(Columbia) Jan. 5, 2005 - South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford on Wednesday briefed lawmakers before releasing his 346-page executive budget for fiscal year 2005-2006 on Wednesday. See it here in Adobe Acrobat format>>

The governor's office characterizes Sanford's budget as a balanced, "activity-based" spending plan designed to focus spending on "critical needs" and "core" government functions while limiting the growth of government and not raising taxes, "At the end of the day we believe that approach is central to protecting the taxpayers of this state and providing them with the maximum return on their investment."

The budget also calls for the state to spend $7 million over six years to lower income taxes from seven percent to just under five percent. Overall, Sanford's office says his plan would save the state $162 million.

The South Carolina Legislative Session opens next Tuesday. The governor hopes legislators will consider his spending priorities when they begin writing the budget. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman says it will take time to analyze Sanford's proposal.

The General Assembly must pass its own budget and send it to Sanford before the Legislative Session ends in June. The governor has limited line-item veto authority over the Assembly's budget, and his vetoes are subject to override by a two-thirds margin of both the House and the Senate.

Leatherman says the proposal would increase education funding by about $400 per student next year. But, the $2200 per student that Sanford proposes is still less than the more than $2300 per student that a state formula says is needed.

Democratic Representative James Smith says that number is off, "If you analyze it as the law requires you to analyze it, the actual amount is $1944, not nearly as much as they would suggest."
 
Smith says there are good things about this budget, but he also wishes there was more attention on other education areas, "Higher education is another area that got cut significantly, early childhood education. We really need to step out and make progress, we need to do that." Sanford's budget would begin phasing out two USC campuses in Union and Salkehatchie. The budget also cuts the amount spent on assessment tests for k-12 students.

House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell says he will be surprised if lawmakers agree to spend less on higher education.

The governor says his plan prioritizes what's most important, "We have limited resources. Let's put them in the places where they'll have the biggest impact."

Sanford also wants teacher salaries to go up to $300 above the southeast average. Individual schools would have more say in how to spend the money allocated to them, "At the local school district level, they have a better sense of their specific needs than we do in Columbia."
    
The governor's budget also includes changes for nationally board certified teachers. Currently they get a $7500 bonus. Sanford wants to lower that, except for teachers who agree to work in schools with critical needs.

Sanford on Monday issued what he called a "Fiscal Fitness Challenge" designed to encourage healthier spending decisions at the state level by holding state spending increases to growth in population plus inflation, limiting South Carolina's reliance on one-time money, paying down internal and external debts and stabilizing the state retirement system.

Under the plan new state employees would have to work 30 years before being eligible for retirement benefits and would not be able to participate in the Teacher and Employee Retirement Incentive, which lets certain state employees retire but return to their jobs and continue drawing salaries. Sanford says those are two ways to stop the state retirement system from losing money.

Sanford says his executive budget will include an extra $23 million to keep state worker health insurance premiums from going up. He says he also wants to take money from stepped-up tax collection efforts to replenish the state health plan's reserves. State employees have seen premium increases for six years, and the governor says the health plan's reserve fund of $164 million in 1996 has been almost depleted.

Sanford also wants to use $1 million to increase breast and cervical cancer screenings for women 18 years and older who are poor, "The more money we can spend in health care earlier in the process, the greater we believe the dividends will be on the health care front."

The governor also says his budget will pay for 425 new law enforcement personnel. Sanford will use $32 million to pay for 100 state troopers, 124 officers at the Corrections Department and 126 officers with the Juvenile Justice Department. Greenville Senator Mike Fair says increasing the number of guards is the single most important need for the state's prisons.

The budget would also include 15 Transport Police/Protective Services officers, 40 Department of Natural Resources 40 officers, ten SLED agents and ten new SLED lab personnel. Sanford has not specified where the money would come from.

The governor also said his budget would dedicate nearly $32 million in additional recurring general fund dollars to the Departments of Public Safety, Corrections and Juvenile Justice, with an additional $22 million in one-time money allocated to those same three agencies for equipment, facilities and maintenance.

It also cuts money to the HL Hunley Commission.

Reported by Jennifer Miskewicz
Updated 7:03pm by Chris Rees with AP