House Amends Road Bill; Senate Non-Concurs

House Amends Road Bill; Senate Non-Concurs

The South Carolina House of Representatives recently took up the Senate road-funding bill, which provided $400M in road funding annually to be taken from the General Fund and some DOT reform. The Governor warned that if the House amended the bill, then road funding would die for the year. The House did not heed those warnings and amended the bill with its own language, which includes the following:

• Highway Commissioners appointed by the Governor
• Commission appoints a Secretary of Transportation
• Eliminates the Joint Transportation Review Committee, but retains the required qualifications for Commissioners
• Adopts the State Infrastructure Bank language in the Senate version and requires the entity to follow SCDOT prioritization criteria for projects
• Removes the $400M general fund mandate House (House budget appropriated $415M)
• Places SCDOT Chief Internal Auditor under the independent State Auditor

This past Tuesday, the Senate took up the bill and non-concurred with the House. The bill will now go to a conference committee.

Mining Bill Carried Over

H. 4206, sponsored by Ralph Kennedy (R-Lexington) and many others would restrict blasting to ¼ mile from contiguous property boundaries and ½ mile from residential developments, schools, churches, hospitals, and commercial and industrial buildings.

The bill had many supporters and opponents present at the subcommittee hearing.  After lengthy debate the bill was carried over.