Horry County delays I-73 funding plan, approves millions for Highway 90
The latest push to put local tax dollars toward the long-planned Interstate 73 has encountered another delay.
Though a handful of local leaders are attempting to raise $250 million from Horry County, Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach for the major interstate highway, a committee of the Horry County Council on Tuesday voted to delay discussing Horry County’s portion of that total for another month.
Council members said they decided to delay a discussion and vote on the spending plan, which would use money from the county’s 1.5% hospitality fee, because senior staff members from Horry County, Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach plan to meet Wednesday to discuss how much each municipality might commit to the project.
Funding for a Highway 90 project, though, did win a vote of approval from the council committee on Tuesday.
Under that plan, council member Dennis DiSabato proposed using $31 million that’s left over from the county’s RIDE II program and funneling it into a project that would raise and widen key portions of once-rural roadway that runs from Conway to North Myrtle Beach.
As for the I-73 project, county council member Johnny Vaught, who chairs the council’s administration committee that met Tuesday, said he and others on the committee learned of the staff meeting and wanted to learn what the cities are planning before taking formal action at the county level.
He said the delay was an act of good faith on the county’s part because the cities and county were recently in a drawn-out legal dispute over spending hospitality fee money.
“When we settled the hospitality suit we agreed to work together on these kinds of projects,” Vaught said. “They’re stepping up, we’re stepping up to say, ‘Okay, we’re ready to start working on these projects.’”
Vaught added: “If we had gone ahead with the resolution as it’s written we would have been sort of jumping the gun based on not knowing exactly what the cities are going to do, so this way it will be a concerted effort and everybody could work together on putting a package together.”
Resolutions under consideration
The resolutions that county council members were expected to debate on Tuesday both came from Dennis DiSabato, who represents part of Myrtle Beach and Carolina Forest. Those proposals would have put $4.2 million annually from the county’s hospitality fee funds for up to 30 years toward I-73 and $31 million toward raising and widening parts of Highway 90.
The hospitality fee is a 1.5% sales tax added to hotel stays, restaurant meals and event tickets, and is meant to be used to support tourism in Horry County through direct advertising of the beaches or through funding public agencies and infrastructure projects that benefit tourists. Because I-73 would create a more direct route into the Grand Strand for visitors, those funds can be used to pay for the major interstate highway.
Horry County collects around $15 million annually from the hospitality fee, and during budget discussions over the summer, leaders decided to split those funds into three roughly equal pots: one-third to hire 65 new public safety employees, including more police officers; one-third for local road projects; and the final third on a to-be-determined road project.
DiSabato’s proposal would have made that project I-73, which would run from Interstate 95 near Latta and Dillon to S.C. 22, just North of Conway.
The $4.2 million over 30 years could raise as much as $126 million for I-73, though it’s possible the county could issue a bond to pay for its portion of I-73 up front, meaning interest on that up-front loan would have to be factored in. Council member Gary Loftus, who represents Myrtle Beach, said the county is looking to pay for roughly half of the needed $250 million for the municipalities’ contribution.
Vaught and Loftus both said Tuesday that the administration committee’s decision to delay discussion on I-73 funding could help the county avoid complications in the future. One of those complications is which level of government commits funding to the project first: local governments, South Carolina or the federal government.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation estimated the total price tag of I-73 to be $1.2 to $1.3 billion. County leaders have said they hope to get $500 million from the federal government, $500 million from South Carolina and the rest from the local governments.
Where will funding come from?
Still, the question has sparked disagreement among council members. Council Chairman Johnny Gardner told reporters last week that while he supports I-73, he wants to see a funding commitment from the state or federal government first, before any local funds are spent.
County Council member Harold Worley, who represents North Myrtle Beach, said this week that he agrees with Gardner.
But other council members argue that if the local governments commit funding first, that will make it easier to get state funding and have federal funding follow shortly after. That’s the route some local state lawmakers and municipal leaders wish to go.
Another potential complication is the use of hospitality fee money itself. Several years ago, the county council, under the leadership of former Chairman Mark Lazarus, voted to dedicate hospitality fee money to I-73 and even signed a contract with the South Carolina Department of Transportation to build the road.
But that funding package also used hospitality fee money for county police, a move that sparked a years-long lawsuit between Horry County, Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and the other municipalities.
That lawsuit was settled earlier this year, with Horry County and each of the municipalities taking control of their respective portions of the hospitality fee money. Vaught and Loftus said they wanted to wait to discuss putting hospitality fee money toward I-73 because they wanted to make sure the county and cities were on the same page.
“We just want to make sure everyone is on the same page and preaching the same,” Loftus said. “We want to wait til they come out with whatever they come out with.”
Vaught added that funding I-73 would need to be a collaborative effort.
“We’ve got to get together with the municipalities and determine what their level of participation is going to be, and what our level of participation is going to be and we can put that out there,” he said. “We can’t go ahead and start spending money on it until we know what they’re going to do. So saying, ‘This is what we’re willing to put on the table’ is totally different from writing a contract with someone to start building a road.”
The council’s administration committee is expected to discuss I-73 at its Oct. 26 meeting.
Highway 90 project
Local leaders have estimated that widening Highway 90, about 20 miles, would cost $500 million, while widening the portion from Highway 501 Business to S.C. 90’s intersection with Highway 22 would cost $200 million.
Vaught said even though $31 million falls far short of the need for the Highway 90 corridor, it’s enough for the county to start addressing the congestion and flooding issues that have plagued the route in recent years.
“Let’s hit the hot spots of Highway 90 first, the worst problems we have on Highway 90, and go from there,” Vaught said. “We’ll get a plan together and start processing that plan.”
Earlier this month, Council member Al Allen, who represents Aynor and a large portion of Western Horry County, convened a new subcommittee to study issues along Highway 90 and recommend solutions to the county government.
It’s likely that committee will have some input on how the $31 million, and other money the county dedicates to Highway 90, is spent.
Vaught and Loftus both stressed on Tuesday, though, the need for additional funding for both I-73 and Highway 90 and said they hope the state government will step in to help. At Tuesday’s meeting, county officials also discussed how to spend nearly $70 million the county is set to receive from the federal government under the American Rescue Plan Act that was enacted earlier this year.
Currently, $10 million of that money is set aside for road improvements, though county officials said they could technically use all $70 million on roads. The catch, though, is that all projects paid for with Rescue Plan funds have to be completed by 2026, a short timeline when it comes to roads and other major infrastructure projects.
“We’ve got to have some help from the state and we have the legislative delegation on board, they’re going to be presenting some proposals with some of this COVID money that’s coming back to the state and hopefully we’ll get some money from them,” Vaught said of Highway 90. “They’ve pledged their assistance in this project so we’re putting together whatever we have to to get as much relief (as possible).”
As for I-73, Loftus argued that the county and cities putting up $250 million should be more than enough to lure in state and federal funding, especially since Horry County has already funded and built Highway 22, which will serve as the last leg of the interstate.
“We have built over $1.5 billion in roads. We’ve already built and paid for the first 20 or so miles of (I-73), because we built SC 22, all we have to do is put shoulders on it,” Loftus said. “Quite honestly, we’re tired of Charleston, Columbia, Greenville and Spartanburg getting all the d--- money.”
