Lexington County drivers have paid 100% of the gas tax hike for 3 years.

But the state has repaired less than 40% of our crumbing bridges and roads.

The county is not alone.

Of the state’s 46 counties, 32 fell below the 50% completion mark.

These include Horry (48%), Lexington (39.9%) and Richland (37.9%). Completion rates ranged from 14.4% in Dillon County to 81.9% in Chesterfield County.

Through March, the gastax-hike fund had nearly $824 million and racked up more than $26 million in investment earnings on surpluses since July 2017.

A $823.8 million surplus was in the Department of Transportation fund as of March 31.

This was nearly 46% of the $1.79 billion in collected revenues under the 2017 law.

To put this in perspective, it’s about $161 for every man, woman and child in SC based on just-released US Census figures for 2020.

The surplus is more than the entire annual budgets of a majority of state agencies.

The 2017 law raised the state gas tax by 12 cents a gallon over 6 years.

That’s 75% higher than the base 16 cents a gallon – plus increased vehicle taxes and fees.

Lawmakers promised that the money would be used to fix the state’s deteriorating road and bridges.

DOT has said:

• 80% of the state’s 42,000 miles of roads should be resurfaced or rebuilt.

• 465 of 750 “structurally deficient” bridges need to be replaced.

Brundrett is news editor of The Nerve (www.thenerve.org). Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@thenerve.org.