COLUMBIA - Six lawmakers spent $6.6 billion on Friday, but don't ask them how.

A House and Senate budget conference committee met in public for a few minutes before it tentatively approved a state spending plan, giving hardly any details on what is included.

"The budget is going to speak for itself," said Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, moments before agreeing to the plan.

But that was little consolation for the 100 state agency directors, association presidents and lobbyists in the audience who went home for the weekend not knowing anything about the budgets they oversee.

In the end, the chief budget writers didn't even know how much they spent. Staff members later told them the figure and distributed a selective budget summary drenched in political spin.

"Maybe all the secrecy is because they were embarrassed that the budget only returns about 10 percent of this year's ($1.1 billion) windfall to the taxpayers," said Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, who sharply criticized the budget in a statement.

Sen. Hugh Leatherman, the lead Senate budget writer, said the committee didn't discuss how to spend the people's money in an open forum because "it would take about two months and I am tired."

The Florence Republican praised the budget as the best he's seen in 26 years. He dismissed talk that it was the most secretive in recent years, saying the committee never violated the open meetings laws.

"This was work between Chairman (Dan) Cooper and myself," said Leatherman, referencing his budget-writing counterpart in the House. "At no time were more than two members of the conference committee in any room."

But Sanford's office cried foul, echoing the grumblings of many attending the budget meeting.

"Taxpayers of this state should be outraged that their elected leaders were playing musical chairs to avoid doing the people's business in public," Sawyer said.

In the budget, Leatherman and Cooper, R-Piedmont, touted the property-tax-relief compromise struck the day before, which includes a sales tax reduction on food and two new sales tax holidays.

Sanford applauded the property tax deal but lamented the fact that the budget writers didn't include tax rebate checks or a temporary gas tax break in the final version.

He said in a statement that the $580 million for property tax was "a tax shift, not a tax cut" because the state sales tax increased.

"At the end of the day," Sanford said, "what we're left with is a budget that spends roughly $800 million of the more than $1 billion in new money coming into Columbia this year, and returns only about $130 million to taxpayers in the form of sales tax cuts."

After an approved budget bill lands on the governor's desk, he has five days to sign it into law or veto it. If it lies on his desk for five legislative days without action, it becomes law. A two-thirds majority is needed to override a veto.

 

Inside the numbers

When asked for an explanation of the budget's details, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman handed out talking points about what the plan would provide:

-- $177 million added for public schools

-- $174 million to repay all money raided from trust and reserve accounts

-- $96.5 million to cut the state's sales tax on groceries to 3 cents on the dollar, down from 5 cents

-- $52.2 million to give state workers a 3 percent raise

-- $13 million more to the state Commerce Dept. for economic development

-- $16 million for a sales tax holiday after Thanksgiving

 

Reach John Frank at jbfrank@postandcourier.com or (803) 799-9051.

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