With seven midyear budget cuts over the past three years, local legislators say they expect more of the same in 2004. A preview of what the 2004-05 budget will look like came Thursday when Gov. Mark Sanford unveiled his executive budget plan.
The $5.1 billion budget proposal represents a $200 million decrease over this year's $5.3 billion spending plan. But Beaufort County's senior state legislator, Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, said Sanford's budget still represents a $350 million shortfall.
"That's the anvil," the fifth-year senator said of the looming budget battle. "The big question of the day is are we going to try to bootstrap ourselves through this one more time or are we going to look at this as an opportunity to look at the way we're collecting taxes?"
Several legislators are pushing sweeping reforms to the state's tax codes that they say will help alleviate the continuing budget crunch.
In recent months, Sanford and House Majority Leader Rick Quinn, R-Richland, have been pitching tax plans that reduce the state's income tax and increase its sales tax.
Richardson said he'd like to see those two proposals grouped with plans to raise the state tax on both cigarettes and gasoline.
"I think all of these things have a better chance in a big package," he said. "On their own, they'll fail."
State Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Ridgeland, said he's studied the tax proposals and agrees reform needs to happen. But, the Jasper County legislator said, the governor's plan to reduce the state income tax would only mean a tax break for the rich.
"I think it's a start," Pinckney said of the governor's plan, "but not one in the right direction. If we're going to have tax cuts, the bulk of them should be for working people and middle-class families."
State Rep. JoAnne Gilham, R-Hilton Head Island, said it's too early for anyone to endorse any of the different tax plans.
"It's really a pick-and-choose system," Gilham said. "It's like a smorgasbord. I've seen good things in all of them, but I'm not totally sold on any one of them."
Richardson, who has tried unsuccessfully in the past to raise gasoline and cigarette taxes, said tax reform was often defeated by the everyday machinations of partisan politics.
"You've got a legislature that over the past eight years has moved from totally controlled by Democrats to totally controlled by the GOP," he said. "Now people feel like they don't want the public to turn on them."
And passing a tax reform could prove especially difficult this session when all 170 seats in the General Assembly will be up for grabs.
"It's very political," Richardson said. "But at the end of the day, we should all be about doing what's best for the people of South Carolina."
State Rep. Catherine Ceips, R-Beaufort, said it was critical state legislators deal with the budget and taxes without cutting money for public education, health care or social services.
State money for public education dropped to 1995 levels this year. The state Department of Social Services -- which has been cut by $50 million since 2000 -- also took another hit. In Beaufort County, 10 local positions in the Department of Social Services were cut last year.
"I think all of the state agencies are running lean right now," Ceips said. "And I don't know where else (cuts) could come from. I don't think the Department of Social Services can take another hit."
TOUGH ODDS
Of the 529 pieces of legislation proposed in the Senate last year only 11 percent, or 60 bills, wound up on the governor's desk.
Meanwhile, the chances of a bill passing through the House last year were even worse, with 7 percent, or 54 of 801 proposals signed into law.
But those figures won't dissuade local legislators, who have high hopes for pushing their pet bills through the Statehouse this year.
Ceips said she'll be focusing her time on two bills dealing with the Port of Port Royal and the upcoming round of federal base closures.
Second-year Rep. Bill Herbkersman said he would take a second shot at getting a real estate transfer fee passed.
The Bluffton Republican's bill, which would allow municipalities in Beaufort County to charge a 0.25 percent fee on real estate transactions for the purchase of open space, was thrown out in committee last year.
"We may have to cut some deals, but we're going to have to try to get this done," Herbkersman said.
Richardson said the fee would still be a hard sell to the real estate and home-building lobbies, who fear the local legislation would eventually spread statewide.
The Hilton Head senator said legislators could ease those concerns by adding language calling for a local referendum to decide whether the fee is used.
"What should they care in Greenville if we vote that we want it here in Beaufort," Richardson said.