Audit Recommends Merging Highway Borrowing Agency

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – State auditors are recommending that the South Carolina agency that borrows and doles out money for large highway projects merge with the Department of Transportation.
The report Thursday by the Legislative Audit Council says combining the agencies would allow for better coordination and prioritization of highway projects and focus accountability in a single agency.
But the chairman of the state Transportation Infrastructure Bank says the two must remain separate due to the DOT’s limited ability to borrow money under the state constitution. Chairman Vincent Graham says the agency is addressing the report’s other criticisms.
Critics of the state Transportation Infrastructure Bank contend politics, not priorities, determine which highway projects are funded.
A road-funding bill still in negotiations would give the DOT commission oversight of the banking board’s decisions.