Sanford vetoes send message

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his philosophy about state budget.

His message: Change is expected.

As dollar amounts go, Gov. Mark Sanford's first round of budget vetoes didn't exactly set Columbia on fire: Only 22 vetoes from thousands of line items, for less than $8 million in expenditures. After balancing vetoes for spending with vetoes that affected revenue, the governor left the almost $5.4 billion budget with an additional $524.

Those numbers don't do justice to the strong message sent by Sanford to the Legislature, which was: Do a better job next year, or expect more significant vetoes.

For openers, Sanford fully expects his executive branch to be on equal footing with the legislative branch that has dominated state government for decades. Take this admonishment at the end of this 10-page letter detailing his vetoes: He wants the Legislature to end the practice of rolling numerous, and often vaguely related, budget items into one section, thus making it difficult for the governor to veto many "line items" as allowed by law.

Sanford wants the budget-cutting tool already possessed by 43 other governors, who can make cuts in specific sections of the budget. And he issued this warning: "An unfortunate consequence of continuing to budget like this will inevitably be the veto of large items or sections that include meritorious provisions, just to address objectionable items."

The governor also sent a strong, although largely symbolic, message about the Legislature's disreputable practice of raiding trust funds over the past few depressing budget cycles. That message: Stop it.

Slightly more than $2 million raided from some environmental trust funds was restored to the budget. Sanford wrote in his veto message that while he understood the state's financial difficulty, "We breach our trust with the citizens of South Carolina if we expend these donated funds or their earnings for purposes other than that for which they were donated." Regrettably, budget practicalities stopped the governor from eliminating all revenue raided from trust funds. That would have been more than $20 million, including $2.4 million from the Barnwell nuclear waste cleanup fund.

In an interview Monday, Sanford said, "We're in the process of trying to wean ourselves from trust funds." But the state couldn't "cut off cold turkey," he said because of these realities: The new budget year is weeks away. He wanted to keep the budget balanced. And, although he didn't add this, his vetoes will stand at least until early January because he's not calling the Legislature back for a special summer session.

On the spending side, the governor cut in some areas where he thought user fees, not state tax dollars, should be paying for a targeted service. Other vetoes showed a preference for more flexibility in departmental budgets.

Sanford said he begins a process today that other governors haven't undertaken in quite some time, namely, executive-level budget hearings. He wants the executive budget he submits in early January to have the authoritative punch lacking in many governors' budgets. The goal is absolutely critical in these tough economic years, but it will be important when the good times roll again, too. Sanford wants South Carolina to start setting priorities, and he wants the budget to reflect those priorities.