Tuesday’s main editorial offers some
words in honor of Myrtle Beach’s
75th birthday:
Happy Birthday, Myrtle.
The city turns 75 on this morning, an
august age for anybody.
Granted, in Conway’s
ancient eyes – the river city’s 279 years old this year – Myrtle Beach is likely still an upstart
pipsqueak. But 75 is nothing to scoff at. Surfside Beach
has another 26 years before it reaches that milestone. North
Myrtle Beach is 30 years away. And other fast-growing communities
such as Socastee, Little River or Carolina
Forest have yet to even
become a municipality.
Tuesday’s editorial is on that most
perennial of subjects, a new highway to the area:
It’s easy to become cynical about the
prospects for any new highway to the Grand Strand. After all, we’ve been
promised one since the 1980s and have yet to see it materialize. But while
proponents of Interstate 73 – or any new road to our area – may seem locked in
limbo, there are a few bright spots on the horizon.
Sunday’s editorial urges lawmakers to
act sooner rather than later to address our state’s crumbling infrastructure:
South
Carolina’s roads are crumbling beneath us, and ignoring the problem
will not make it go away. Action is needed soon -- this year, this month --
because the cost to fix our roads rises with every day that passes. And it will
mean tough decisions that require substantially more funding, not just
leftovers and scraps that are found here and there.
Not convinced? Read through the report
on South Carolina’s road system put together for the state and issued in
December by a diverse group of transportation experts. It’s only 13 pages long,
but it sets out in stark detail the enormous challenges facing our state and
the almost total lack of solutions in the works to meet those challenges.
The most impressive part of the North
Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce’s five-year growth plan is not the plan to
diversify the North Strand economy or the push to improve marketing of North Myrtle Beach. It’s not even the focus on
sustainable development or its admirable commitment to financial
accountability.
Tuesday’s editorial points out that
we’re in the process of picking a new DOT commissioner for our district and
urges legislators to get the right one:
The deadline to apply to become the
new 7th Congressional District’s first S.C. DOT commissioner comes on Friday,
and it brings with it some mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s a chance to get
one of our own in the seat and highlight local road priorities, getting them
higher up on the list for state and federal money. On the other hand, we’ve
long pushed for ending the current parochial system of a legislatively
appointed Department of Transportation Commission altogether, in favor of a
statewide approach that relies less heavily on the input of regional
commissioners interested primarily in furthering their own local needs.
Saturday’s editorial is the first of
a two-part look at economic development incentives and whether they’re a good
idea. The first looks at them from a national and state level.
Do we need to use economic incentives
as bait to lure new businesses to our state? Is it the best use of our public
money? Proponents say the tax breaks and grants are important tools in the
quest to bring more jobs to the area. Opponents condemn what they see as
government picking winners and losers without any accountability for how the
money is spent. Who’s right? Perhaps both. What is clear, however, is that at a
minimum the entire process could benefit from increased oversight and
transparency.
The practice, which leading incentive
researcher Timothy Bartik has referred
to as “legalized bribery of the rich,” has gotten more attention of late as
Horry County Council and local economic developers have ramped up their efforts
to rope in new companies. Local leaders have embraced the idea of paying for
jobs as a vital and cost-effective means of securing new employers. And there’s
some evidence that it can work on the local level. But the landscape looks much
different from higher up.
What’s the ultimate reason we’re pursuing
I-73? That’s the question Sunday’s editorial asks, in the hopes of sparking a
conversation on the best way of fulfilling that reason, whatever it is:
The ongoing debate over the
long-delayed construction of Interstate 73 comes down in the end to one
question: What’s the goal we’re hoping to achieve?
If the goal is specifically a new
interstate, then continuing our three-decade pursuit of I-73 is the path to
choose. If, however, the goal is the less specific task of easing
transportation to and from the Grand Strand, the choices widen.
We need more money to keep up our state’s road system. It’s that simple (and that hard). Tuesday’s editorial explains:
The latest report by the S.C. Department of Transportation’s engineers estimates that we need to devote $949 million just to get our failing road system up to “fair” status. The problem? We’re about $700 million short.
Though it might not feel like it sometimes when we pull up to the pump, South Carolina has found itself in the enviable position of having the lowest gas prices in the nation. But that good fortune comes at a price. It’s largely a result of the state’s lowest-in-the-nation gas tax, which has sat at 16 cents per gallon since 1987. And those gas taxes make up a large chunk of the funds the DOT uses for road maintenance.
Lots going on these days down in Georgetown, including a sales tax proposal, more port action and leadership shakeup. Sunday’s editorial tries to address it all:
South Carolina has long been a state that values individual responsibility. If you want something done, there’s no one better to do it than yourself; don’t look to others to pave the way for you. That attitude is perhaps one reason the local option sales tax has become a popular idea in recent years. Governments that have grown tired of sending millions to Columbia only to see it vanish into a maze of state bureaucracy would prefer to keep some of that money at home, to complete local projects. (If Columbia budget writers would fully fund the state’s local government fund, we may not be having this discussion, but that’s a topic for another day.)
Thursday’s editorial celebrates the recent revitalization of Myrtle Beach’s downtown:
Everybody likes a comeback story. And the local leaders overseeing Myrtle Beach’s downtown have written a humdinger of one.
A few years ago, the outlook for Myrtle Beach’s aging and faded downtown was grim. The Myrtle Beach Pavilion, anchor of downtown entertainment, had closed its doors. Buildings and storefronts were run down. Long-time festivals and events were picking up stakes and relocating to the more appealing and brand new Market Common. The area seemed doomed to suffer the same fate of dying and decrepit downtowns across the nation. Luckily, the neighborhood’s withering went neither unnoticed or unheeded.
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