Sanford issues plan to balance budget

Gov. Mark Sanford proposed a three-pronged plant to ease the impact of cuts the House and Senate spending plans include in a year where revenues are down $90 million.

Sanford wants lawmakers to:

• Eliminate the the competitive grants program, which provides cash for lawmakers to devote to local projects. Eliminate the grants program would free up $18.5 million.
• Use the GEAR Commission recommendation to tap $10.5 million from the state Budget and Control Board's $323 million "rainy day" funds
• Defer a $20.5 million proposal to create regional farmers markets around the state.

Sanford said in a news release the resulting $50 million could be used for a number of purposes, such as restoring cuts to the Department of Commerce, Medicaid, the Corrections Department, or addressing the state's retirement obligations.

"The sad reality is that we wouldn't be having this discussion if budget writers had exercised more spending restraint when times were good," Sanford said. "Their generosity with others' money has gotten us right back to the point our state was with these types of budget cuts a few years ago."

Comments

[State Employee]

First I'll get my positions out of the way. I am a Republican, and I am a long time state employee with the Department of Health and Human Services.

I applaud our Governor for giving specifics on how to deal with the budget shortfall, just like Sen. Leatherman asked for last week. Of course Sen. Leatherman should have realized, of all the criticism he could have leveled, asking for detailed recommendations was pretty dumb. He has to willfully disregard the executive budgets loaded with specifics the governor has released every year, which of course Leatherman and practically every other elected member of our General Assembly has done. And while people are "outraged" at the surplus the Department of Health and Human Services has accumulated (which is to be used to pay for coverage the federal and state government has asked us to provide when they do not see fit to give us the funds to actually do so) I am more upset the the agency tasked to provide administrative support to state agencies has an even larger surplus. And I'm not sure what they have it for.

It would be nice if our General Assembly would find the courage to look at the actual function of agencies and decide to make surgical cuts of marginal functions, instead of making across the board cuts where all agencies have to make equal cuts of essential and non-essential functions. I guess a person can dream, but I have a better chance of winning the lottery without buying a ticket.

[CH Mueller]

You have practically the same legislators creating the budget now as was in the lean years, but apparently they learned nothing other than raiding another agency fund to tide them over to the next year. Its time to cut these mavericks loose and get SC into the state it should and can be.

[william]

i keep hearing state employees will not get a raise this year or mabey 1 or 2 percent.i heard yesterday that teachers are getting 7 percent raise where is that coming from

[Stateemployee2]

Mark Sanford is only interested in making statements about lowering taxes. He does not actually do the WORK needed to mke it happen. Sanford is lazy and spends his time OUT OF STATE raising money for his nonprofits and making a name for himself on the national scene.

HHS has hundreds of millions of dollars hidden in its accounts, as well as other cabinet agencies. The legislature should take that moeny...but will not. The deal between the Governor and the leaders in the legislature was "you leave my money alone and I will stay out of the elections". They sold the taxpayers down the road for personal fame and glory.

Sanford does not care about us...he only loves himself and will do anything in his power to make himself look good.

[Yahoo]

All evidence says that Mark Sanford's cabinet agencies are wasteful and inefficient.

Why do people think otherwise?

[Billy]

Hey Health and Human Services employee...Sanford needs the extra money in your agency because he has to cover his mistakes...his changes at the agency are a real mess, and very expensive ones at that. But I guess it is ok for Sanford to waste money...just not anyone else.

[Commonman]

I have to give the Governor his due when he is right because I give him his due when he is wrong. This is not just his typical political posturing. There is some reason to his position.

[State Employee]

I do not exempt my agency from cuts. Do we have programs and people that shouldn't be there? Yes. Is there waste? I'm pretty sure there is. But can I turn that question around to where you work? Do you have waste where you work? Does your company waste money?

Tell me specifically where you see waste with the agency. Or can you only generalize and rail against waste and fraud like the politicians who created the laws we have to follow?

[Sylvia]

It is no surprise to the average working South Carolinian that time are getting hard, even for those who know how to budget their money and save for a rainy day. My paycheck isn’t buying what it once did. It’s shameful to think that the leaders of our state can’t manage our money any better than they have done. Apparently they were never taught that you should never live beyond your means. There is a lot of talk about budget cuts and no cost of living raise for state employees. For most of us our cost of living raise is the only raise we get because God forbid there be such a thing as a merit raise. So how come whenever the state is in trouble it cuts money from its workers first? I was once told by one of my supervisors, “Don’t worry about the horse, just load the cart.” Unfortunately I believe that is the mindset of our dear friends at the State House.

[State Employee]

On Monday, Gov. Mark Sanford called on the Senate to tap more than $18 million set aside last year for grant projects ranging from sewer and water systems expansions to the Sassafras Festival in Burnettown and the Pigtails BBQ Cook-Off & Festival in Manning. Sanford said that cash could help prisons and other agencies facing spending cuts.

Leatherman said that can't happen unless the Legislature rushes through legislation in the next couple of weeks to make that cash available for the fiscal 2009 budget under debate now. The Florence Republican said he's been too busy with bringing the budget to the Senate floor to concentrate on Sanford's proposal.