There's good news and bad news about our infrastructure. Let's begin with the roads we travel. Our highways, bridges and secondary roads are not meeting today's needs, let alone anticipated growth in residents, jobs and businesses in the coming years. We should aggressively find funding, support gasoline tax initiatives tied to road improvement and prioritize top projects. We should begin by finishing I-526 and look for ways to improve I-26 from Summerville to downtown Charleston.

Meanwhile, we should promote a strategy to organically lessen the burden on our roads and highways. We should do more to support in-fill development and urban density programs that would promote walking and biking to work and shopping. And we should support urban / regional biking initiatives and local organizations that promote them to keep riders safe.

The good news: we enjoy some of the best electric and water utility service and some of the lowest rates in the nation. We should support utility efforts to invest in clean energy resources and work together to conserve power and water whenever possible.