The South Carolina Alliance to Fix Our Roads Says Legislature Must Provide Stop-Gap Funding from Surplus After Failure To Fix SC Roads
June 7, 2015
With political roadblocks killing any comprehensive infrastructure plan again this year, South Carolina must literally “fill the holes” in road funding with surplus dollars
COLUMBIA, SC – For the second year in a row, the South Carolina Senate failed to pass any form of long-term plan to address the state’s infrastructure needs, leaving both the state’s pot holes and transportation funding holes unaddressed. The General Assembly must now appropriate as much of the $400 million in supplemental dollars as possible to critical infrastructure needs or risk further crumbling of state-owned highways and bridges, increased job losses in the construction industry and hampering economic development.
According to recent reports, the current state of South Carolina’s roads cost drivers an average of $1,200 in extra fuel, maintenance and repair and lost time. Additionally, South Carolina’s rural roads were rated the second deadliest in the country. The price tag grows every day that the SC Legislature takes no action.
“The Senate could not come together to pass a comprehensive road plan again this year. ‘No’ is not a plan. Now they must use the surplus to fill the hole until next year, otherwise it will be a complete and total failure of leadership from our elected officials,” said Bill Ross, Executive Director of the SC Alliance to Fix Our Roads (SCFOR). “Using one-time money is not ideal and is not a long-term plan to fix our roads, but our leaders must show the people of this state that there is progress. Otherwise confidence in our politicians will crumble like the roads we are talking about,” Ross continued.
The SC House of Representatives debated and passed a plan put forth by their Infrastructure Study Committee, but the measure could not find consensus in the Senate. The Governor, nor any key Senate leaders publicly attempted to rally the body around a plan, letting the Senate grind to a halt from a Senator Tom Davis filibuster.
“It’s going to require real leadership to fund a stop-gap in the surplus and then finally pass a real plan next January,” said Eric Dickey, Chairman of SCFOR. “The political attacks from out-of-state hit groups cannot result in a complete failure this year. The people of this state, who live and vote here support fixing our roads.”
The South Carolina Alliance to Fix Our Roads is a non-partisan, nonprofit, statewide organization made up of business leaders, associations and chambers of commerce who believe that the time to fix our crumbling roads is way overdue. Everyday that goes by that our elected officials are not taking action; it is costing you money and putting lives at risk.
