Sanford's record shows leadership

It is easy to criticize those who challenge the status quo. Actually changing things is often quite difficult. While I respect Jack Bass, I must respond to his column unfairly criticizing Gov. Mark Sanford.

While some focus on conflicts with the Legislature, the truth is that there have been countless successes under Sanford. The list includes improvements in services (often with less funding) at agencies like Juvenile Justice, Motor Vehicles and Transportation, increased transparency and accountability, lowered taxes, record land conservation and hundreds of millions of additional resources for functions such as K-12 education and health care.

Bass says Sanford is the reason our state's retirement portfolio was invested in the stock market. South Carolina was the last state to do so, and it happened because of a 1996 referendum, six years before Sanford was governor. Bass also cited a poll about Sanford's approval rating but failed to say it was commissioned by the Democratic Party.

I also doubt most agree with Bass' claim that Sanford's basic problem is his belief that government should operate like business. It is likely that Sanford's efforts to bring business principles to government are a reason he was overwhelmingly elected as our first two-term governor since Carroll Campbell.

These principles led Sanford to focus on improving state finances. Massive borrowing under the previous administration saddled the state with the nation's third-highest debt payments (as a percentage of taxes). Most in Columbia ignored Sanford's repeated calls to pay outstanding promises and instead chose to grow government at a double-digit clip.

While Bass tries to downplay our state's long-term debts, the problem is real. And real big. We face unfunded retirement obligations of over $20 billion (nearly $30,000 debt per taxpayer). Typical politicians ignore these problems in hopes they come to light after they leave office. As evidenced by his latest budget proposal to reduce this debt by $2 billion, Gov. Sanford doesn't want to pass the buck (or the bill) to our children.

Our state's situation grew worse last summer when Treasurer Converse Chellis led the effort (over Sanford's protests) to guarantee billions more in retiree benefits he said would be funded through increased stock market returns. Chellis' rosy predictions were way off. Our retirement system lost more than a third of its value (nearly $10 billion) in the last year.

Bass is critical of the governor for proposing changes, yet the debts grow and we move closer being like General Motors that pays more for retirees than steel.

The situation is even worse in Washington where politicians have promised away $56 trillion (nearly $500,000 owed by the average U.S. family). But fear not as President Obama and Congress have a solution: record amounts of borrowing to pay for trillions in new government spending.

They propose to more than double our national deficit over the next 10 years. Even the Congressional Budget Office projects their plans will ultimately decrease our country's economic activity.

We are witnessing the greatest generational wealth transfer in history. Even worse than leaving the cupboard bare would be our kids finding it contains only a massive IOU to foreign countries.

These borrowed monies will only come to our state for a limited time, yet many want to spend them on recurring programs that leave holes in future budgets. Governor Sanford proposes we use a modest fourth of these funds to reduce long-term obligations and save hundreds of millions in interest. Legislators can and should choose to have these federal funds come to South Carolina by agreeing to pay down more debt in their budget.

Our economic crisis stems largely from a lack of principled leadership. I'm proud we have a leader who is honest about our challenges and exhibits integrity by governing as he promised. For the sake of our children, I hope that big-spending politicians in Columbia and Washington will follow his lead.

Chad Walldorf served for two years as deputy chief of staff and budget director to Gov. Sanford. He is currently chairman of the S.C. Club for Growth.