August 21, 2000
FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATELY
Comptroller General James A. Lander announced today that the state's Budgetary General Fund ended the 1999-2000 fiscal year with a $206 million budgetary surplus. While it is not quite in the same league as last year's record-setting $410 million budgetary surplus, this year's substantial surplus continues to reflect the positive economic forces that have been in evidence in South Carolina during the last several years. Budgetary General Fund revenue collections for 1999-2000 were up approximately 1.4% over last year.
In the waning days of the 2000 legislative session, the General Assembly ratified two bills that constitute the legislative plan to distribute the 1999-2000 budgetary surplus monies: H4776, the Capital Reserve Bill, and H3649, the Supplemental Appropriation Bill. A complication is that the legislature's plan contemplated a budgetary surplus of $267 million--approximately $61 million more than actually materialized when Comptroller General Lander's office closed the state's books on the Budgetary General Fund. In addition, no part of the surplus distribution plan can be implemented until the Governor weighs in. The Governor could decide to approve one or both ratified bills or could return one or both bills to the General Assembly after vetoing any combination of specific line-items. The General Assembly would decide whether to sustain or to overrule any vetoes when it returns to Columbia next January. The Governor has until then to deliberate his choices regarding these bills because of the lateness of the General Assembly's action on them this year.
Comptroller General Lander expressed his hope that all key parties can reach agreement reasonably soon on some portion of the surplus distribution plan so that critical programs and projects can move forward. In past years, agencies generally have begun expending Capital Reserve and supplemental appropriations by September 1.
For more detailed information, including charts and graphs that pertain to this press release, click on the following links:
For additional information, contact the South Carolina Comptroller General's Office at (803) 734-2128.