WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Governor Mark Sanford: Budget Needs Improvement
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By Mark Sanford
Dog bites man. Man bites dog. We all read the occasional strange story, and I think we had one this week in South Carolina that most people aren't aware of tied to the Presidential debate. Namely, I found a little irony in Presidential candidates discussing how to rein in federal spending while in Columbia - while our state spending in Columbia is outpacing even Washington's. In fact, as the debate was taking place the final preparations were being made to begin the last stage of our budget process here in Columbia -and spend an additional $1.5 billion.
If this is a subject you care about, the next few weeks represent your last chance to make your voice heard this year on how much we spend as a family of South Carolinians. Here's why you ought to care:
One, we're setting ourselves up to go over a spending cliff, and both taxpayers and people who depend on government are going to get hurt as we go over the edge. Getting ahead of ourselves on spending guarantees one of two things -- raising taxes or fees to cover future shortfalls, or cutting programs for some who most need government's help. People like Senator Greg Ryberg who have fought against what we're ending up with in the budget simply called it "obscene."
With this budget the government of South Carolina will have grown by over 40 percent over the last four years. Did you paycheck grow by 40 percent? Did our underlying economy grow by 40 percent? The answer, for South Carolinians as a whole -- and for our economy -- is obviously no. In fact, federal spending grew by 12.6 percent over the last two years. Southeastern states on average grew by 13.7 percent. South Carolina government grew by twice this number - at 25 percent! Last year South Carolina government even grew faster than that of the Democrat-controlled government of New Jersey, which was taken to task by the Wall Street Journal for its excessive spending.
Two, we're not doing first things first. We believe that you ought to pay for the existing promises you've made in government before you make new and additional ones. In fact, in well-run businesses and families, you pay off the credit card or the mortgage before you begin new and additional spending. South Carolina's government is getting a new $1.5 billion, so it seems to us it would make sense to substantially address the $18 billion worth of "unpaid for" existing promises that are currently on the table. Instead, even though another $250 million just got added to the money coming to state government, only $200 million is committed to address these "unpaid for" promises. This sounds like a lot, but represents only one percent of the promises outstanding. If you got a sudden financial windfall, would people believe you were serious about paying back past debts if you only devoted one percent of that windfall to the debts?
Three, even with all the new money coming in, it's still proposed that we borrow money from Peter to pay for Paul - and in Columbia this process is called annualization. It means you fund a permanent need or program, though you only have funding for one year. In what has now been proposed, these annualizations creep back up to about a quarter of a billion dollars and would require four percent growth in next year's budget just to avoid starting the budget in the hole!
Four, we're not sending enough money back to the people who earned it in the first place. If you went to a diner and left a tip of two percent, you wouldn't be surprised if your waiter tossed your leftover macaroni and cheese in your direction. Yet even with an extra $1.5 billion, in the Senate budget, taxpayers are scheduled to get 1.5 percent of it back in tax cuts. In this I'd give credit to the House for the way they have fought hard to include both an $80 million income tax cut and a $90 million food tax cut in the final budget proposal. I still ask you add your voice here, though, because while there have been a handful of reform-minded Senators who have pushed in the same direction, the Senate as a whole might well be going the opposite way now and actually adding a net tax increase. In the long run, lowering South Carolina's tax load is vital to strengthening the private sector and putting money back into the hands of individuals and small business that will indeed grow our economy.
In each of these categories many of us believe we can do better - I ask for your voice over the next week in pushing us to do just that.
