Gov. Mark Sanford won’t be able to rely too heavily on advice from average residents as he polishes up his forthcoming executive budget proposal.

That’s because the Waste Watch initiative he launched in July hasn’t exactly sparked a groundswell of ideas on how to trim government spending.

The concept of Waste Watch was to enlist residents in an effort to identify “waste, inefficiencies and duplication” in state government, a Sanford spokesman said.

The governor’s office set up an e-mail account to handle suggestions and also invited residents to call his office directly with ideas.

So far, responses have been trickling in.

“We’ve probably gotten a couple dozen e-mails,” spokesman Joel Sawyer said, adding that figure would be higher if more people were aware of the program. “People see things every day that may not be a good use of tax dollars.”

The governor’s office frequently receives phone calls on a host of problems in the state, Sawyer said, but only one idea so far will definitely be included in Sanford’s budget proposal when it’s released in January.

Sanford will propose selling a .86-acre parcel of land on Sullivan’s Island owned by DHEC. The land, valued at about $1 million, was given to the state in the 1960s by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Other ideas received include consolidating state agencies and imposing caps on government spending.

“Stay tuned,” Sawyer said. “There will probably be more cost savings ideas coming up.”

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GOT AN IDEA?

You can submit suggestions for saving taxpayer dollars to the governor’s office by sending an e-mail to taxpayerhero@sc.gov or by calling (803) 734-2100.

Reach Stensland at (803) 771-8358 or jstensland@thestate.com.