The filing period for the 2020 elections closed yesterday at noon, and several incumbents saw last-minute filings for the upcoming primaries. Here’s an overview of how the filings look for the 124 House seats and 46 Senate seats that will be on the ballot this year.

SC Senate
• There are three open seats.
• 10 Senators will NOT face opposition in the Primary and General Elections.
• 20 Senators will face opposition in the General Election.
• 13 Senators will face a primary challenge, with 9 of those races facing General Election opposition as well.

SC House of Representatives
• There are 11 open seats.
• 53 Representatives will NOT face opposition in the Primary and General Elections.
• 35 Representatives will face opposition in the General Election.
• 25 Representatives will face a primary challenge, with 13 of those races facing General Election opposition as well.

View SCFOR’s compilation of how the races stacked up in each district here. 

The SCDOT Commission held its February meeting on Thursday, February 20, and this was the first meeting that newly elected  SCDOT Commission Chairman, Tony Cox (Dist. 7), presided over. Among the items on the agenda was the approval of a public comment period to get the rural freight interstate program moving forward.

Specifically, the Commission approved a public comment period to amend the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) to include Preliminary Engineering (PE) and Right of Way (ROW) phases for two interstate projects included in the Rural Interstate Freight Network Mobility Improvement Program. 

I-26 Corridor Improvement: Widening from Exit 125 Old Sandy Run Rd to Exit 139 Burke Rd (14 miles) in Lexington and Calhoun Counties. Click here to submit public comments. 

I-95 Corridor Improvement: Widening from the Georgia Line to Exit 8 US 278 (8 miles) in Jasper County.  Click here to submit public comments.

Approval of the public comment period is the first step in making these rural interstate widening projects a reality and ensures that these projects are ready to go after the tax credit sunsets in 2022.

In addition to these rural freight projects, the Commission also approved a public comment period for the I-77 Panthers interchange (at mile marker 81) in York County. This interchange is part of the economic development deal and will support the increased traffic volumes associated with the new development. No SCDOT funding will be used for this project, nor will it compete with ranked projects. Click here to submit public comments.

Following the public comment period, if there are no substantive comments received, these projects will be included in the STIP.

The SCDOT Commission held its first meeting of the new year on January 16, and one of the most important items on the agenda was the election of officers for 2020.

Commissioners elected Vice-Chairman Tony Cox (Dist. 7) to serve as Chairman and Commissioner Barnwell Fishburne (Dist. 6) as Vice-Chairman of the SCDOT Commission.

Cox has been serving on the Commission since the summer of 2017 and has been Vice-Chairman since January 2019. He has been in the real estate business for more than 36 years and serves as executive vice president for the real estate division of Burroughs and Chapin Company, Inc. in Myrtle Beach.

Fishburne has represented the 6th Congressional District since 2018.  He is the owner of Fishburne and Company Development Corporation in Walterboro, SC.

Both Cox and Fishburne were elected by acclamation.  The gavel will be formally passed to Commissioner Cox by outgoing Chairman Robby Robbins at the February meeting.

“Mr. Cox and Mr. Fishburne have each contributed greatly to the success of the Commission and I am confident they will continue to lead this Commission forward in their new roles as Chairman and Vice Chairman,” said outgoing Chairman Robby Robbins (Dist. 1) in a press release.

Historic Amount of Improvement to Interstates Over the Past 10 Years, But Much More is Needed

South Carolina’s Interstate Highway system is its’ economic lifeblood.  But the state’s dramatic growth, and too many years of too little state funding find the system clogged with congestion in urban areas, and in desperate need of repairs in many rural areas.

Over the past ten years, more than $3.5 Billion in road and bridge work has been underway, an historic amount for the state. But as car and truck traffic volumes grow so do the needs.  The S. C. Department of Transportation estimates $20 Billion worth of road work is needed for the entire Interstate system.

• $14 Billion needed to widen all rural four lane interstates to six lanes. This would include widening Interstates 85 and 95 entering the state from Georgia and another section of I-26 between Charleston and Columbia.
• $5 Billion dollars for urban interstate interchanges in Greenville, Columbia and North Charleston.
• $1Billion dollars to reduce congestion in urban areas around interchanges where adding additional lanes aren’t practical such as I-77 going into Charlotte which is already at eight lanes.

The state is currently in the third year of a phased-in 12 cents a gallon gas tax increase.  In three more years the higher tax is expected to pump almost $800 Million a year into a trust fund account which is DOT’s primary road improvement fund.

DOT Secretary Christy Hall recently told a State Senate Sub-Committee that the $450 Million dollars currently in the trust fund along with federal funding is allowing DOT to conduct about $1 Billion in road and bridge improvements.

Listen to the full story by Russ McKinney here. 

Source: SC Public Radio, December 13, 2019

Thanks to adjustments in funding methodology, beginning with the 2020 Pavement Program counties will have more flexibility when it comes to addressing roads in need of MORE than just preservation.

Over 600 miles of REHABILITATION AND RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS have been approved for inclusion in the 2020 Pavement program.

Phase 1 rehab/reconstruction projects were approved in June and were open for an extended public comment period through July.  Phase 2 was approved last week at the September Commission meeting and is currently out for public comment.

Public Comments on Phase 2 will be accepted until October 21, 2019. Details on submitting public comments can be found here.

View the interactive map of PHASE 2 Projects here.

Pavements are a key component of South Carolina’s 10-year plan. To date, SCDOT has already doubled the paving program’s investment levels and is on track to nearly quadruple the entire program by 2023. None of which would be possible without the road funding bill of 2017.

State law requires that the new revenues generated from the 2017 road funding law be deposited into the Infrastructure Maintenance Trust Fund (IMTF).  The most recent statement can be viewed here.

The latest data shows that since the passage of road funding legislation in 2017, over $828 million has been deposited into the IMTF. Of that, $240 million comes from the fuel tax increase. Currently, the most significant source of revenue in the IMTF comes from the infrastructure maintenance fee (formerly the vehicle sales tax); however, that is likely to shift as the extra pennies are phased in on fuel.

Since 2017, over $376 million has been paid out for completed work, allocations to County Transportation Committees (CTCs), and to cover the preventative maintenance tax credit for South Carolinians.

There is a lot of misinformation out there that implies that the money is being diverted elsewhere.  The truth is, the only “diversion” is one that goes back into the pockets of SC taxpayers. Moreover, if money remains in the tax credit account after tax credits are claimed, it must go back to SCDOT to be used to fix roads and bridges.

Thanks to the 2017 road funding law, additional revenues will continue to be phased in the coming years.  It is because of these revenues that South Carolina has been able to adequately plan and ensure that EVERY county in South Carolina sees benefits.

Over $1 billion in project commitments have been made to improve over 3,000 miles of pavements, bridges, and safety improvements in ALL 46 counties. View the list here.

Our roads and bridges didn’t get in this condition overnight, and there’s no quick fix. The good news is, there is a plan in place to address long overdue improvements to pavements, bridges, and safety. We plan to continue to follow the progress and look forward to seeing more work hit the streets.  We encourage you to follow it with us!