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Article published May 9, 2004
Senate puts Sanford's plan to test
ROBERT W. DALTON
Staff Writer
COLUMBIA -- The state
Senate gave Gov. Mark Sanford what he asked for in wrapping up South Carolina's
$5.3 billion budget early Saturday morning.Senators broke a standoff over how to
pay down a $155 million debt left over from 2001-02 by borrowing a couple of
pages from Sanford's executive budget. The Senate applied about $127 million to
the debt, with $57 million coming from the sale of state property and vehicles
-- something Sanford pushed in his spending plan."The governor wanted more focus
on the debt, and we accomplished that," said Sen. Jim Ritchie,
R-Spartanburg.Sanford had challenged the Senate to use $110 million of a
projected surplus to pay down the debt, saying the state's triple-A credit
rating could be at stake. But the Senate Finance Committee had already
appropriated that money for programs.Budget negotiations came to a halt late
Thursday when Sen. Vince Sheheen, D-Camden, put up an amendment to pull the $110
million out and apply it to the debt. Senators spent much of the day Friday
working on a compromise.In addition to the $57 million from the sale of assets,
the Senate put $20 million from the projected surplus toward the deficit.
Another $50 million already was allocated to the debt.Sanford spokesman Will
Folks said this is the first time that a governor's executive budget has had
such an impact on the process."The governor put a lot of time into that
document, and certainly it still serves what we believe is the best way to
appropriate dollars for the state," Folks said.By following Sanford's lead, the
Senate put the proverbial ball in his court if the money from the asset sale
doesn't materialize. That, Folks said, won't be problem."The governor used very
conservative estimates in his budget," Folks said. "In as much as the Senate
budget incorporates those conservative estimates from the governor's executive
budget, we're confident."Sen. Glenn Reese, D-Boiling Springs, said the whole
drama was much ado about nothing. He said the debt was "fictitious."Reese
compared the situation to a checking account. Each month there's a beginning
balance, deposits and withdrawals, and an ending balance, he said. If the ending
balance is smaller than the beginning balance, then theoretically you have a
deficit."We're not really repaying anything, we're just replenishing the same
account," Reese said. "If we had done a bond bill, we would truly have a debt.
But we're not in that situation."Now we're going to sell property that we don't
need to sell to pay a debt that doesn't exist."An amendment that would have put
a non-binding referendum on the November ballot asking voters whether they would
support an increase in the sales tax to eliminate property taxes died by a 27-11
vote.The amendment passed Thursday, but Sen. Dick Elliot, D-North Myrtle Beach,
built support to have it reconsidered, and a heated debate raged for more than
two hours Friday.Sen. John Hawkins, R-Spartanburg, led the fight to keep the
referendum on the ballot. He said he was disappointed that some senators who
originally voted with him didn't hold the line.He said he would try to amend
legislation pending in the Senate to try to get the question back on the
ballot."The public doesn't care how we get the ball to the goal line," Hawkins
said. "They just want us to reach the goal."The Senate budget increases
education spending – raising the state's portion of the per-pupil expenditure to
$1,852. It also gives state employees a 3 percent raise.Ritchie managed to
secure some money for Spartanburg programs, picking up $125,000 for the Seventh
Judicial Circuit's drug court. He also got $1 million for the Boys and Girls
Clubs across the state, with $140,000 earmarked for Spartanburg.Sen. Harvey
Peeler, R-Gaffney, secured an extra $500,000 for Spartanburg Technical College.
The money will be used to provide training to new employees of Freightliner,
which is expanding its Gaffney operation, Peeler said.Ritchie said he was
pleased with the budget overall."At the end of the day it's a very fine budget,"
Ritchie said. "We increased education spending, paid down the debt by 80 percent
and funded the key needs of government. And we didn't raise taxes."The budget
now moves to a conference committee, where House and Senate members will hash
out the differences between the two versions. The House passed it's version in
March.Robert W. Dalton can be reached at 562-7274 or bob.dalton@shj.com.