Roads, Roads, Roads

Road conditions have been a great concern for South Carolina drivers for quite some time. Anyone who has driven on Interstate 26 into North Carolina or I-95 into Georgia has probably noticed that the roads suddenly got better after crossing the state lines.
Fixing our roads has been the top priority for the South Carolina General Assembly for the past two years, but no road improvement legislation has been passed to date. Legislation involving an increase in the fuels tax was successfully filibustered last year by Senators Lee Bright (R-Spartanburg County), Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) and Kevin Bryant (R-Anderson).
Conservative activist groups, including Americans For Prosperity — South Carolina, the South Carolina Policy Council, and Americans For Liberty have campaigned heavily to suspend any tax increases until the South Carolina Dept. of Transportation (SCDOT) is restructured. The SCDOT maintains an inventory of more than 44,000 linear miles of roads and has an unwieldy chain of command.
The General Assembly entered its 2016 session in January with the default position of raising the fuels tax. Senators Bright, Davis, and Bryant filibustered the legislation for five full legislative days and Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler (R-Cherokee) came up with alternative legislation with no tax increase and a restructuring plan for the SCDOT.
The Senate passed a road improvement bill in late March, which includes $400 million from the state General Fund to go into road projects in addition to $481 million in fuels tax revenue at current levels. It empowers the Governor to appoint all eight SCDOT Commissioners (who will serve four-year terms) to be confirmed by the Senate. The bill also calls for a recurring $50 million from the General Fund to go into the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank (SIB), which funds new projects like I-526.
The roads bill now heads to the House, which is coming off of several weeks of furlough. Gov. Nikki Haley has urged the House to pass the Senate bill without amendment, but that now appears unlikely. House members have expressed concerns about not having a role in the confirmation of the SCDOT Commissioners and the lack of recurring funds in the Senate bill. The $400 million for roads in the Senate bill came from a 2016 revenue surplus.
Current South Carolina Transportation Secretary Christy Hall was appointed by Gov. Haley but serves with seven Congressional District Highway Commissioners who were selected by legislators. This structure has led to a Balkanized approach to prioritizing road projects. Hall told The State (Columbia) newspaper that resolving the SCDOT governance structure is more important than next year’s road funding levels.
A recent audit of the SCDOT by the state Legislative Audit Council revealed some systemic problems, including lack of prioritization, an ineffective internal auditing system, and a lack of emphasis on periodic maintenance. In 2015, the SCDOT spent $182 Million on “metropolitan planning”, more than five times the amount required by federal law.
Local road projects get further complicated by the labyrinth of agencies involved. Many small roads, including Old Towne and Orange Grove roads are part of the SCDOT inventory, which means that local governments can’t make changes to speed limits or add a traffic light without SCDOT approval. That has been a sticking point in coming up with a solution at the “suicide merge” at Old Towne Road and Sam Rittenberg Boulevard.
Local road projects also get scrutinized by the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council On Governments (COG) and the Charleston Area Regional Transportation System (CHATS). The bureaucrats at those agencies can impede the ability of local elected officials to find solutions.
Since the SCDOT does not have regional offices, all decisions involving roads in the SCDOT inventory must go through Columbia. I favor decentralization, with roads like Old Towne and Orange Grove being turned over to local governments with maintenance funds attached.
While we can all agree that our roads need improvement, we need leaders at all levels of government to work together to find solutions. Maintaining existing roads must be a priority. We must also find a way to fund I-526 to relieve traffic congestion in West Ashley..
John Steinberger is the former chairman of the Charleston County Republican Party, a leading Fair Tax advocate, and a West Ashley resident. He can be reached at John.steinberger@scfairtax.org.