State of counting confusion

You know what they say: $60 million here, $60 million there, and pretty soon it adds up to real money.

Unfortunately, that $120 million in real money is on the debit side of South Carolina's budget because of a costly bookkeeping blunder in Columbia.

We don't actually have less money. We just found out that we didn't have as much money as we thought.

So lawmakers will have to find another $60 million to carve from this year's already cut-to-the-bone budget -- and another $60 million from next year's equally anemic budget, which is being prepared for debate.

State Board of Economic Advisors Chairman John Rainey said the additional cuts could threaten jobs, which are in dramatically short supply.

As reported by The Associated Press last week, the accounting error occurred when money the state Revenue Department collected from tax scofflaws was -- brace yourself -- "misplaced."

It was supposed to go into a special account and be used for specific things, including indigent defense, retirement benefits and tax breaks on homes. Instead, it ended up in the general revenue account, artificially inflating its numbers. Thus, the House budget was based on a much rosier scenario than Senate budget writers face.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, told the AP: "To receive that kind of news here at the 11th hour is just unbelievable."

Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom sounded less surprised. He cited the deficiencies of the 35-year-old computer system the state still uses to track its finances, likening it to "an iron locomotive."

What we apparently have here is a failure to communicate. The Revenue Department blames the treasurer's office for not setting up the account. The treasurer's office counters that the account indeed was there. Regardless, one or the other (or both) should have spotted the problem and seen that it was corrected.

And unless blame is accurately assessed, this expensive mistake is far more likely to be repeated. A thorough review of how the state keeps track of how much money it has -- and how this fiscal fiasco occurred -- is clearly in order.

Our state government's budget is roughly $5 billion -- $2 billion less than it was two years ago.

In a fiscal squeeze this tight, we simply can't afford to "misplace" $60 million here and another $60 million there.