State leaders must address burgeoning financial sinkhole

Thanks for the recent column about what South Carolina’s refusal to comply with the federal Real ID anti-terrorism law is going to cost average citizens (“No passport? No military ID? You could soon be grounded,” Dec. 4).

I soon won’t be able to go into any federal building, since I only have a S.C. driver’s license, and no money for a passport. Thank goodness I can get by without flying ever again.

I had forgotten about this particular bit of foolhardiness on the part of former Gov. Mark Sanford and the Legislature. Geez. So now we have this in addition to:

1) a pension system deficit of more than $20 billion.

2) a still-incomplete computer system for child support that is behind by almost 30 years.

3) no real response to the Supreme Court order in the school funding lawsuit to help underfunded school districts.

4) no responsibility required of people who own property with dams they cannot afford to safely maintain, leaving far too many other people at risk of losing all they have from repeats of the floods of 2015 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

5) a nightmare road/bridge/traffic problem that is dangerous and costly to citizens (car repairs, new tires, etc.) and a projected $30 billion price tag to repair and expand the roads to meet our expected population growth.

It’s going to take a lot more than Volvo, Boeing and the other businesses that Gov. Nikki Haley brought into South Carolina to generate anywhere near the money needed to bring our state out of the financial sinkhole that is coming at us.

The Legislature and governor need to do something.