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Transportation upgrades depend on tax dollars
By Scott Miller
Staff Writer
Long commutes and an exploding population keep raising the blood pressure on the Lowcountry’s transportation infrastructure, but future plans and projects will have to wait until the state can find a way to pay for them.
The S.C. Transportation Infrastructure Bank can no longer offer funding for new construction projects. The well is dry, but the requests keep coming.
“We always have more requests than funding,” said Don Leonard, bank chairman. “We’re fully invested. We aren’t in a position to approve any new funding.”
Funding for current construction or for future projects that have received approval is not in jeopardy. So the $420 million earmarked for the Mark Clark Expressway, for example, is not at risk.
“In the history of the bank, that has never been an issue. As long as I’m chairman, that will not be an issue,” Leonard said.
Still, the bank receives three to four requests each year, but the Legislature hasn’t appropriated money since 2006.
There are options, however.
Several legislative measures prefiled in December would create methods for funding transportation, but Gov. Mark Sanford’s intentions remain unknown.
The governor will present his executive budget to lawmakers this month. Until then, most appropriations are under wraps, said Joel Sawyer, the govenor’s spokesman.
The governor visited Mount Pleasant last month to tout his plan to triple the funds directed to the S.C. Conservation Land Bank to protect rural land from development. Last year, the state funneled $15 million to the bank. This year, Sanford wants to provide $65 million.
Critics noted that the state expects a tight fiscal year ahead and that it has bigger needs. Transportation is one of the biggest, said Rep. Annette Young, R-Summerville.
“I think we’re going to be short (in the budget), so $50 million is a bit much for this bank,” said Young, vice chair of the House Ways and Means committee. Transportation is a “desperate” need, as population growth pushes the limits of existing infrastructure, she said.
A group of more than 150 business and community leaders recently discussed that issue and hammered out the most important transportation upgrades needed to handle population growth over the next two decades. Participating in a “Reality Check” exhibition organized by the Urban Land Institute South Carolina, the group outlined several regional transportation needs.
Going forward, the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments will develop a specific infrastructure plan and analyze the cost. Funding will likely come from a mix of local, state and federal dollars.
At the state level, lawmakers have decried raising the state’s 16-cents-a-gallon motor fuel tax, which was last changed in 1989.
Young, who plans to push for more road funding this year, doesn’t support increasing the tax either. She intends to introduce legislation that would direct all sales taxes on automobiles to the state Department of Transportation for roadway repairs and construction. The tax generates about $92 million a year for the general revenue fund.
Sen. President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, already introduced the measure in the Senate. Bill 891 would direct all revenues from sale, use and casual excise taxes from the purchase or titling of vehicles to the State Highway Fund. In addition, an equal amount of non-state tax revenues in the fund would be transferred to the Transportation Infrastructure Bank.
A similar effort failed last session, however, but it’s not the only transportation-funding bill awaiting debate this year:
• Senate bill 892, introduced by McConnell and Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau, would direct 2% of the state’s general revenue fund into a newly created Transportation Maintenance Fund.
• House bill 4310, introduced by Rep. Mac Toole, R-West Columbia, would allow residents to contribute to transportation maintenance and repaving via their income tax returns.
Scott Miller is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at smiller@setcommedia.com.
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