Sanford signs $300M in across-the-board vetoes

COLUMBIA -- Gov. Mark Sanford said he wants to prepare South Carolina for the "financial tsunami" that is projected to hit a year from now, but the immediate effect of the 107 vetoes he issued Wednesday are even more budget cuts to health and social welfare programs, public schools and higher education and the state's fledgling film industry.

The Legislature will meet Tuesday to decide whether to reject Sanfo

rd's vetoes or sustain them, and House Speaker Bobby Harrell said he expects legislators to uphold many of the governor's vetoes.

The pending $4.9 billion budget that begins July 1 includes about $1 billion in federal stimulus money. That cash will be gone by this time next year and state tax collections aren't expected to recover fast enough from the recession to offset that loss.

The bulk of the governor's more than $300 million in vetoes comes from $214 million state budget writers are counting on from Congress to help pay for Medicaid. But that money isn't a sure bet and Sanford said the state can't spend money it doesn't have. If the money does come through, the governor said the Legislature could use it to plug the projected budget hole next year.

Lastly, the vetoes, if sustained, also would result in direct program cuts worth $100 million that reach across all segments of the state budget, including about $559,000 in hydrogen research at the University of South Carolina, about $310,000 from the state Film Office, $25 million from the state Budget and Control Board and $1.4 million from a program in public schools that assesses whether students are prepared to advance from one grade level to the next.

Vetoes that directly affect the Charleston area include $50,000 from the Southeastern Wildlife Expo and $145,500 from the Old Exchange Building.

The Medical University of South Carolina could lose about $513,000 from a system that tracks the effectiveness of hypertension treatments and about $289,000 from diabetes outreach and education efforts.

Dr. Raymond Greenberg, MUSC president, said Sanford has issued similar vetoes in the past.

"While we understand the financial pressures which the state faces, many of the efforts that he has targeted for elimination are highly successful and serve our neediest citizens with illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and HIV infections," Greenberg said in an e-mail. "In previous years, the General Assembly has demonstrated their support by overriding the governor's vetoes of these critical programs and we hope that they will do so again."

Other vetoes could have the impact of effectively shuttering some state agencies or greatly limiting their ability to operate.

ETV could face additional budget cuts worth $5.2 million. The Human Affairs Commission, which tries to stamp out discrimination in employment and housing, would lose about $585,000 that Sanford said is duplicative of other government services. About $677,000 would be cut from the state Department of Consumer Affairs, which works to prevent fraudulent and unfair business practices, efforts that the governor said are partially duplicated by other state and federal agencies.

Harrell, R-Charleston, said the economic picture is so bleak that legislators likely will sustain the governor's vetoes unless they see a program or service as "absolutely critical."

"Members will see it as an opportunity to soften the blow next year," Harrell said.

Sanford said his vetoes could have an even further reach by helping the state avoid dipping into about $100 million to offset Medicaid costs out of money from the higher cigarette tax that goes into effect next month.

But making cuts to the Medicaid program -- which is growing by about 3,000 people a month -- will be difficult due to new regulations imposed by the federal government as part of the sweeping health care reform and recent decrees imposed by the state Legislature, according to Jeff Stensland, director of communications for the state Department of Health and Human Services.

And if Congress does not send the additional Medicaid cash, the state Department of Health and Human Services will face a deficit by next spring, Stensland said.