AIKEN - During his first few months in office last spring, rookie South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford got dinged by legislators, both Republican and Democratic, for not showing enough leadership on the state's ongoing fiscal crisis.
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With a still-sour economy, Mr. Sanford faces an even gloomier revenue picture in his second year as the state's chief executive.
This time, the Republican governor says he's ready for the challenge. He also says he didn't do that badly for a newcomer who inherited the budget woes of former Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat.
"To suggest I could be brokering a deal on the budget early on shows a lack of understanding of how the legislative process works," Mr. Sanford said in a telephone interview with The Augusta Chronicle. "The legislative process is intensely personal and based on familiarity with Joey or Bill. Well, to gain that familiarity, you've got to first know who Joey and Bill are."
To get a jump on next year's budget, Mr. Sanford has been holding hearings this summer in which a parade of agency heads have been warning of deficits to come and the need to spend more money in their individual spheres of responsibility.
The loudest warnings have come from Department of Corrections Director John Ozmint, who says South Carolina needs to build more prisons and hire guards to cure one of the worst officer-to-inmate ratios in the nation.
There also have been dire alarms from state health officials, who say South Carolina's Medicaid system, which dodged a flood of red ink last year with an infusion of one-time money from the federal government, will again face deficits.
Public schools were savaged by midyear budget cuts last winter and spring, and an estimated 2,000 teachers lost their jobs statewide because money from the state was tight.
State Sen. Tommy Moore, of Clearwater, and other Democrats say the state's revenue collections for this fiscal year are already running about $40 million to $50 million behind projections and note that the state has only a $38 million cash reserve.
"We've got to have some revenue to get out of this mess," Mr. Moore said. "What are you going to do - let government dismantle itself and let public education as we know it fail? There are some who say that's exactly what some Republicans want to happen."
Even fellow Republicans say Mr. Sanford was late with his proposal for an increase in cigarette taxes, coupled with phased-in cuts to the state's income tax rate. Although he insisted his plan was "revenue neutral," his proposed cut in the state income tax rate from 7 percent to 5 percent over 15 years would cost $755 million, according to the Office of State Budget.
The governor's plan didn't hit the Legislature until after the House budget plan was passed.
"That was unfortunate," said state Rep. Roland Smith, R-Langley, the chairman of the House Education Committee. "His plan was not communicated to us. But did he show leadership - it'd be unfair for me to say no."
Reach Jim Nesbitt at (803) 648-1394 or jim.nesbitt@augustachronicle.com.
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