There are potholes in state's highway funding

The leadership of this country is in the throes of heading off economic disaster. Every American has been affected by the crisis taking place on Wall Street and in Washington. Our economic situation will no doubt bring about changes in the way this county does business.

In the South Carolina Department of Transportation, changes in policy and business practices began May 2, 2007, when I became what was then the executive director of SCDOT. From that day, SCDOT shifted its focus from new construction to the preservation of our 41,000-mile state highway system, which I dubbed the "Fix It First" strategy. No longer could South Carolina afford to use maintenance dollars as match funds for new construction. Our highways and bridges were and are still behind schedule for resurfacing and replacement. However, we have made progress.

The SCDOT Reform Bill, which was passed and signed by Gov. Mark Sanford in 2007, changed and reorganized SCDOT. The agency could not turn on a dime to comply with the law in one day. Our staff began to put accountability procedures into place, as required by the law, and our engineers began applying the objective criteria that is now mandated for setting project priority lists.

All of these changes, whether directed by me or required by the reform bill, have been aimed at applying more of the dollars we have available to us to actual work on the highways and bridges, and the accounting of those dollars.

Despite the policy changes, SCDOT is still dealing with cold, hard facts that cannot be avoided. The dependency on the state gas tax as the primary source of highway funding will not meet the needs of South Carolina, or any state, for that matter.

That's the message I delivered to Congress when I testified before a House subcommittee June 24. We have two conflicting national policies: one that relies on the gas tax for revenue and another that encourages fuel conservation and the use of alternative fuels. The two do not support each other, and the mechanism by which we fund our highways is broken.

Couple this idea with the reality of what the sharp rise in the cost of fuel has created. The price of gas reached the tipping point this summer and people made an effort to drive less. Fewer miles driven means less consumption of gas and diesel fuel, and because our primary source of revenue is tied to the gasoline tax, our revenues have declined remarkably.

SCDOT has been affected by the cost of fuel just as the general public has. Our revenues have dropped each month for five straight months. We have reduced the number of miles driven, yet our fuel costs are higher.

The price of asphalt and other construction materials has skyrocketed. Yet we have managed to increase our maintenance budget when most other states are suspending maintenance or new construction, or both.

I and the staff at SCDOT saw this drop in revenue coming in 2007. We began a cost-saving effort at SCDOT that was primarily aimed at reducing administrative costs.

In February, I reported to the Senate Transportation Committee that SCDOT had found nearly $19 million in savings. The SCDOT Commission approved using the millions of dollars in savings to add to our maintenance budget. Money that was once spent on items such as travel and conferences is now being used to repair highways and bridges.

We have a list of projects that are under way or will be later this fall because we were ready when the Federal Highway Administration offered funding.

We at SCDOT have spent the past year and a half making this agency more accountable and more efficient. We want to make our highway system more efficient and safer, and we pledge to continue to do the best we can with what we have for the people of South Carolina.

H.B. Limehouse Jr. is the secretary of transportation for South Carolina.