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Article published May 7, 2004
Lawmakers plan to spend new money rather than eliminate state
deficit
South Carolina has a hole in its budget, a sinkhole
that threatens to further erode the state's financial condition. But instead of
planning to fill that hole, state lawmakers want to dig it deeper.The state has
a $155 million deficit it is carrying from 2002 despite the fact that such a
deficit is unconstitutional. Earlier this year, lawmakers agreed with Gov. Mark
Sanford to pay off that deficit as soon as possible.But now, when the state
finds it has $110 million in money officials hadn't expected, lawmakers aren't
planning to use that money to reduce that deficit. They are planning to spend
the money.State Sen. Glenn Reese, D-Spartanburg, sums up the general attitude in
Columbia when he says some of the money will be used to pay down the deficit,
but that's just one purpose for the funds. "We're going to appropriate this
money, and we're going to spend it," he declared.That's shortsighted.As Sanford
has pointed out, the state is on credit watch. Failing to address the deficit
quickly and completely may result in the loss of the state's good credit rating.
That means it will cost the state more to borrow money. It will cost the state
more to do business.Lawmakers are focused on the spending desires they have for
the current budget. They are ignoring the financial needs of the state in the
future.But this short-term outlook is nothing new. This is the same attitude
that landed this state in the financial condition it isin now. Lawmakers failed
to limit their spending to only the money the statecould expect to take in every
year. In-stead, they gambled on economic growthin order to spend more. While the
economy was growing, they spent all the actual growth, and they spent the
anticipated growth. They spent all they had, and then they spent some they
merely expected to get.When the economy stopped growing, all that spending had
to stop. The result was several years of severe budget cuts.But lawmakers
haven't learned their lessons. They are still spending. They are still ignoring
the state's long-term financial needs. They should change their priorities, heed
the governor's warning, reduce their spending and put the state back on the
correct fiscal track.