Two lawmakers decry SC’s roads

State Senator Thomas Alexander has raised the question of whether his colleagues have the fortitude to adequately address South Carolina’s worsening roads and bridges—-a job which, according to an estimate, will require $20 billion. In front of the Walhalla Rotary Club yesterday, Alexander said he thinks it’s going to take an outpouring from the people to get the legislature to move on raising the state’s gasoline tax—which has remained unchanged for more than 25 years. “But I will tell you I am not optimistic it will pass,” Alexander said. He told the Rotarians that Governor Haley has vowed she would not sign a bill to raise the gas tax. In Alexander’s audience was a counterpart in the House of Representatives and, in a sense, District One’s Bill Whitmire is seated in Alexander’s amen corner. Whitmire told us, “Something’s got to be done.”