Horry County’s independent pedigree came through in RIDE III vote

The recent election of Donald Trump contains an abundance of data and lessons for political scientists, historians, journalists and others who follow politics closely. Personally, though, I find the results of the local Ride III vote to be the most interesting outcome of Nov. 8.

It was a lock that Trump would carry Horry County and South Carolina by a wide margin. However, I will be honest with you. I was sure that Ride III would be approved by the voters of Horry County but I thought it would be a close contest, far short of the 69 percent of the vote it actually received.

I suppose it is human nature to fret and worry unduly about something in which you are heavily invested but, oh, me of little faith. Like many others, I thought a large number of people would be coming to the polls this year in a decidedly anti-government mood and would be voting against any measure that added a tax or gave government more ability to spend money.

The voters may have done that in the presidential race, but not locally. For several reasons, it was a bit shortsighted of me to think the Ride III vote would be close.

First, the appointments of Ride III committee members by Horry County Council and the League of Cities were very sound. The 17 individuals with whom I worked on the advisory committee and the other 5 appointees to the sales tax commission all came to the table to advance the fortunes of the entire county and not just to lobby for their own pet projects.

Secondly, Ride III was staffed by hard-working, knowledgeable and professional civil servants from the county, the cities, GSATS and SCDOT. Their expertise and dedication to helping create a sensible set of recommended road projects was vital to the success of the proposal.

Lastly, the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce coordinated and funded a highly effective campaign that got the facts to potential voters with financial assistance from the Grand Strand Business Alliance, the Myrtle Beach Golf Course Owners Association, the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, the local chapter of the America Resort Development Association and the Coastal Carolina Realtors Association.

The combination of the mindset and preparation of the committees and staff, the overall transparency of the proceedings and the thorough manner in which the facts were disseminated to the public put the ballot question over the top.

The Ride III advisory committee started in August of 2014 with 141 projects to consider. The committee eventually got that number down to 31 that were considered crucial by the members and staff. The estimated cost of the 31projects was $1.944 billion.

Having a little less than $600 million with which to work, the committees pared the number of projects to the 13 considered to be the most critical. Funds were also appropriated for the paving of 100 miles of dirt roads (there are 600 miles of dirt roads in Horry County) and for the repaving of 100 miles of roads in very bad need of repair.

To put things in perspective, the Governor and General Assembly addressed the roads needs in Horry County this year with $10 million. That’s not a misprint -- $10 million to address $600 million in critical needs. And the federal government gave us nothing to improve our local road infrastructure.

So, once again, we do it ourselves here in the Independent Republic. Neither the state nor the federal government has a plan or funding to fix our local road issues.

Further compounding the issue is the fact that Horry is a donor county to Columbia and South Carolina is a donor state to the federal government in terms of revenues from gas taxes. We send more money up the line than we get back.

Almost 7 out of 10 voters understood perfectly that we are on our own and that there is no Plan B for roads for us here. We either do it ourselves or it doesn’t get done.

So, thank you to the 86,420 citizens who validated the contributions of time, opinions and resources by a number of community-minded volunteers and public servants working together for the common good. Your informed response at the polls was very gratifying, to say the least.

The writer chaired the Ride III initiative.

This story was originally published November 19, 2016 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Horry County’s independent pedigree came through in RIDE III vote."