First fix the highway governance problem
South Carolina’s roads still need fixing.
And the state legislature still hasn’t figured out how to get it done.
The answer is to reform the state’s failed transportation governance. They must first go to the quite obvious root of the problem and drive a wooden stake through its heart. That means imploding the current system that has transportation decisions being made by a few powerful legislators instead of by actual needs and long-term planning. Our current failed transportation funding system, dominated by the legislature’s politics, would rather produce new roads than maintain existing roads. Who gets patched potholes named after them?
That is exactly why we are in this mess: crumbled pavement, ancient bridges, unsafe shoulders, pathetic conditions on Interstate-95, roads to nowhere, unmowed medians, and on and on.
But you can’t simply throw money at it, as the quick-fix tribe insists. They want a 10- to 12-cent increase over time in the state gasoline tax, in addition to a number of other increases in transportation-related fees and taxes.
But even with more money in a rotten system, you still have a rotten system.
Besides, spending on the roads has been increasing in recent years.
As state Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort put it in a recent op-ed:
“Spending on South Carolina’s roads has skyrocketed during my time in the Senate. When I first took office in 2009, we spent $1 billion a year; now, after steady increases, road spending is $2.2 billion. Yet despite this 120 percent increase, many of our state’s roads remain in bad condition. Which begs an obvious question: ‘Why aren’t we getting the results the people deserve given the amount of their money we are spending?’ ”
It’s because the legislature has been unwilling to abolish the current system. We must not squander this opportunity for change.
The state House sent the Senate a bill this session that would have made the state Highway Commission appointed by the governor and accountable to the governor. That would change the way highway dollars are spent, taking out of the equation the old politics of regionalism that consistently pull South Carolina down.
But a Senate subcommittee stripped the reform proposals from the bill, making it purely about pouring more money down the same old rat hole.
This is unfortunate and short-sighted. But an attempt in the Senate on Wednesday to debate the bill by giving it “special order” status failed. That’s good. That is a step in the right direction.
We disagree with legislators who will not support a gas tax hike without other, off-setting tax cuts. That skirts the issue. The discussion of South Carolina tax policy is always a good one because the current system is so convoluted. Can you say, “Act 388”? However, that is an entirely different set of issues than the simple question of whether more money needs to be dedicated to transportation.
And the spending question is separate from the governance problem, which must be fixed first.
This story was originally published April 2, 2017 at 6:00 AM with the headline "First fix the highway governance problem."