S.C. House savings

South Carolina House members plan to take a three-day furlough April 15-17 to help save money during the state's budget crisis.

The House should save about $42,000 in mileage and per diem costs that usually are paid to lawmakers, Speaker David Wilkins said.

That doesn't amount to much with the state facing a $1 billion shortfall in its $5 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Even so, the House, like other state agencies, has endured midyear budget cuts and trimmed its operating costs in the upcoming budget by 9.8 percent.

The House has made other minor cutbacks, such as ending subscriptions to publications and reducing faxes and photocopies.

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"It's just the common-sense, frugal things that you do when you're trying to save money," Wilkins said. No House staff members will be affected by the furloughs; Wilkins says he's "committed and determined" to avoid laying off any employees.

The House already is down about 12 state employees, from a total of about 85, Wilkins said.

These money-saving efforts are commendable and even somewhat painful. But if, instead of furloughs, Wilkins and his House colleagues led a campaign to shorten the legislative session to about the length of Georgia's, which ends in March or early April, they'd be saving a hundred thousand dollars or so instead of tens of thousands - perhaps enough not to have to make any of those other cuts.

These savings wouldn't be temporary either. They'd be year after year, eventually amounting to tens of millions of dollars.

If lawmakers in Columbia are serious about major savings, this would seem to be an ideal time for them to shorten the session several months from the current early June adjournment date.

--From the Tuesday, April 8, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle