State legislature returns to start tough task
COLUMBIA — Subsidized health care programs for children and the elderly are being cut. Parents and students are digging deeper for college tuition. State workers are losing salaries.
Amid the hardships already created by $1 billion in state budget cuts, South Carolina lawmakers head back to Columbia on Tuesday to begin the tough task of paying for services in the next fiscal year.
A still-souring economy and ongoing bickering between the GOP-dominated Legislature and Republican Gov. Mark Sanford could make matters worse.
GOP leaders and budget writers say they have no plan beyond even more cuts and proposals that would take years to work: re-examining sales tax breaks and capping future state spending. It all will play out against the backdrop of no-new tax pledges and the threat of a certain veto from Sanford if tax increases pass.
Outside the Statehouse, workers are dealing with the nation's third-highest unemployment rate.
"I think the economy and figuring out how we're going to deal with 8.5 percent unemployment and a fear — a very legitimate concern — that it may go higher; how we're going to deal with those things are going to be the 800-pound gorilla in the room," House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said Thursday. "The underlying issue the General Assembly has got to be trying to help deal with is the economy generally and the unemployment rate specifically."
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper said it's not practical to insulate schools, Medicaid programs and the state's prison systems from the cuts that could top $300 million in the fiscal year that begins in July. He tried that in October when $239 million in cuts were needed to balance the current budget.
"I took my pen and agency base budgets that we have on a spreadsheet and started zeroing out agencies' general funds and it took me 21 agencies to get to $239 million," Cooper, R-Piedmont, said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and others hope for federal assistance to at least bail out the state's cash-strapped Medicaid programs. But Sanford is doing all he can to prevent more federal borrowing.
Sanford warned against believing in the "giant Santa Claus in Washington who'll come just in time to bail us out" instead of living within the state's means.
There are other issues playing out, too. Legislators are looking to outlaw or strictly limit payday lending and restrict public smoking in bars and restaurants. Leatherman and others also are pushing bills that would study state tax exemptions.
Harrell wants a reduction in red tape and regulations businesses face to help create jobs. But he also wants to earmark the state's $300 maximum sales tax on cars, which generates about $105 million, for highway and bridge projects.
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, wants new laws on state energy policy, streamlining government and spending limits.
His agenda also includes trumping Sanford in an ongoing skirmish over security at the state Capitol, where Sanford ordered the state's Bureau of Protective Services to stop staffing checkpoints at car entry points. McConnell's solution? A new Capitol police force.
It's another sign of the hard feelings that have grown during Sanford's two terms.
"Sadly, we get more communication through press conferences than we do through relationships with the executive branch," McConnell said, citing repeated bouts of bickering. "How's the relationship? It's cool."
McConnell said he's willing to work with Sanford, "but there's no lesson in the second kick of the mule," he said. "I'm going to keep my guard up."
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