$180 million added to S.C. coffers

By Jim Davenport

The Associated Press

COLUMBIA - Legislators working out final compromises on the state's $6.5 billion spending plan received good news Wednesday when the Board of Economic Advisors added $180 million to its estimate of how much money will flow into state coffers.

"We're smoking," board chairman John Rainey said. "The economy is smoking in this state."

The increased estimate includes an $80 million surplus expected for the current fiscal year that ends June 30.

That surplus prompted the board to bump up the estimate for next year's revenues by $100 million, leaving the budget conference committee an extra $180 million to haggle over.

Gov. Mark Sanford said in a statement the extra cash should be "a wake-up call to those in the General Assembly intent on spending every new dollar that this kind of growth won't continue unless we return a dividend to the state's taxpayers where it can have the maximum impact on growing the economy."

Sanford said the state's surging growth isn't sustainable and it "would be such obscene public policy if leaders in the General Assembly choose to spend this money and grow government at roughly 15 percent."

But the six House and Senate members on the budget conference committee have no marching orders to cut government spending and give money back to taxpayers as Sanford wants.

Last week, the House approved a plan in the budget to cut the state's gasoline tax for three months, but that's found little support in the Senate and that chamber's three budget committee members.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont, said the proposal has big problems that would be tough to work out.