Opinions from around South Carolina: offshore drilling, DOT reform, marriage appeal, highway safety

DOT reform

A coalition of conservative groups is pushing to delay any additional funding to improve the state’s roads and bridges until the state transportation system is reformed.

The coalition is right about reform, but wrong about funding. …

Reform is overdue for the state Department of Transportation. The department is one of those state agencies run by a commission appointed mostly by lawmakers. This leads to inefficiency and a lack of accountability.

Audits have revealed that the department has wasted millions in taxpayers’ money. It has deceived lawmakers about its financial condition. It has focused on the pet projects of commissioners rather than state priorities. But no one is held accountable.

That’s because all elected officials can point to the unelected commission and claim they aren’t responsible for the department. That system needs to end. The commission should be abolished, and the department should be fully integrated into the governor’s Cabinet so the governor can be accountable for its performance.

But this coalition is wrong about waiting for that reform to happen before discussing funding. South Carolina has serious road needs that have been put off far too long. At the same time that lawmakers were refusing to fix the Transportation Department, they were balancing the state budget by deferring maintenance on the state’s roads. That work has added up.

Marriage appeal

A federal judge ordered (Attorney General Alan) Wilson to pay $130,600 in legal fees for a couple who challenged the state’s gay-marriage ban. Judge Richard Gergel also awarded them the full $4,700 they sought in other court costs and fees. …

What is more irksome is that the state’s case was hopeless from the start. Wilson was under no obligation to carry the challenge forward. He could have dropped it, as his North Carolina counterpart, Attorney General Roy Cooper, did.

By all appearances, the appeal was little more than an effort to appease opponents of gay marriage in the state. It was a political decision, not a practical one, and taxpayers had to pay for the charade.

It also demonstrated that both Wilson and Haley were determined to swim against the tide of changing public opinion. While their no-surrender stance might have resonated with a segment of voters, it was an unnecessary and expensive gesture.

For politicians who claim to be careful stewards of the state’s resources, this was money down the drain.

Offshore drilling

The South Carolina coast is virtually solid against offshore drilling, with Tuesday’s “no” vote by Myrtle Beach City Council. In the face of ever- growing local opposition, the continuing support of state leaders for a risky enterprise is ever more perplexing.

Myrtle Beach (City) Council voted 6-1 against seismic testing for oil deposits offshore and for the drilling that could follow. The council, like its counterparts up and down the coast, recognizes the hazard of offshore oil drilling to the state’s booming tourism economy and its natural resources.

The Grand Strand wouldn’t be quite so grand with tar balls washing up on shore. And an oil spill would have disastrous consequences for coastal South Carolina.

Coastal “no” votes recognize that the normal operations of the oil industry are incompatible with coastal South Carolina. And seismic testing is incompatible with the well-being of whales and dolphins that abound in coastal waters.

Myrtle Beach is the 20th local jurisdiction in South Carolina to join the effort to stop offshore drilling before it starts. …

Gov. Nikki Haley, so far a cheerleader for the drilling plan, should reconsider her position. State leaders should recognize that coastal residents have insight into the comparative value of offshore drilling vs. tourism.

Highway safety

People are dying on South Carolina’s roads and highways at an alarming rate in 2015. With 10 people killed this past weekend alone, the death toll for the year stands at 560, a nearly 21 percent increase over this time a year ago. In very real terms, that is the loss of 97 more people than the horrendous toll of 463 a year ago in August.

According to the S.C. Department of Public Safety, all 10 deaths this past weekend occurred on U.S. routes and state or secondary roads. No one was killed on the interstates, meaning the increase in summer travel cannot be blamed for a spike in deaths on a single weekend.

Two factors stand out, however.

Of the five deaths involving people in motor vehicles, all were not wearing seat belts. And of the 380 vehicle occupants who have died in 2015, 195 were not wearing seat belts.…

National, state and local headlines are dominated by threats to life in the form of crime and guns, as well as broader threats such as terrorism and nuclear weapons. These are important problems and issues. But they are equally issues and problems about which the average person can do only so much.

The danger on the roads and highways is more immediate and something about which nearly everyone can have a role in reducing.

This story was originally published August 18, 2015 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Opinions from around South Carolina: offshore drilling, DOT reform, marriage appeal, highway safety."