By Fred Palm, contributing columnist |  Charleston County’s new plan to finish I-526 remains secret but includes recent half-cent sales tax money. Seemingly, we should not care about nor want to know the details of this plan that has yet to find a financing source in the county budget. Smoky at best.

There is just some number – let’s call it “$X” — developed years ago given as the “estimated” cost. This number, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, has been repeated enough times that it seems to be true.  $X has never been worked up by a reputable engineering firm. $X has not been adjusted for years of inflation. $X has never been bid out thus lacks the market’s reaction. $X is pushed by the current crop of elected leaders for inexplicable reasons with ill-defined benefits, and to whom.