Hall was concerned that the initial bill passed by the South Carolina Senate was sending too much money – $185 million – directly to the counties. She said the state’s non-interstate highways were in a “state of crisis,” and the SCDOT needs the money to fix the 80 percent considered to be in disrepair.
And the House took her advice, according to WYFF. The House overwhelmingly approved revised legislation 84-23 on Tuesday night. The new plan will provide the SCDOT with $316 million for road work in 2015 and another $49 million to pay for emergency road repairs needed after serious flooding in 2015.
Under the new plan, counties will get $50 million to fix the smaller projects that aren’t eligible for federal matches. Some of the dissenters of the new plan said that it would ignore the poor roads in rural parts of the state.
But the House plan didn’t address the need for sustainable funding for transportation in the state. The debate over the bill waged late, with Democrats arguing the new roads bill needed to raise the gas tax as well in order to create new revenue.
