I-73 Boondoggle Included In “Shortfall”

$2.4 BILLION PROJECT PART OF SO-CALLED “INFRASTRUCTURE GAP”

According to S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and Janet Oakley – the tax-hiking liberal lobbyist Haley installed as her new Transportation Department (SCDOT) director –  $2.4 billion for Interstate 73 is part of the state’s critical “infrastructure gap” over the next quarter century.

Crazy, isn’t it?  Last time we checked, non-essential projects shouldn’t be counted as part of a “shortfall.”

FITS was the first media outlet in the state to report on the $43 billion Haley says her agency will need to address infrastructure “priorities” over the next twenty-five years.

Where’d they get that figure?  Somebody pulled in out of their arse, that’s where …

Our leaders appropriate billions of dollars to totally unnecessary projects – like I-73 and I-526 – and continue to maintain the fourth-largest road system in America.  And then they wonder why there’s a shortfall?  Sheesh … no wonder this agency is always broke (forcing Haley to rely on Barack Obama for a federal bailout).  As long as the politicians’ pockets keep getting fat, right?

Hell there’s even a transportation boondoggle in this state related to … wait for it … the study of transportation.

FITS has been exposing South Carolina’s highway funding issues for years. Under Haley, bad has gotten worse – culminating in the drunk driving arrest of former SCDOT director Robert St. Onge, who resigned his office in disgrace earlier this year.

Haley says she won’t sign a gas tax increase … although she’s got no problem borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to keep money flowing into the highway boondoggles.

We oppose a gas tax increase.  Sure, South Carolina has the lowest gas prices in America, but its residents are dirt poor – and pay a higher percentage of their income on fuel than the residents of any other state save Mississippi.

But hey let’s keep borrowing money they can’t afford to fund unnecessary projects … that’s worked out so well in the past!

Never mind that common sense alternatives could solve the state’s coastal traffic issues for one-tenth the cost …