Skip to main content

Horry County Road Funding and the Primaries




Horry County Road Funding and the Primaries

By Dennis Mitchell


Funding for road repairs, upgrades and new construction will be an important issue in the political races over the next three months until the June 2024 primaries are held. The issue will hold over after the primaries as Horry County voters will be asked in a referendum question on the general election ballot whether the one-cent local option sales tax should be extended, possibly for up to 25 years, to fund new road projects.


It was only two years ago that the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce was making a ‘no holds barred’ political effort to get funding for its notorious Interstate 73 project. The governor, lieutenant governor, several of our local legislators and the Mark Lazarus attempt at recapturing the county chairman position were enlisted for the effort. The effort failed.


Now that I-73 has been at least temporarily shelved, concentration on needed upgrades and new construction on local roads can be the center of attention. And local road improvements are exactly where the attention needs to be focused. It is interesting that two of the high profile races in this primary season will see local roads, their funding and improvements, as major issues.


Horry County Council member Danny Hardee has three challengers for his seat, two in the Republican primary and a Democratic challenger in November. Hardee’s District 9 includes major portions of Highways 90 and 905, two roads being significantly impacted by new construction. Hardee has worked on improvement plans and funding for those two roads, but road improvements take a lot longer to complete than new sub-divisions which require them. Nevertheless, it’s hard to see how he can be challenged on that issue.


The other race involves incumbent Sen. Luke Rankin and his failure to obtain much funding for Horry County roads during his 32-year tenure in the state Senate. Horry County significantly trails areas like Charleston, Columbia and Greenville in state funded road construction. That condition has to change and challenger Autry Benton is ready to “raise sand” in Columbia to make that change.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Saturday Cartoon 3-16-24

 
Read more

It's pronounced Or-ree!!!

  This first edition offers some insights into this weekly article and provides a brief history of Horry County.  Our readers can expect an array of subjects, topics, and stories, both current and past, that have opinion, fact, and some stories passed down over time with no collaboration aka Horry County lure.  No subject will be off-limits, and the goal is to be entertaining, informative, thought provoking, and simply a fun read.      Horry County: Pronounced (OR-ree), was occupied primarily by the Chicora Indian before English settlement in the early 1700’s. Not named Horry County until 1801, initial settlement was in 1732 by English settlers that made their way up the Waccamaw River from Georgetown to settle on a high bluff area overlooking the river where history claims the group of explores killed a bear eventually naming the area Kings Town in honor of the English King to later be named Conway.   Located in the easternmost region of the State, from settlement through the early 19
Read more

Rankin Out of Touch

  Luke Rankin is out of Touch with Voters Horry County Senator Luke Rankin put himself in a political box last week that he will find it difficult to get out of as reelection time rolls around. With reform of the process which elects judges in the state being a hot topic among the voters and other elected officials, Rankin chose last week to voice support, in an hour-long speech on the Senate floor last week, for the current process. As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Vice Chairman of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission, Rankin has a lot of say in who becomes judges in South Carolina. He probably can’t be blamed for wanting to keep that power in his hands. However, 695,791 voters in the recent South Carolina Presidential Primary election answered a question included on the ballot of whether the current process of electing judges in the state should be reformed. Over 91 percent, 634,345 to be exact, said YES. When 9 out of every 10 voters disagree with the position of
Read more