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Article published Jun 11, 2003
Lawmakers should follow governor's example in working on budget

The General Assembly's session is over, and Gov. Mark Sanford won't be calling them back into session, but that shouldn't mean that lawmakers have the next six months off.
They should work individually and in groups on the state budget. Sanford plans to. He will start holding budget hearings working on the next state budget.
That budget, much like the one recently passed by the legislature, is expected to be plagued by a huge shortfall.
And lawmakers have shown that the usual legislative session isn't enough for them to accomplish the work that tight budgets demand of them.
This year, lawmakers restrained spending. They did not raise taxes to deal with economic troubles.
But their approach to limiting spending was the usual overly simplistic approach state officials routinely take.
Although lawmakers did not enact across-the-board cuts, they came close. They tried to hold a few high priority spending programs harmless from budget cuts and let all other state spending absorb the cuts.
They did not take an in-depth look at various state spending programs and prioritize them. They did not identify programs that are no longer needed and eliminate them to free money for more effective programs.
They did not restructure the state's bureaucracy to make it more effective.
And in the end, they used one-time money to make up the difference in what was needed to fund routine spending. This, of course, is the same tactic that has exacerbated the current budget problems.
So, unless the economy starts growing quickly, next year's budget crisis will be as bad as this year's, possibly worse.
Lawmakers shouldn't wait until January to address it. Sanford isn't. He's going to
be looking at state government to see
where money is spent wisely and where
it's not.
Lawmakers should do the same. A comprehensive look at the way the state pays for the services it provides is necessary. An equally comprehensive look at the way the state taxes its citizens and businesses to pay for that spending also is necessary.
Lawmakers should make sure that when they go back to Columbia in January they have better plans than cutting everything other than education and Medicaid.