DALLAS – South Carolina lawmakers passed a transportation funding bill in the final hours of the 2016 legislative session that would authorize up to $2.3 billion of road revenue bonds over the next 10 years.
The bonds would be supported by permanently redirecting to the state highway fund an estimated $216 million per year of recurring revenues from the state's sales taxes on vehicles and several fees collected by the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
Currently only half of the collections from the sales tax, which is capped at $300 per vehicle, are dedicated to the highway fund with the remaining revenues flowing into the general fund.
The final bill, S. 1258, was developed after the Senate in April rejected a House transportation proposal that included a 10 cent per gallon increase in the state's 16 cent per gallon gasoline tax. The tax, which is one of the lowest in the U.S., generates about $480 million per year.
The House agreed on the Senate bill on Wednesday, just before the session's end on Thursday.
Gov. Nikki Haley has not said whether she will enact the measure or veto it.
The bill would revamp oversight of the South Carolina Department of Transportation by giving the governor the authority to nominate all eight members of the state transportation commission, with approval from regional state lawmakers and consent of the state Senate. The highway commissioners would select the state transportation secretary, who is currently appointed by the governor.
House Speaker Jay Lucas, a Republican like Haley, said the governor should sign the bill as soon as possible.
"Although this bill is not perfect, the House and Senate have worked together, made tough decisions, and followed through with our promise to fix South Carolina's roads," Lucas said. "The people of South Carolina should not have to wait any longer for their dangerous roads and bridges to be repaired."
The bond proceeds would free up other funding that can be used to replace bridges and maintain the existing highway inventory, said state Transportation Secretary Christy Hall. That means more than $4 billion would be available for highway and bridge projects that will eliminate the state's load-restricted spans over the next 10 years, she said.
Rep. Gary Simrill, the House assistant majority leader who led the two-year fight to increase state highway funding, said the additional funding would allow SCDOT to replace 399 bridges, including 51 structurally deficient bridges on interstates and major state highways.
"This, at the end of the day gives us reform, it gives us funding, it gives us clarity and it sets about the process of making sure South Carolina roadways will not be a laughingstock, an embarrassment," Simrill said. "You never really recognize just how important a bridge is until it isn't there one day."
The bill would provide much-needed funding for immediate repairs to the state's crumbling but it is not a permanent fix, Simrill said.
"A gasoline tax is really the only long-term solution," he said.
State Sen. Hugh K. Leatherman Sr., chairman of the finance committee who sponsored the Senate bill, said road funding will be a top priority in the 2017 legislative agenda as it has over the past two years.
"We've got to come back and get a recurring stream of money to fix our roads every year," Leatherman said.
The legislation would transfer $65.7 million of general fund revenues to SCDOT for the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank.
The measure stipulates that $50 million of the transfer must be used to finance bridge replacement and rehabilitation projects and improvements on existing roads within the state highway system. The remaining $15.7 million could be used for interstate highway expansions and improvements.
The road bill would lower the infrastructure bank's threshold for eligible projects to $25 million from the current floor of $100 million, and requires approval by the state transportation commission of the projects.
