A decade later, the roaring economy is gone, but the drunken sailors are not. Now, rather than embarking on expensive new missions like the 1998 Education Accountability Act, the General Assembly and governor are waist deep in proposals to cut taxes.
This comes at a time when the projected economic growth is minuscule. And it comes at a time when state services have long since quit cutting fat and are down to chopping the bone after three years of state budget cuts. For example, higher education was cut $70 million last year and $160 million over the past two years.
Meanwhile, demands to fund Medicaid are rising sharply. That is only one of many hurting state programs, but it is one of the most expensive. It is projected that almost $200 million in new state dollars will be needed in 2005 just to maintain Medicaid programs -- without considering any growth. Suggestions that Medicaid can be reformed to cut waste could be part of the solution, but it won't do it all.
The S.C. Department of Transportation is underfunded, and the governor's proposed budget comes nowhere near the per-pupil funding for public schools that the state itself says is the minimal requirement.
Into this breach marches a parade of swashbucklers saying they're going to cut the income tax, wipe out the property tax, end car taxes and/or jack up the sales tax.
With our legislature's recent record of money management, this new wave of election-year largess comes off like a pilot who flies into the side of the mountain, stumbles out and says, "I'm here to help."
The thing the public needs to watch most closely is the power grab that is going on in many of the tax proposals. They place the state legislature in charge of local decisions. That means large numbers of people that no one in Beaufort County can vote for or against will be making decisions about how our schools, our county and our towns are funded. Want more teachers, more cops? Sorry, that decision was made in Columbia by people not on your ballot.
Some of these proposals dictate to local governments that they could no longer collect property taxes or vehicle taxes, and the substitutes they offer for that income don't add up.
One proposal is estimated to cost the Town of Hilton Head Island $1.4 million. That decision must be made locally, not in Columbia.
Another proposal would freeze school expenditures and prohibit local communities from contributing local dollars to make their local schools better. That is wrong. The General Assembly needs to be told by every community in the state that it still is a General Assembly, not a Politburo.
We're repeatedly being told that the sales tax is better than the property tax. But it is not. It is unstable, meaning some months or years the government would be caught with not enough income. It is regressive, hitting poor people harder than others. It cannot be deducted on income taxes. It would hurt the ability of county governments to use a local-option sales tax to meet local needs. And its often repeated "advantage" of gouging tourists needs to be refuted. Tourists already are leaving this state with a huge, equitable share of the tax burden. Through the accommodations tax, hospitality tax and existing sales tax, tourists here already leave behind money for beach nourishment, the arts center, a recreation center, a museum, bike paths and the extensive marketing that undergirds the local economy -- just to name a few.
More so than usual, the public needs to pay close attention to the fine print in the grandiose schemes being hatched in Columbia. Remember two things: Local control belongs in local communities, and there's no free lunch.