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May 27, 2003
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Posted on May 23, 2003
Bill passed by House would restrict government growth


State government isn't growing this year because lawmakers don't have any money to spend, and they aren't willing to raise taxes. But part of the budget problem they face this year comes from the way they spent freely when the economy was growing.

While money was coming in, lawmakers spent it. They started new spending programs and agencies, enlarging the state government and the size of the budget it takes to fund that government.

Now that the economy has faltered, and state revenues are declining, lawmakers find themselves at a loss to fund this larger state government.

That lesson can't be lost when the economy improves and state revenues begin to grow again.

A bill passed by the House would make sure that future government growth is limited, helping to prevent the kind of fiscal crisis the state is facing now.

The bill would put limits on how much the General Assembly can increase spending in any given year.

The legislation is intended to allow the state budget to grow each year only as much as the state's population and spending grows. It establishes a formula based on census data and the consumer price index. Lawmakers could increase spending each year by that formula or by 6 percent, whichever is less.

Six percent seems like a lot, but the state budget has grown by as much as 9 percent in recent years.

This legislation should be enacted. It would provide a necessary curb on lawmakers' spending.

In the past few years, the General Assembly hasn't only spent all the money available to it. It has spent money that wasn't available.

Lawmakers created programs that they knew they had no money for in the next year, but they depended on economic growth to bring in more state revenue to cover the gap. That's part of the reason the poor economy hit the state so hard.

A realistic spending limitation like the one included in the House bill would force lawmakers to restrain themselves in good times. It would put the brakes on government growth. And it would make lean years like this one easier to handle.


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Centralized education: Big government pushes to make education more restricted, job-oriented
Pending in the South Carolina Senate is a bill, the Education and Economic Development Act, that requires even elementary schoolchildren and their parents to focus on choosing careers. By high school, their entire curriculum will be planned around a job. This is not education as Americans know it. This is not the education most parents want for their children.

Centralized education: Changing work culture creates need to link education, economic development
Students graduating from secondary and postsecondary education are entering a "brain-based," technology-driven global economy that is more challenging and competitive than ever before. There is a great disparity, however, between South Carolina's work force needs and its supply of qualified high school and college graduates.

Trend of 'mega-schools' should end
Small neighborhood schools could be making a comeback in South Carolina if a bipartisan coalition of legislators, including several from the Upstate, has anything to do with it.

Task force eyes balanced growth and protection of resources
As South Carolinians, we are blessed with an exceptional quality of life: healthy communities, a diverse cultural heritage and abundant natural resources. Although these blessings have been ours to enjoy for many years, they now are threatened by the deleterious impacts of unbalanced, poorly managed growth.

County is facing serious challenges to manage growth, sprawl
Growth represents the greatest challenge that Spartanburg County faces in trying to maintain and improve the quality of life for its residents.

All material ©2003 Spartanburg Herald-Journal