"This is the third year they've given us a budget with money that doesn't exist," the Hilton Head Island Republican told members of the League of Women Voters of Northern Beaufort County. "There's $150 million that's just not there."
The senior Beaufort County legislator also said he doesn't expect any of the tax reform proposals pitched in the General Assembly to make it to the governor's desk this year.
"In an election year, you might as well gag everybody and tie their hands behind their backs," he said.
All 170 seats in the General Assembly are up for election this November. Richardson is running for his second four-year term in the Senate after serving in the House for three years.
Richardson said he supports several tax plans, including raising the state's gasoline tax to help pay for road construction and the cigarette tax to pay for Medicaid.
"The reality is we've got to get the money somewhere," he said. "If we don't, this year is going to be catastrophic."
South Carolina is coming off three consecutive years of midyear spending cuts and falling tax revenues after several years of budget surpluses in the 1990s.
"The glory days are over," Richardson said.
But the senator's predictions didn't sit well with the handful of League of Women Voters members who attended Thursday's meeting.
"You say you're very doubtful something will happen this year," said Brenda Hood, the group's vice president, "but my community wants to see something happen."
Richardson also spoke about several local issues, including the so-called real estate transfer fee. The senator said he supports a proposal under review in the House that would allow the county and its municipalities to charge a 0.25 percent fee on all property transfers within their boundaries. The money raised by the fee would be dedicated to buying parks and open space.
"I think it's a good idea," Richardson said, adding that the growth and open space issues prevalent in southern Beaufort County have moved north of the Broad River. "It used to be easy to give one talk on Hilton Head and one talk in Beaufort because the issues were different. They're not all that different anymore."