DOT leaders say roads in crisis but there is no quick fix

COLUMBIA - South Carolina's road system remains in "crisis" even with last year's legislative money, say leaders of the state's highway agency who are trying to dampen expectations by motorists that the system can be improved quickly, no matter how much funding is approved.

Mike Wooten, immediate past chairman of the state Department of Transportation, on Monday told an audience at the annual conference of the S.C. Alliance to Fix Our Roads that it might take two decades to make the system good, even if the Legislature gives the agency what it needs.

Meanwhile a panel of 10 lawmakers at the conference said they believe the gas tax should be increased and most don't see a pressing need to pass additional DOT reform.

Some said they remain optimistic a road funding bill will pass this year and that the expected exit of Gov. Nikki Haley to become United Nations ambassador will make finding a legislative solution easier.

"When she's gone our chances of passing common-sense legislation go up exponentially," said Rep. Todd Rutherford, the leader of House Democrats who is proposing lawmakers explore licensing casinos along the coast to pay for road repairs and other state needs.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Tommy Pope said "there is that potential" for an easier process with Haley absent.

"I think that's what you heard the panelists allude to," he said. "There would be a cooperative effort with the new governor, rather than parsing out issues that really didn't focus on the ultimate goal of getting our roads fixed."

Haley insisted lawmakers include tax cuts and DOT reform with any road-funding package and threatened to veto any bill to raise the gas tax that didn't include those elements.

Lawmakers last year could not agree on a plan to raise the gas tax so they settled instead on a plan could mean almost $4 billion more for South Carolina roads over the next decade, primarily through bonds. The state's leaders said then they would tackle the issue of how to provide a more sustainable revenue source for road and bridge needs this year.

A new House proposal would raise the tax by 2 cents per year over five years, while a Senate plan would increase it by 4 cents over three years.  Both plans do other things, with the House plan increasing the cap on the sales tax on cars, creating a fee on hybrid and electric vehicles and creating a fee on out-of-state truckers, while the Senate plan would include several fee increases and lowering commercial and income taxes.

DOT officials, however, warned that no matter how much money is approved, the system has been neglected for so long that it could take decades to repair to good condition.

"It took us 30 years to get in this position," Wooten said. "You can't expect us to get back in five or 10. Frankly, I expect it will take more than a decade and possibly as much as two decades to get our roads back to good."

State Transportation Secretary Christy Hall said the state's road system is "still in a state of crisis," with the nation's highest road fatality rate, poor pavements that have doubled in the past decade and stretches of interstate that have to be reconstructed, something she said is "unheard of" with interstates.

Even with the funding of several major interstate projects last year, including the I-385/85 interchange outside Greenville, much of South Carolina's interstates are in need of improvement, she said. In fact, none of I-95 is set to be improved, work that would cost billions of dollars, and $900 million would be needed, officials say, to complete the widening of I-26 from Charleston to Columbia.

No program has been funded to widen primary routes or to work on some of the 400 deficient bridges in the primary system, Hall said.

Hall estimated the annual price tag for closing the gap between available funding and needs in the areas of safety, paving, maintenance and bridges is $943 million.  Another $109 million is needed annually for widenings and $38 million for mass transit, she said, warning that some of the state's interstates can't be widened further and it is "absolutely essential" that officials begin discussing improvements to transit systems.

The annual total, she said, of what is needed in additional funding is about $1.1 billion, slightly below the figure she estimated last year after removing estimates for premium transit, such as high-speed rail, and new roads.

Lawmakers said they are prepared to support increases in the state's gas tax, last raised in 1987, to help close that gap.

"We need more money and we need a lot of it," said Rutherford, who explained that he would support the House gas tax bill but also believes casinos could bring the state hundreds of millions of dollars from tourism.

Sen. Ross Turner, a Greenville Republican and a co-sponsor of the Senate road-funding plan, said his support of a past gas-tax bill in the Senate drew robo-calls to his district comparing him to former President Barack Obama.

"I was willing to take the bullet," he said. "I was sent down here to fix problems. This is a problem.  Is the gas tax the only solution? Absolutely not. We'll wind up here in this same place if that's all we do."

Turner said lawmakers need to look at fees on alternative-fuel vehicles, not just those with gas engines.

"If it means I won't get re-elected in four years for passing something that solves a problem, I'm fine with that," he said. "I've got a job. "

Wooten asked the panel about his concern that any measure could stall in the Senate.

"For the exception of maybe two hours, we didn't really debate the issue last year," said Sen. Sean Bennett, a Dorchester County Republican and sponsor of the current Senate road-funding plan. "We need the leadership of the Senate to make sure that happens and allow for it. Honest debate results in good things, usually."

Wooten said an audit by the Legislative Audit Council proved that there was no mismanagement, fraud or waste at the agency. He said DOT critics will need new tactics this year.

Incoming DOT Chairman Woody Willard of Spartanburg said what matters most is choosing the right people to be commissioners, not the framework for selecting them.

"We take the governance we are given and do the best job we can," he said.

Most of the lawmakers on the panel said they were not interested in again debating changes to the DOT governance system, or at least not making such changes a priority.

House Majority Leader Gary Simrill said lawmakers should watch how the reforms enacted last year work before changing them.

Bennett said the system can always be improved and those improvements are legitimate for discussing.

"Does having a cabinet-level position guarantee or fix all real or perceived problems? No," he said. "I think we've gone a long way down that road and now we have to shift that conversation to the funding mechanism."