Let the tourists pay for wider bridge to Hilton Head
I just read the piece about horrific Saturday traffic on the bridge to Hilton Head Island. We haven’t been on that bridge on a summer Saturday since we moved here 14 years ago. Bluffton businesses just have to make do without our patronage when tourist season hits. We also avoid the island’s south end at those times.
The Chamber of Commerce has been singing Hilton Head’s praises very successfully these past few years. There are more tourists visiting than ever.
Now we are being asked to fund a widening of the bridge we don’t go over on Saturdays to make room for the tourists who do. How about some sort of bed tax increase instead, so the tourists pick up the bill for the widening?
By the way, many of us made the point when they widened U.S. 278 that it would just end up creating a bottleneck at the bridge. I guess that’s what happened and that’s too bad but it was predictable.
I like tourists as much as the next person but I am not interested in raising my taxes to make their trip more pleasant. Let the businesses that benefit from tourism pay the bill for the tourists who are making them wealthy.
Phyllis Bartoe
Hilton Head Island
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