Government should focus on essentials, not raise taxes

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Guest column • Walter Ezell: Voters should look for vision, moral authority, ability to lead (02/02/04) • Diane Smock and Buddy Puckett: County must welcome all students so none is left behind (02/01/04) • Mike Campbell: South Carolina has no business trading with Castro's Cuba (01/29/04) • Joey R. Preston: Citizens are picking up the tab for the state (01/26/04) • Phil Leventis: A four-year university in Sumter would benefit entire state (01/26/04) More details Andre Bauer was elected lieutenant governor of South Carolina in November 2002. A Republican, he is a businessman who served in the state House of Representatives from 1997-99 and the state Senate from 1999-2002.

Through tough economic times, many of our citizens have had to stretch every dollar and make hard decisions about their own budgets, and they expect government to do the same. These are difficult times, and I find it troubling to talk to South Carolinians who are struggling to maintain a home in the face of rising property taxes. I have no answer for them when they ask how their lives are better because they pay more to own their own home or because government takes a sizable chunk out of their already too-small paychecks.

I have told many of the folks that there are several worthwhile proposals being offered to relieve some of the more onerous tax burdens on our citizens. Those plans will be debated in the coming months, and I encourage taxpayers to pay careful attention to those discussions. Central to all of those proposals is the refreshing idea that policymakers truly are listening to the pleas of overtaxed families, and they are committed to finding new ways to change our system.

Unfortunately, even when it is painfully obvious to most of us that something must be done to ease the tax burden on our citizens, there are still far too many voices in the tax-and-spend crowd who actually argue that South Carolinians are not overtaxed. Some government officials even claim that we need to raise taxes to fund programs — at a time when South Carolina experienced the largest percentage decline in employment of any state.

Responsible elected officials at every level of government need to resist these voices. In fact, all elected officials should ask themselves, "What are the core functions of government, and how can we most efficiently provide them?" Unfortunately, from the halls of Congress to small South Carolina cities, government is proving over and over again that it is incapable of understanding what constitutes an essential service.

For example, in the latest "omnibus" spending bill debated in Washington, members of Congress from both parties proposed to spend your tax dollars on such "vital federal government functions" as an indoor rain forest in Iowa, a mentoring program for young people learning to play golf and street furniture for a town in Alabama.

Here in our state, taxpayers are being told there is not enough money to pay teachers or hire enough law enforcement officers, while school officials want to spend money on new stadiums or student parking lots, and county officials talk about building swimming pools and skateboard parks.

What is an essential government service? Most people agree that government needs to fund public education, provide basic transportation infrastructure, protect our citizens from crime and fire and ensure that those who truly cannot afford health care have access to it. And no one argues that the main function of the federal government ought to be that for which it is uniquely qualified — the role of national defense.

Government does not need any new money to provide core services — it can do that with even less money than it spends now. I know that because I served on Gov. Mark Sanford's Management, Accountability and Performance (MAP) Commission, which took a detailed look at government spending. We identified close to $1 billion in savings that could be made over several years without affecting the core services that state government must provide, proving in the report that we can do a better job of running the state, and do it with less money.

Clearly, some tough spending choices will have to be made, but we should certainly start with those that would seem obvious — such as spending money on children in the classroom instead of building a parking lot, or putting more police officers on the street rather than building a swimming pool.

Citizens should insist that every government program or project truly qualifies as an essential service. Ultimately, it is our collective responsibility to ensure that government at all levels serves the purpose it is supposed to, and that elected officials do not spend tax dollars on programs that are unnecessary even in a thriving economy, and downright irresponsible in difficult budget years.

And we must always be mindful of what our constituents face every day when they make hard choices in a tight economy. We cannot possibly ask them for more money but instead must be fiscally responsible with what they already give.