Highway commissioners say bad finances delay road work

COLUMBIA, S.C. – State highway commissioners say some roadwork will have to wait if lawmakers don’t provide some money for the agency.

“We are in dire straits; there’s no question about that,” said Commissioner Bob Harrell Sr., chairman of the Transportation Department board’s finance and administration committee. “I don’t think I’ve seen it this bad.”

The financial crunch is a result of increases in the cost of materials used to be roads, lack of growth in the agency’s primary funding source – gas taxes – and lower-than-anticipated federal highway revenues, said Mo Denny, the agency’s chief financial officer.

Some commissioners say it may be time to raise the gas tax, which has been unchanged since 1987. But that is unlikely in an election year.

AP