, for example, was named for Charles Fraser, founder of Sea Pines, in 1999, three years before his tragic death. The dedication ceremony was a moving tribute to the man who first proposed a north-south link on the island, and let Fraser and his family know how much he was appreciated. It meant a lot not just to the Frasers but to other islanders who might not have known much about the history of the road.

Local officials, guided by local citizens, should be the only people involved in naming the roads in their communities. They are the ones who have to live with it.