Tim Smith

tcsmith@greenvillenews.com

COLUMBIA - The chairman of the House budget-writing committee told a panel studying road funding today that the state's transportation must change before it gets a dime of additional road funding.

Rep. Brian White, an Anderson Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, told a committee appointed last week to recommend legislation on infrastructure funding that he will not support new funding unless it is paired with changes in the system.

"I don't want to continue the system the way the system is now," he said. "I think the system has to change before we add any revenue to it."

He did not, however, give the panel any specific suggestions on what he wants changed. The panel is expected to look at the management and governance of the state Department of Transportation as part of its work. A provision in the law that requires the governor to appoint the state's transportation secretary sunsets next year.

The panel also is expected to look at how the agency spends its money and how local governments collect transportation revenue.

The state faces a shortfall in infrastructure funding of $42 billion until 2040, according to a DOT draft report last month. The state operates the fourth largest state-maintained highway system in the nation and relies on a state gas tax that is among the nation's lowest and has not been raised since 1987.

The state Senate set road funding as a priority earlier this year but adjourned without even debating the legislation.

State Transportation Secretary Janet Oakley told the panel today that only 29 percent of the state's travel occurs on roads rated as good.