Gov. McMaster wants $300M for I-73 to help drivers. Are SC lawmakers on board?
Should COVID-19 relief dollars, along with money from South Carolina’s budget surplus, go toward building a new interstate to connect Interstate 95 with Horry County? Lawmakers who control the state’s purse strings have an expensive decision to make.
And other priorities may be first in line.
Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday announced he wants to commit $300 million to the $1.2 billion construction of a future Interstate 73, a long sought-after highway that would bring the interstate system closer to Myrtle Beach. The money would come from federal dollars meant to replace revenue lost due to the coronavirus pandemic and from the $1 billion in projected surpluses from the state’s 2021-22 budget.
State lawmakers will ultimately decide how to spend $2.5 billion in federal COVID relief money, $453 million of which is specifically meant to make up for revenue the state lost due to COVID-19. McMaster already wants to use $360 million of that pot to widen I-26 between Columbia and Charleston.
Lawmakers don’t plan to come back this fall to decide how to spend federal COVID relief money, with those decisions expected next year. The timing allows them to see what happens with the pandemic and monitor what other needs come about or if other variants of the virus pop up.
“It’s difficult to project out ... where we’re going to be, because as you know, a billion dollars in reserves, while in a great place, that can be diminished quickly,” said House Majority Leader Gary Simrill, R-York.
State Sen. Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee, who is chairing the Senate Finance Subcommittee tasked with recommending how to spend federal COVID relief dollars, said McMaster’s recommendation for I-73 funding will be reviewed.
“It will be given a consideration (with) other requests that have been made,” Alexander said.
Alexander said he doesn’t have a timeline on when his panel of senators will finalize their recommendations.
But McMaster’s recommendation might have to compete with other funding priorities, including highways themselves. Those are decisions budget writers on the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees will have to go through.
“I think priority one is expanding the existing infrastructure prior to funding new infrastructure. Does that mean I-73 is not important? Absolutely not,” Simrill said. “If you look at a map of South Carolina, that I-73 connector as an interstate going to the beach is very important.”
Other projects such as widening I-26 between Columbia and Charleston and widening I-95 coming in from Georgia could take precedence.
State Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, is opposed to using federal COVID-19 relief money for I-73.
Cobb-Hunter said COVID relief money should be used to help marginalized and disadvantaged communities.
“Don’t use federal dollars that were meant to address problems associated with the pandemic,” Cobb-Hunter said.
Cobb-Hunter, however, said she does support the widening of I-26 and using COVID relief money for that project.
“A part of what is needed with the widening is about safety. ... The Orangeburg County portion of I-26 is known for accidents, constantly,” Cobb-Hunter said. “So it’s an economic development issue, it’s a health and safety issue, and it’s a matter of just making sure that workers are able to go to work and come back without having to be in a traffic jam on I-26.”
McMaster has yet to roll out all of his recommendations of how to spend COVID-19 relief money, but those announcements could come soon.
Accelerate SC, the governor’s committee tasked with making recommendations to the governor on where to spend the relief money, made its recommendations in August. Among those recommendations was spending $490 million on broadband expansion in the state and $400 million for rural water and sewer infrastructure projects.
