By RICK BRUNDRETT
Special to the Chronicle
State officials claim they patched  39.9% of Lexington County's potholes in 2020.
That leaves 60.1% still unpatched.
32 counties fell below the 50% completion rate as of Feb. 28.
Those counties include Charleston (38.6%), Horry (48%) and Richland (37.9%).
The SC Department of Transportation claims it patched about 679,300 potholes in fiscal year 2020.
DOT Secretary Christy Hall's annual report in January to lawmakers provided no county numbers. The patched potholes are merely estimates.
Our review of DOT’s latest gas-tax-hike records found that it continues to move slowly to fix South Carolina’s bad roads and bridges while sitting on $788 million in higher gas taxes collected since July 1, 2017.
That represents 45% of the $1.74 billion in revenues collected since the 2017 law took effect. The surplus grew by nearly $36 million from Jan. 31 to Feb. 28, DOT and comptroller general records show.
The surplus in the Infrastructure Maintenance Trust Fund grew by nearly $252 million over a year.
The law raised the state’s gasoline tax by 12 cents per gallon over 6 years – a 75% jump from the base 16 cents – plus raised other vehicle taxes and fees.
Lawmakers promised higher gas taxes would be used to fix the state’s crumbling roads and bridges. 
DOT has said 80% of 42,000 miles of state roads needs resurfacing or rebuilding, and identified 465 of 750 “structurally deficient” bridges to be replaced.
Through February, a total of $576.3 million in paving projects had been completed.
That's 44% of the $1.3 billion estimated cost of all projects.
DOT identified “pavements” projects of 4,474.5 miles statewide as of Feb. 28.
That's just 13.3% of the number of miles of state-maintained roads that DOT says needs to be repaved or rebuilt.
DOT also plans to spend about $258.6 million of gas-tax-hike revenues on interstate widening – not fixing bad roads and bridges.
The State Transportation Instructure Bank board over the years has funneled billions of dollars to large construction projects in select counties.
The gas-tax-hike law was written to divert revenues to pay off bond debts.
Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve (www.thenerve.org). Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@thenerve.org 

We welcome your thoughts on how the state is using your gas taxes .
Please email JerryBellune@yahoo.com

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